I was given the opportunity to read this amazing book and I must say I could not put it down. The world that unfolds before you comes alive. When I first started to read this book I feel like it had a bit of the “Poppy Wars” vibe, however; “To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods” took this to another level and became its own tale. I will definitely be picking up this book when it comes out in a physical print. Also thank you to NetGalley one again for letting me dive into this amazing piece.

If you have enjoyed any of the Asian mythology inspired books that we've seen in the last several years, you have to try this one. The author does a great job with the worldbuilding and the plot drove all the way to the last page. I was rooting for out fmc the whole time, but some chapters I just wanted to shake her you know?? Anyways this follows the story of a girl who has the power of death and the impossible choices she makes to try and save her loved ones. I cannot wait to pick up a physical copy of this one.

I had high hopes for this book. Sadly, the book gets off to a slow start with more world building than plot. I was never able to feel immersed in the world and quit reading halfway through.

First of all, I just want to say that I am willing to give badly written books good reviews — I do it all the time — as long as I’m having fun. Unfortunately, I was not having fun! The writing, the side characters, and the pacing are all pretty bad, bordering on unreadable.

Ultimately, I just have no idea what was going on in this world, beyond the repetitive, surface level descriptions of it, and I’m not sure the author does either.

Spoilers below:
There’s a little romanticizing Stockholm Syndrome here and a lot of weird power dynamics there. The writing is very stylized but I would rather her just say the words. You can have really short, dramatic sentences for impact, but you can’t do that on every single page. It’s repetitive and occasionally feels like things come up just because the author suddenly remembered them. I’m not sure if she doesn’t trust us, as readers, to have understood the plot from the first time she said it, or if she keeps writing about it so she doesn’t forget.
There are side characters, but barely. We don’t see them very often and each of their motivations are confusing, at best. The only character whose motivations we really know is the main character and that’s because she thinks about them constantly — it’s incredibly repetitive.
The pacing is weird. The first day takes place over multiple chapters where the main character has to explain the past 20 years to us multiple times. There is SO much exposition which I just hate. I’m a “show, don’t tell” kind of person through and through. Then, 6 months have suddenly gone by. Our main character rapidly goes from being offered her assassin job to having killed 40+ people, being very good at using her abilities, and mentally coming to terms with her new life, even feeling like she’s doing the right thing, for the greater good. I hate that we don’t actually get to see this character arc and understand how she might get to this point mentally (like we do in Dark Heir or The Poppy War), we’re just thrown back into her head 6 months later.
The ending is fine, but it doesn’t really feel like an ending. With a half decent editor, this entire book could have been half as long and served as a Part 1. Remove the entire dark romance plot line with Antony, take out all of the repetitive paragraphs, and set up a plot two focusing on MC + her childhood bestie (friends to lovers?) and that could have been a good book.

Thank you to NetGalley & Del Ray for providing me with this e-ARC.

I really liked this story, and I can’t wait for its release!
I think at first I was a little worried about how this romance happens, but as I read on, it made more and more sense.
Antony is terrifying when we first meet him. And after reading the entire book, I’m still wondering if it was all for show, or genuine his intention to be terrifying.

I was a little disappointed that there is a time skip. We miss the parts where Ruying and Antony really soften to each other and then we’re just there.
I’m not sure why people are saying the things they are about this book considering how it ended.

Ruying clearly felt like she was manipulated. I kinda feel like that was the whole point. I’m very eager to see how this plays out in book two, and I’m very excited to own this book.

Thank you NetGalley, Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine, and Del Rey for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Overall Rating: 1 Star

To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods opens with a lovely note from the author about her family history and how the stories passed down through generations helped inspire this book. It was a strong start that had me super excited to read the actual story, but unfortunately I am sad to say it is the only good part of this book. On paper, this story should've been my cup of tea: An assassin with dangerous power, Fantasy meets Sci-Fi was such a fun concept, and enemies to lovers romance to top it all off. I'd like to breakdown what fell flat for each of these for me:

An assassin with dangerous power, our MC Ruying. She is cautious, she puts family first, and she is ultimately a coward. "Heroes die, cowards live." a mantra she often repeats. I'm confident this was the character arc the author wanted Ruying to have, a coward that may ultimately decide being a coward is no longer worth it, but I felt no desire to root for her to win. Ruying was fairly one-dimensional for the majority of the book. She wants to save her family and would do ANYTHING to make sure they're safe, and I mean ANYTHING. I wasn't shocked when she made bad decisions, and when she came close to making a better decision, she'd always change her mind and do something that would make me roll my eyes. To touch upon the writing a bit as well, this story is written in first person from her point of view. We get to see the decisions she makes and why she makes them, and for most of this book that is all we see. I would guesstimate that roughly 60% of this book is monologuing in between things actually happening.

Next, Fantasy meets Sci-Fi. While I think some things could've been done differently to make this concept more interesting, it wasn't terrible and I still like the overall concept. What I don't understand is why Rome was chosen? Multiple Roman characters were named off-shoot names of real world leaders from the Roman Empire, but Rome in this book was presented as much closer to modern day with guns and planes and other technology that certainly was available during the Roman Empire's time. It felt like certain things were pulled as inspiration 'just because' rather than pulling inspiration more directly from the stories that this novel was based on, or making something entirely new up.

Last but definitely the least, the romance. I don't think a romance in a book has ever made me so uncomfortable, and I say that as someone who is an avid reader of horror and other 'dark' genres. This is the story of an oppressed woman being forced to become "allies" with her oppressor, and for some reason catching feelings for each other. He holds a gun to her head, he uses shock bracelets on her, he is the one in charge of experimenting and ultimately killing numerous people from her country. Even if this trilogy ends with them never getting together and Ruying realizing she was wrong for ever having feelings, it was romanticized for far too long.

Overall, I don't and cannot recommend this book. The writing is slow and heavy with long monologues, the characters are uninteresting, and the romance was just...awful. I will not be finishing this trilogy.

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for the arc. All thoughts are my own. Where to begin here?

I love the concept. The entire world and the premise of them getting invaded was interesting and quite relevant to today's world. I thought the world building was really good. You saw how people were affected by war. You saw the struggles people faced and how others prospered off their backs. The culture was another thing I loved. I don't know a lot about Chinese mythology, but I really loved it here. I loved hearing Ruying talk about her gods and the ancient proverbs passed down through her people. And as someone who is native, it really hurt to see how a lot of that culture was fading or wiped out in some cases because of the Romans.

I wasn't a fan of the writing style. It got repetitive at some points and Ruying was constantly echoing the exact same statements that she had said maybe a page before.

The romance...oh boy. Others had stronger feelings about this one, but by the end I felt like the problem was solved for the most part? If she ends up going back to him in a later book, yeah I'm gonna probably hurl the book out a window. She let him pull her in with his honey sweet words and his tender touches and she fell hard. She was weak as hell even when she talked about how strong she was. By the end she FINALLY saw who he really was and the only end to their relationship that I will accept is her killing him. I'm so serious. I don't even want him dying to save her in some type of final act of redemption. This man needs to suffer and pay for what he did and she better never ever feel what she once felt for him. I read that the love interest is actually someone else, but I don't think this story needs a romance at all. That's just my two cents.

The other problem I had was how flip floppy she was. Not even in a manner you'd see with victims. I mean, she was a different person at some points. I loved her in the beginning. She was oppressed. She was a victim. She hated the Romans for what they did. All she thought about was how she wanted to see them fall and how she wished she could be the one to do it. Then we get the one intimate scene in the glass cage and suddenly Antony is sweet and nice and good and she has learned to trust him. Cause of his tragic backstory? Ruying stand up!!! So many times I was losing it because this girl was SO blind. And it's not like she was completely in the dark. She knew what Rome was doing. She had suffered by their hand. But Antony tells her a sob story and then says he wants to fix everything and she trusts him just like that. She doesn't trust any other Romans, but he's somehow fine because he has pretty green eyes. No. No no no. We're not doing this.

It is insane that she remembers him putting a loaded gun to her head and her next thought is how she wants to fall into his arms. Ruying...please.

The end of this book gave me hope. She finally opened her eyes and I need them to stay that way. She needs to remember what is really important, her family and her world, because she said that the entire story and yet she was actively working against them all because of one man's lies that she believed way too easily. I'm really excited to read the next book and I can't wait to see Ruying as more than a puppet. We also have yet to see the him, but I fully expect Cassius to be the worst of the three brothers. I'm talking full on Nero or Caligula.

Thank you so much to DelRey books for my digital ARC!

I really wanted to love this one so badly, I tried so hard to push through it but unfortunately I had to DNF it at 50%. I would like to start off by saying the world and the premise sounded really promising but for me personally it failed in execution because of how overly complex it was made to be

What worked for me: Apart from the stunning cover, the premise sounded so interesting to me. I love Asian world inspired books, they genuinely fascinate me. The interesting blend of sci-fi with fantasy had my attention when I learned about it,I also loved the concept of Gods that left the world and their progeny being gifted with magical abilities. This book definitely is an ambitious debut that fell short in the aspect of execution as I mentioned earlier

What didn't work for me: The writing is my primary issue, it felt choppy and extremely redundant whether it's the descriptions of the horrific world MC's live in or the constant monologues of FMC. I was on ch 7 when I noticed nothing significant happened other than the same facts being narrated over and over. It was tiresome and overwhelming to keep going, on other hand the world itself quickly became really confusing to me. It looked like it is set in Ancient China where the ways of people are said to be archaic, however the oppressor is Rome that enters the FMC's world via a portal from the sky and they seem to have advanced technology. So the world kept throwing me off as I was unable to place it in a time period that made sense, if it is a fantasy world, why does Rome tend to be realistic? Maybe this is a problem just for me. It made it hard for me to stay captivated

Another major issue was the character development and the romance. I think both Antony and Ruying were meant to be morally grey but they weren't convincing at all and the romance between them felt so abrupt and unrealistic. A girl who wants to save her world willingly falls for the opponent party? I just couldn't buy it. Overall I had a rough time reading it even though I wanted to like it badly.

This one is tough.

I had high hopes, when I first started. I thought it was really beautifully written. But I felt like as the story went on it felt like the writing style changed, and not for the better.

The FMC is hard to like. The decisions she makes are questionable, at best. She does a lot of fighting with herself, to just make the same easy/wrong decision over and over. She's also SUPER judgemental, and I know that's intentional, but it grinds my gears.

The love story subplot seemed forced and unnecessary. Just, why?

I enjoyed the world, and the magic, the traditions and the folklore. I appreciated the responsibility Ruying felt for her family, I just wish she wasn't so naive.

The beginning and the end saved this book, for me. The middle was just meh, but I'm hoping the ending means we'll see some (read: TONS) of character development from the FMC and maybe get a glimpse of this world from a different perspective.

I'm going with 3.5⭐s, for this one, I think. With hopes that the next in the series will see it full potential.

I always read intros/prefaces/forwards on books b/c it gives me a feel for who the real person behind the book is. I barely made it through the Author's Note since it blatantly informs me that this book is going to be nothing more than another Grrrl Boss Activist Manifesto.

Well, this BIPOC Grrrl is sick of this muck. My ancestors walked The Trail of Tears. I was taught from a very young age that I cannot punish my contemporaries for the sins of their ancestors. The horror inflicted on the Nations that Andrew Jackson and Co. drove out of the Carolinas and onto the concentration camp known as Oklahoma will never lessen in scope or severity. I hope Jackson was ground up and fed to his dogs after he died. What I'm not going to do with that sentiment is bludgeon my readers with the long nightmare of how NDNs have been targeted by government-sponsored genocide just to make the descendants of the perpetrators wallow in guilt.

Anyone who was taught WWII hx in a cogent and thorough manner knows that the war really started (years before Hitler's invasion of Poland) when Japan started carving out parts of China to fulfill their vision of empire. A story set against this backdrop has all the potential to become a new literary standard if executed well. However, To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods is going to ape so many of the tropes of this era and ultimately be little more than a VENGEANCE fantasy.

0/10 if that was an option.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

To summarize my many thoughts on this fantasy debut, I will say that I was impressed by it. And I will gladly read a future book by the author. To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods is a romantasy that is character-driven, forward-thinking, and fast paced. It had great potential to capture me, but fell a bit flat in terms of execution. That said, the concept for the plot was well conceived. You can tell the author wanted to bring something fresh to the romantasy genre. And the writing style was engaging. Very sophisticated for a YA-marketed book. Also, the main characters felt entirely grounded in their world, and showed promise for future growth. So, anyone continuing on with the story has something to look forward to. Ultimately, however, I think this book needed to be in development longer. There were a few aspects of the story/writing that didn't work well enough to bump my rating up to four stars. I will list the main issues below.

1. Overabundance of info-dumping
2. Minimalistic world-building (though there is potential for expansion)
3. Inclusion of technology that did not fit the time period
4. Well-constructed dialogue that led nowhere new or insightful in terms of plot progression/character development
5. A heavy theme (colonization) that is undermined by the fact that the main male character (a Roman) is romanticized
6. Paper-cut out side characters (no personality or agency)

Now none of these issues may impact your reading experience if all you're interested in is being entertained or indulging a need for another rivals-to-lovers romance. And, there is always a chance these things will be improved in the second installment. So, while I can't highly recommend this book as it is, I do feel there is an audience out there for it. Just be sure you know what you are wanting out of your reading experience before you pick this one up.

Well, this bodes interestingly. I went to put my review on Goodreads and apparently it has suspicious activity related to reviewing so no one can review right now!

I didn’t want to start with the controversy, but I guess I might - I knew about this book way before the Cait Corrine 1-starring fiasco, and I think I requested it on NetGalley eons before. When that happened, I pushed it to the top of my to-read pile so I could jump in. Because this book, on paper, is my jam!!! Bad ass women, assassins, powers of the god of death? Sign me up.

I did know about what the author has been doing to negative reviews thanks to some comments on Goodreads (which… like… hopefully I don’t also get hit because whew this one was a doozy). And I will admit, I probably should’ve knocked this off my pile but I was curious and again, the story seemed interesting. How bad could it be, I thought.

This book was painful, to say the least.

I think it starts off incredibly jarring. Or well - there’s a super lovely author’s note about how her family’s history and the stories they told about the gods inspired this book, and I was like “okay got it I am ready!” And so for the villain to not be like “magical colonizers that were legit mentioned a few pages” which, like, I get that we couldn’t use those exact countries, but the Roman Empire? Not going to lie, that threw me for a loop the whole book. Idk, something about a dude name Antony Augustus driving a car (or riding in a car, I don’t remember) was weird!

And then I got to the story and like, I think I understand. Like, the story idea I was brought into was that this woman was in a terrible situation, forced to work with terrible people to save her people. But it ended up more like “terrible situation, yes, forced to work with people, yes, but he had warm and kind eyes”

Girl you like

He tortured you.

But okay, I get it, colonizers can be hot, but the entire book there was something so icky about this being pitched as a romance? Like - Antony was a bad dude! I don’t care how warm his eyes were. And overall, I didn’t feel any romantic tension - like you can tell me all you want how great his hugs were but if he’s preforming EXPERIMENTS ON YOUR PEOPLE, MAYBE THOSE HUGS SHOULDN’T MATTER.

Oh yeah.

Ruying was…. How do I put it?

There’s nothing more frustrating than being like “he’s lying to you,” and all the characters being like “he’s lying to you” and her not realizing it until the end of the book. But like I get it! I get the idea of the story of believing so much in what you’re doing that you’re blinding by the truth. But there was no way!!! She was this blinded!!! Like he was so obviously evil!!!! And even if he didn’t want to do things, he was part of and continued to be a part of a system that allowed her people to be tortured and experimented on and killed in droves!!!

AND WE’RE SUPPOSED TO FIND HIM ROMANTIC???

I don’t think I’ve ever written a review this long but I’m also so disappointed in this book. I was so excited to read it because, again, it had all the elements of books I would like, and if they had removed all the romance, I might have even enjoyed it. But the one bed trope was pushed in there as though we would forget that he had been like “plz kill your people” and we’re like that dude from interstellar yelling at the wall to be like GIRL NO PLEASE STOP.

GOSH.

Also I wasn’t a fan of the writing. I’m sure some people would be, but the writing wasn’t my cup of tea!

Oh I forgot.

The line that was 1000% inspired by a Taylor Swift song? Wrong book! Wrong book to use it in!!!!

Thank you very much to Del Rey and NetGalley for a chance to read and review.

DNF @ 60%

Despite the negativity around the author I still wanted to give this book a go since I had an arc. Unfortunately the book itself didn't work for me either.

I found the first chapter very information dumpy on the setting of the story. With this country being taken over by the roman empire. But this roman empire has technology like planes and guns. They only had magic so they were taken over within a day. I find that hard to believe. Unless they have completely useless magic, they should have been able to stand for longer than a bloody day. But basically they were colonized by the roman empire....

The writing and story improved a little. But I struggled with our main character who felt very judgemental towards those around her when not making the perfect choices. I could forgive that. She's angry about her situation and the situation her country is in. Being made to feel less than others, is terrible.

When she gets forced into the situation with the roman prince to use her powers to kill her own countrymen, to keep her family safe, we skip a lot of time. We see the first killing and then we skip to the 48th killing (or something around that number). And we get a character who suddenly believes in this roman prince. Who talkes about how he will make this colonization better. Who talks about how there are these feelings between them but they don't talk about it. Excuse me? Where did the girl go who hated the roman empire? There was no choosing the less of 2 evils in any of what she was thinking. She truly believes in this roman prince. Is he not still using the safety of your family against you so you kill others for him? She's now justifying the killings. She likes the roman prince. And it felt clear that we are heading towards a romance between them. At that point I had to stop reading.

To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods by Molly X Chang
⭐️⭐️⭐️

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the ebook ARC for this book. I am glad to have got the opportunity to read this book.

This book cover is what allured me in to wanting to read this book. It is so stunning and such a beautiful cover design.

The plot was interesting, the world building was good, the whole Asian fantasy was also another reason to why this grabbed my attention because I never seem to find many of these and I wanted to read and see what the author created with it.

I thought this book was good. Its not my favorite because some of the writing just seemed a little repetitive at times. However I really did enjoy very beautiful descriptions and sayings that were said within this story.

The pace of this book started off a bit slow and then it eventually picked up more. Especially once one of the main characters finally got introduced into the storyline. I liked the little love story that was building in the story but I also didn’t at the same time because it just didn’t make sense for me for it to go that way. Especially because it was just a bit confusing at first because I thought it was going to be the FMC and the first male that’s introduced from her childhood possibly for the romance in the book but it didn’t turn that way.

I also liked the magic in this book that was included and learning about the FMC powers and reading it in action. However I wish there was more about it and more characters (besides one that was shown briefly beside the FMC) that had some kind of magic so we could read more onto that side of it.

There’s just quite a few things that I felt wasn’t my cup of tea when reading this but the book itself has potential, just needs some more things that could’ve made it better in my personal opinion.

*I received this book (Via eArc by Netgalley) for free from the Publisher ( Random house publishing group / Ballantine, Del Rey ) in exchange for an honest review*

I personally think this was a very interesting read. I do understand that it is a colonizer storyline but it does have this twist where she has this power by death. It has an element that is slightly different and it does not feel repetitive at all in structure the writing is wonderfully done as you see the internal struggle. I happy to have read it to support this author and I enjoyed my time reading this and I feel like something I can see purchasing for my book collection.

RELEASE DATE: April 16, 2024

Thank you so much to Random house publishing group / Ballantine, Del Rey and NetGalley for the ARC and I am instantly gonna purchase this when it releases.

Ruying has been blessed by Death. With just one thought, she can untether souls from people, leaving nothing but bodies in her wake. And while she knows her power is destructive, the temptation to use it always calls to her, its song sweet and telling her of the power she could get. Power she desperately needs when her remaining living family lives in poverty, and their magical city is in the control of the Romans, who came in through a portal in the sky and used their science to subdue the new land.
But when Ruying falls into the hands of none other than the prince of the Romans, she’s faced with a terrible choice: give in to her power and use it for the Romans to protect her family, or let her family and herself die.
I received an advanced reading copy of To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods in exchange for an honest review.
To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods is a fantasy novel by Molly X. Chang. While it’s classified as adult, I do think it could be considered as a novel with crossover potential, since the main character here is in her late teens.
Before going into the review, I want to give a content warning for addiction, which comes up a lot in this book, both to magic and to actual drugs. There is also a lot of discrimination and death in here, as well as unwilling experimentation. Please be ready for all of those before checking this book out.
What stands out the most for me in To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods is the setting. This could technically be a portal fantasy, since there is literally a big portal in the sky connecting the two important worlds here. First, we have Pangu, which is a magical world where a few people are blessed with powers. This place has been connected, via previously mentioned sky portal, to Rome, which felt like our world in the future, when we’ve screwed up our environment so bad that we’re searching for somewhere to escape to.
I had never come across a setting like this, and I don’t think I will again. It was so completely original, and I really appreciated the contrast between the modern world elements that made their way into an otherwise technologically-free world.
As for the story, I will admit I struggled with it. It felt like it was often stalling, and I was surprised by how little would happen in so many chapters and pages, but just when I would start to wonder when we’d get some more action, something exciting would happen. And then, the book would slow again. I’m going to be honest, by the time I finished this book, it didn’t feel like a complete story. It felt like the entire thing could have been condensed into the first half of a whole book, if not the first quarter. I wonder if the author was pressured to turn this into a trilogy when she’d originally planned for fewer books, since it really feels like almost every scene got unnecessarily extended, and the pacing suffered as a result.
As for the characters, I love a morally gray character, so when I heard Ruying was complex, I was sure I’d love her. Unfortunately, though, I really struggled with her. I think a lot of it was because there’s a time skip about halfway through the book, and in this time skip, Ruying starts to like someone she really should hate, and we get no explanation for it. No slow build, or growth of a relationship. She’s just stuck in a horrible situation one minute, and completely loyal the next. Or, at least it felt that way when I turned pages through the time skip.
Of course, those are just my thoughts, and you might feel differently about this story! If you happen to love portal fantasies and magical worlds inspired by China, as well as morally gray characters with impressive powers, this might be exactly what you are looking for!

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Whew, so first off all this book has caused quite the commotion. At this point in time I’m unable to add a review to Goodreads alongside my Storygraph review, so for now it’ll be just here.
There have been more than a few misconceptions about this book, the most pressing being the issue of marketing. I’ve spent many years in the publishing world and can tell you as someone who knows the ins and outs, that Molly X. Chang had no decision in marketing this book as an enemies to lovers romance. It should never have been marketed that way, but this flub should never fall on the author. Authors have very little choice in the matter; they don’t even get a say in their own book covers, or sometimes even their titles. This was not a mistake on the author’s part. I have no idea what the marketing team was thinking, but they definitely messed up on that front. It should have been marketed as a dark, taboo villain romance. This book is not enemies-to-lovers. In fact I hope Ruying snaps Antony’s neck.
To Gaze Upon Wicked G-ds is set in the fictional world of Pangu, more specifically in fantasy China. It’s also an alternate universe version of our own history, where the Roman Empire never fell but instead survived until modern times. There’s even a reference to Julius Caesar. The emperor of Rome discovered a portal to a new world (Ruying, the main character’s, world) and realized that Rome could escape climate change and human disaster by creating a new home in Pangu…and bringing more human disaster. So that’s where we’re at. This has been yet another big misconception of the book online, of people thinking Chang had created a fictional land named the Roman Empire. Nope, it is genuinely the Roman Empire tumblr likes to celebrate every Ides of March. (Or, well, we celebrate Caesar’s death. Bit of a difference there.)
The story concept is good, it’s based on real events in human history, the cover is beautiful, and there desperately needs to be a content warning page at the start of the book. I’m fazed by very little but for those whose lives have been touched in any way by addiction, be cautious.
The writing itself is a little juvenile. Chang is a young debut author and relies too heavily on short, choppy sentences framed in their own paragraph to make a point. Many young writers do this; she’ll grow out of it. Her side characters are barely present and don’t have much going on, which I’m hoping will be fixed in the sequel. Her pacing was good.
I can’t personally speak on the colonizer aspect in regards to China, because I am not Chinese. I am part of a group of people who have been colonized, forcibly expelled from our homes, experimented on, and more. The colonizer romance didn’t bother me because it’s clearly intended not to be end-game, but a form of trauma bonding. (She sees the light at the end, which gives me hope for her snapping Antony’s neck.)
Overall, this was an okay book. I was somewhat relieved when it was over.

I honestly wonder why some reviewers accused To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods of being a colonizer/abuser romance. Did those reviewers really read the book? Do they not experience any empathy for the characters in the books they read? I really enjoyed Chang's novel as it had great world building at the start, referencing historical events that made it more appealing to me. I really wanted to like it, but the middle of the book is where things started to suffer from a failure to show, not tell. We were introduced to some amazing supporting characters only to have Ruying close herself off from everyone and bear her burdens alone in repetitive inner monologues. The reader already knew how Ruying felt by then, except for the people who review-bombed it and just decided to rally around a single talking point. Antony isn't romancing Ruying, he's exploiting Ruying's powers using classic power harassment/abuse tactics. She's not in love, she's been driven to desperation. The end of the book sets things up nicely for a second volume. I would definitely like to see a Ruying redemption arc. (I would love to share this review on Goodreads but it looks like they've locked down reviews over there.)

*Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Group for the arc copy in exchange for an honest review.*

I'm not sure if this is the type of romance for me. I really could not get behind the main character falling in love with someone who is actively abusing and manipulating her. I mean she literally gets shocked when she does something bad/wrong. The main character seem to only be able to think about Antony, her oppressor/abuser's green eyes. I feel like I could not fall in love with someone knowing he was using me for my power, locked me in a dungeon, put me on a leash, threatened to kill me and my family, and is actively torturing people. No one's eyes are that pretty. This is not an enemies to lover's romance, this should not have been romanticized as much as it was.

I might have been able to get over the romantized abuse/torture, but nothing happened in this book. The plot was basically the main character's relationship with her oppressor and her killing people for him. However, most of that happened off the page, so we didn't get that action. There was a revolution, but I feel like barely anything happened with that either. There was just nothing to really hold my interest and I was forcing myself to get through this because I hate DNFing books, especially arcs.

I'm unsure if I will continue this series. I do like the main character and her childhood friend, so that would be the only thing I'd want to read about, but I am undecided on if it will be enough for me.

I really hope the author keeps writing after all this backlash, just on a different topic. The oppressor/oppressed relationship vibes that are going on is not it.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to finish this book and stopped reading at about 22% in. Unwashed initially interested in the premise but I couldn’t stay objective when I started it. The start of the book is very slow and the worldbuilding and characters did not grab me enough to want to carry on reading. I’m hoping that I can give this another try at a later point but right now this is not a book for me.