This one wasn’t for me but you might love it. I will say that the author’s note is a need to read to help put the story into perspective. I’m not sure what it was that I didn’t love about this. This YA fantasy faces war, magic, and drug addiction. There’s a lot going on and it’s the start of a series. I don’t think I will be continuing this series but I do think it’s worth giving a try to see if you love it.

I have heard a lot of mixed reviews on this book, but I personally found it really fun! It's your typically epic fantasy with romance tropes.

I did not enjoy this book. I tried, I really did but by the end I was skimming just to make it go by faster. I don't feel like I lost anything for doing that because the emotions were the same throughout the entire novel.
And full disclosure, I only requested this book so that I could hopefully be a positive review in a sea of negativity. But unfortunately, I failed.
I read an uncorrected galley, and I am desperately hoping that most of my issues were the fault of it being uncorrected. However, with that being said, I am still going to review this book as I read it, faults and all. And I will state a theory of mine at the end, but I want to keep the focus on the book for now.

To start, everything felt melodramatic, to the point where moments that were SUPPOSED to have an impact, just didn’t. There were some truly beautiful lines in this work, and the author is clearly very talented, but the fact that the flowery nature of the text was allowed to go unchecked did a disservice to the author and the story she was attempting to tell, in my opinion.

I don’t even feel like I had a full grasp of what the book was trying to say because it just kept getting drowned out by the constant airy prose, which had nothing to ground it. It was just too lyrical all the time. There was also a feeling of repetition going on that took me out of the story, despite the actual actions taking place not being repeated.

And this very well could be the author attempting to input traditional Chinese lyricism into her novel (which I hear is very poetic and flowery, though I can’t confirm this as I unfortunately don’t speak/read any Chinese dialects), but if that’s the case I just don’t feel like it worked as it was intended to. When everything is running on full cylinders, then when something truly nightmarish and horrible happens, it loses whatever weight was intended because the whole book was that way.

I felt like Ruying wasn’t a very strong character, despite her abilities. Which sounded amazing! I mean, someone who can channel Death into people by removing their Qi? That’s so cool! But I think that Ruying’s personality was just too timid, despite the attempts at giving her strength.

And for me, Antony was just an oily weasel. He would go from appearing sympathetic, back to the monstrous Prince in the blink of an eye. And as Ruying was so sheltered, it was easier for her to fall to his manipulations.

It felt like the author wanted to ground the story in our reality instead of fully diving into a fictional one, which it would have benefited from. Admittedly, the mix of magic and science that this book promised didn’t really appeal to me to begin with, however the Roman’s being the villain and having Romeo and Juliet mentioned on one occasion just proved my point. The fact that the villains carried such a recognizable name hurt the book, I feel. I am totally down for a story inspired by true events, but this felt off in a way that I can’t wholly articulate and didn’t sit well with me.

Now, my personal take is that this simply wasn’t ready for publication. And this is indeed based off the fact that I read a galley ARC and have not had an opportunity to properly check it against the final product. But the fact that the purple prose wasn’t corrected, there were numerous errors that could have been corrected, and edits that should have been made to make the story flow better weren’t there. It makes me sad for what could have been a legitimately good book.

And the fact that this is the author’s debut just breaks my heart. She very clearly has talent, and the fact that this is inspired by a subject which was close to her heart through her grandfather just makes it even more heartbreaking.

My main critique is directed more so at the publisher and editors. Why didn’t you correct this? Why didn’t you give this book the treatment it deserved? Especially after the fiasco, in which book and author were victim? That should have given you MORE incentive to make sure this was as perfect as could be. Instead, we get this. Which feels more like an attempt at saying “We’re inclusive! See? Look at this story! Look at this author!” and it strongly feels like this was pushed forward before being ready just so the publisher could say they have a diverse author on the roster.

And that both enrages me and breaks my heart. Because no one deserves this. This book could have been amazing.

But the publisher and editor/s failed this author and her work.

But hey, at least the cover’s pretty.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC.

Honestly maybe we need more fantasy books featuring protagonists who seem to always make the worst (or at least bad decisions) because that’s basically what this book is. Ruying is trying her best in this sort of sci-fi/fantasy futuristic country called Pangu (at least somewhat based off of China) under occupation by the Romans (not exactly the ones from history but definitely related), but her attempts don’t exactly do what she would like! She is very much morally grey and susceptible to believing the best of things she hears, made infinitely messier by her power of death. Some parts of WICKED GODS are atypical to some fantasy (shorter book, combination with sci fi elements, more focused on relationships), but it’s still a very interesting read. The world and its magic system was fascinating but I almost wish it’d been more developed instead of focusing so much on Ruying’s perspective/feelings/relationships. But I definitely think it was worth the read, even if I’m not dying to read the next book yet.

Just to preface, I’m not going to comment on the cultural aspects of this book since I have no expertise/experience, but I do think that if you view this book as strictly fantasy and not a romance, it’s a lot better. The way the story is told is very reliant on Ruying’s perspective and sometimes she is a somewhat dumb and gullible 19 year-old and there really isn’t a love interest in the most healthy aspect of the word. There’s more focus on her day to day and different actions rather than building a larger world to minute details so if you’re wanting medium world-building, this is a great book for that! I also thought that it was fairly quick in pace at the beginning, although it does slow down just a little bit once the real conflict starts.

I would say that I generally enjoyed this book, and perhaps more than its average rating suggests. I think Chang has created an interesting world that takes elements from several genres, but it’s not exactly my perfect kind of fantasy. You can also tell it's very much a labor of love for the author, and provides her own fictionalized perspective and experience.

Thank you to Net Galley and Molly X. Chang for the opportunity to read this book.

This fantasy novel had an interesting premise and complex character relationships that hooked me. The character development was great, but the pacing was a bit off. Sometimes the plot felt rushed and then it would slow down too much, especially towards the end where it suddenly ends on a cliffhanger just as things were getting exciting. Despite these issues, the world-building and emotional depth made "To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods" a worthwhile read for anyone who loves character-driven fantasy.

Overall, I would give this book a 3.5 out of 5. I am excited to see where the story goes and I truly feel that this series will likely only get better as the story progresses.

Thanks to net galley for this copy. This book had the potential to be great but I found it to but be good. It was slow at parts that I wished it wasn't slow during. Overall weird recommend as its a great concept but I think it could have been done better.

To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods had great potential unfortunately execution fell flat. It wasn't able to hold my interest until the end.

2.6 stars

Thank you NetGalley for a copy of this book for review.

World Building: 3
Plot: 3
Pace: 3
Character Development: 2
Romance: 2
Spice: n/a

The first 30% of the book is very slow and there was a lot of inner dialog of main character Ruying telling us what her world has become and how it was like before. To me it didn't sound that captivating and it was hard to visualize. It might be how the author described it or maybe I am biased as I've read a lot of Chinese fantasy novels (originally published in China). Bottom line is that it didn't draw me in that fast. It got a little bit better after major things started happening but there is always this feeling of something is lacking. Character development and romance is lacking because I didn't feel much depth to the characters and the romance seem forced. Hopefully the next book is better, but I think books of a series should still be enjoyable on their own when readers are on that part of the plot.

Did not finish at 12%. Writing was good but story was not holding my attention. Did not love the characters and was not invested in what was happening.

To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods follows Ruying, a girl blessed with the power of Death. Before she was born, the Romans invaded her homeland and have taken over, controlling the people by introducing drugs to keep them dependent.

I think the story itself was interesting, but the writing was overly repetitive and caused me to lose interest when I noticed I was reading the same thing over and over. The plot didn’t go anywhere until the last third of the book, and a lot of information towards the end would have been very useful to know at the beginning to understand the motivations of the Romans and especially Prince Antony. Overall, I enjoyed it, but the writing style bogged the story down. I plan to read the next book, but I really hope the editing is a little better.

Thanks to the publisher, I received an eARC through NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

I would first like to thank NetGalley, Molly X Chang, and Random House Publishing Group for the Advanced Reader’s Copy (ARC).

This review will be shared on Goodreads and Instagram (@caffeinatedfantasyreads) on May 31st, 2024.

The Er-Lang Empire, known for its magnificent history and legacy of some of its inhabitants, known as Xianlings, who often yielded magical powers, is now an occupied territory of Romans. Our main character, Ruying, is a descendant of one of the most prominent ancient families in the kingdom, who during her lifetime witnessed the complete destruction of her family and her beloved kingdom by the hands of the Romans. The story begins with her attempting to survive in a fully oppressed kingdom, where addiction and poverty plagues her loved ones. As she navigates through the hardships, she is forced to wield her own magical power of Death, in order to ensure her own survival. It is a power that she attempted to hide from the prying eyes of the occupiers, but as fate would have it, this particular display was in the presence of the younger prince of Rome, Antony Augustus. Suddenly, Ruying and Antony’s journeys become completely intertwined.

Ruying and Antony take us on a journey which immerses us in a world of oppression, political scheming, violence and the possibility of a near-total destruction of an ancient culture. As a reader witnessing the current geopolitical environment, it is difficult to resonate with Ruying. Can the oppressed trust their occupier? The question should be rhetorical, but Ruying’s conflicting emotions and the almost yearning to be able to trust in Antony are all things, as a reader, we cannot resonate with. The intensity of Ruying’s dilemma reaches a fevered pitch by the end, and her epiphany and reflection at the end feel like an ice-cold reality check for her and us. Molly Chang has done a tremendous job in immersing her readers into Ruying’s world, with an uncanny perfection in weaving the experiences of an oppressed people. As a reader, I enjoyed the dichotomy of the two Empires and worlds described, where an “advanced” and “modern” society of science, has managed to corrupt and destroy its world so much so that it now requires to leech of the resources off an ancient Empire, which managed to preserve its resources based on its reliance on Magic and divinity. To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods is magnificent in its ability to take us to a fantastical world and yet keep us grounded and reflective of tales of the oppressed and their oppressors. Though I enjoyed the world, the rating remains 3-stars due to the moral dilemma the romance in this work yields

While the plot wasn’t hitting for me, the writing was beautiful and accessible. I may actually try to reread the book later, but four stars for now.

Read a couple of chapters and DNF it. Might pick up again in the future but not crazy about it Not sure if this book is for me. Have been seeing other creators talk about the strange romance in this book and it makes me uncomfortable.

The story is overall enjoyable enough. I found myself quite compelled by the romance plot in particular, though not by anything else. I'm aware that some people call this a "colonizer romance," which technically it is, but I also felt like it was pretty clear that the main character was being manipulated, and I'd rather not blame the colonized for giving someone the benefit of the doubt.

The worldbuilding is interesting in theory -- the mix of science and fantasy -- but it did also feel a bit jarring to me, not as smoothly integrated as I would've liked it to be. And more importantly, it felt thin. But the thing that repelled me the most was the quality of the prose. It was passable once I got used to it, but it felt really rough and choppy, with a lot of typos and overly-dramatic sentences that just fell flat.

This book started off so strong but than halfway it just went downhill. This had so much potential but the time skip didn’t help at all like you don’t understand why the FMC is so devoted to the MMC. The romance to me had no chemistry but the plot was good

To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods explores themes of colonization drawn from history and the impact it can have on societies and individuals. Remaining on the right side of a war sounds easy, but what happens when you’re no longer sure what’s right? Or when you lose anything but the will to survive and save those you love?

Yang Ruying is a young woman just trying to survive and take care of her family at any cost while her planet is slowly being erased by the foreign race who is colonizing it.

Baihu is Ruying’s ex-childhood best friend and the bastard son of the royal family who has aligned himself with the Roman colonizers for power and out of his own bitterness towards his birth family.

Antony is the youngest Prince of Rome, bent on forging his own path for both his home and Pangu. Ruying is his greatest chance at making his plans come true.

To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods feels a bit like a debut novel (which it is), but I love the idea of qi-based magic and what the author has woven in regarding historical events. These things happen to real people and it’s as heartbreaking in a fantasy book as it is in reality.

One thing I do like is the inclusion of 汉字 (Hanzi, Chinese characters) in the text. I do wish I had Pinyin pronunciations for the characters names and tone marks on the other written out Chinese phrases, but I also understand most English readers wouldn’t know to care about those. For me, it just makes the Chinese inclusions feel half-done.

I do hope that the finished copy has a glossary. I am familiar with what a guqin is and that the Chinese state their names “last name, first name’, etc. but someone less familiar with Chinese culture might benefit from a small glossary or a cultural note to help further understanding of terms and references in this book.

I will absolutely pick up the next book in this series.

I wanted so badly to like this book, the concept sounded so cool, but I couldn’t get beyond the colonizer romance and the overuse of bad tropes. It was just so repetitive that I white knuckled my way through it to be able to write this review

2.5/5 stars

<i>Thank you to NetGalley and Del Rey for an ARC in exchange for an honest review!</i>

This is one of those books where I totally see what the author’s intention was, but unfortunately, she didn’t pull it off. I didn’t empathize with Ruying at all because I could see right through Antony. Maybe I’m just tired of women falling for mediocre (and in this case, horrible) men! I was not surprised at all with the ending, and it was annoying to be in Ruying’s head when literally everyone else was telling her that she was wrong and I agreed with them. She trusts Antony way too fast and the pacing for this book is off - there are random time jumps and I’m just supposed to believe that Ruying and Antony have grown so much closer in this time.

Ruying is blessed with a deadly power that makes her an unwilling asset to the conquerors of her world. But can she trust the prince with the vision for a better world for both of their people? Or will the secrets he keeps be what unleashes her upon them all?

4 stars rounded up from 3.5

I was hooked for the first third of this story…it was fast paced and hard to put down. I found the ending third of the story was the strongest part of the entire book…it was so good and so wonderfully written. However, I was disappointed with the middle part of the book. The time hop was not it for me…I would’ve loved to see more of the character and relationship development happen on page especially since I found the story intriguing and the writing beautiful.

oh I am SO mad about the ending not wrapping up enough. I have to read two more of these for a conclusion ??????????

2.5, rounded up. okay let me be brief as a briefcase (while still making absolutely zero sense ❤️), because this book was not.

Let’s start there, actually. The writing was SO fucking flowery that it feels like an affront to flowers to even call it that. It’s like that sickly sweet perfume-y floralness that tries really hard to smell like flowers and misses the mark entirely. Or like artificial grape flavoring, I dunno.

Antony not only has a terrible name, but he also has the personality of stale bread. And Ruying has the personality of a pineapple pizza handmade by a caveman that (obviously) doesn’t know what pizza is.

The use of “science” and the whole “magic vs. science” thing REALLY pissed me off. CALL IT TECHNOLOGY. TECH, EVEN, IF YOU WANT TO BE FANCY. Or Pangu could’ve called it science and Rome could say technology, to show the differences in technological development between the two. It was just so infuriatingly dumb how they were all like “we can do This and This and This because ✨ science ✨” no. ew. That’s something I would say, NOT something an entire civilization of techbros would say. Where’s the mansplaining??????? Unrealistic.

Complaining aside, I did really love the “plot twist”, if you can call it that. I saw it coming, but I was in denial because so many books have the perfect setup for this particular twist and then they just brush it under the fucking rug. But not this book !! so yay, gold star for you

Now I just have to hope that the author doesn’t pull an “oopsie daisy actually that was all a miscommunication” and undo the whole thing.

(thanks to netgalley for the arc !!)