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Dark and Gripping Fantasy

To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods is an intense and captivating read that kept me hooked from start to finish. Molly X. Chang does an incredible job building a dark, atmospheric world filled with intrigue, morally complex characters, and plenty of twists. The plot is layered with mystery and action, making it hard to put down.

While some parts of the story were a bit dense with world-building, it ultimately added depth to the complex universe and characters. If you're into dark fantasy with rich lore and a fast-paced, gripping plot, this book is definitely worth the read! Looking forward to the next one in the series.

This book was very difficult to read. For those who do not have a strong understanding of Chinese history, it will be hard to see exactly how this is a reflection of the history. I don't have that background, but I think it relates to the Boxer Rebellion. I love books that expose me to cultures and experiences that differ from my own, and I can say that I ended up doing some decent researching to understand the background of the book. The problem is that without that I don't feel like I could connect with the story as well. Both the characters and the worldbuilding fell flat for me. While this book is a pass for me, I can see potential and will look for future offerings by this author.

I remember this book receiving a lot of criticism before release for being a ‘colonizer romance’- I personally didn’t feel like it was one. I felt like the romance aspect wasn’t meant to be the main focus of the story but rather to push the story forward. Also given the fmc’s predicament and need to survive in the world she lives in, I felt like the romance wasn’t really a romance but more her clinging to a thing she deemed safe. Now on the story and world itself- I found it fascinating and written really well, this perspective of colonization and feeling desperate in a world meant to destroy you is going to leave you with an fmc that makes some questionable decisions and I felt the author got this across so well! I would’ve loved to see more aspects of the magic (this concept of death magic is so fascinating to me!) & world itself fleshed out more and less of the continuous inner monologues, I also feel like if there had been more character development a la female rage wise throughout instead of in the last 10% or so I would’ve been really obsessed with this first book but regardless I think the author set the ending up to develop that further into the sequel which I am really intrigued to see. All in all I thought this was well written and has an interesting concept that I’m curious to see play out!

I didn't enjoy this book.

The plot felt predictable, that she would start with the guy she had grown up with, who she believed was in the wrong. But then she ended up with the evil prince, just to realize her childhood friend that she thought was evil wasn't that bad. The romance with the prince is frustrating, it's not enemies to lovers, it's Stockholm Syndrome with her colonizer who is holding her against her will. She seems to think that he's not actually evil, and that really they're similar because they both grew up poor. It's like because he saved her life and holds her when she cries it over shadows the fact that he threatens to kill her family if she doesn't murder people for him.

I wanted to give this book a good chance but I just didn't enjoy it. I think the second book has potential to go into a different direction and make the series better, but I'm unsure if I will read it.

The tension in this book is phenomenal! The world building is strong and the characters are so believably flawed that you can't help but root for them. If you want a book to help you sift through your emotions about a myriad of things happening in the world right now, this one might help you do so. If you want a light-hearted fantasy romp based on Chinese history, this is not it. The book is gritty, it is sad, and it will leave you crying and/or raging. But it is also so well-written and filled with characters you want to wrap up in a hug. This is not a palate cleanser, but it is a wonderful book to read.

I wanted to love it, but it's just felt short. It's not terrible but it's not great. Writing is not the best and could've been cleaned up some, but I did enjoy the story line overall. The FMC made me want to bang my head against the wall sometimes, and the MMC made me want to punch him.

if i never have to hear about antony’s jade green eyes again, it will be too soon.

and why is he quoting taylor swift lyrics?

twenty years ago, a portal opened in the sky and the romans conquered ruying’s world. now, after a lifetime of avoiding her power—the gift of death—ruying is captured and blackmailed into becoming the personal assassin for one of the invading princes.

i found to gaze upon wicked gods very repetitive, and despite the monotonous info dumping on every other page, the world building was scattered and confusing. rome is relatively modern, while pangu seems to be based on ancient china? and they’re connected by a portal in the sky for reasons that are never explained.

for a book about an assassin, we see very few of ruying’s kills—most happen off-page, during a six-month time skip where ruying and antony apparently bond, because i guess that space was needed for the eighth random aside about magic vs. science? i wasn’t a fan of how that conflict was handled either. on one side we have the scientifically advanced romans with fighter jets and guns and missiles, and on the other, the people of pangu attempt to defend themselves with magic and bows and arrows. it all felt very poorly researched and almost infantilizing to frame science as such a foreign, evil concept when so much innovation has come from china (gunpowder, hello).

then there’s the romance—or is it “romance”? based on the book alone, you can argue that chang is writing an abusive dynamic/stockholm syndrome from the victim’s POV and setting the scene for the oppressed rising up against the oppressor (as well as hinting at a different LI) in book two… but the initial marketing did not align with that, and neither did the taylor swift-quoting chapter from antony’s POV. (which was WILD to read. this man is experimenting on her people.) even if the intention was to portray a manipulative, toxic relationship, it was poorly executed and frustrating to read.

finally, i’m begging authors to stop calling everything and everyone morally gray (at one point we’re explicitly told that a character is morally gray. no. stop that. show, don’t tell). and ruying isn’t even morally gray, she’s a wishy-washy mess of a character who doesn’t have any clear values. she’s just annoying, and not at all the character the synopsis promised.

rant over! i’m taking this as a lesson to stop requesting netgalley ARCs because they have pretty covers.

thanks to netgalley for providing me an e-arc of this book!

i’m really split on this one. the magic is cool, the worldbuilding could be better. the stakes are really really high, and i could lose the fact that our romantic lead has colonized the ruying’s country and is holding her captive for her magic. the author does do some work in antony, giving him a less colonizer past, which is the only thing that kept me from dnf-ing this one. i commend the author’s efforts to tell a story with complex morally gray characters, but it didn’t quite it the mark.

I do a lot of readers advisory for fantasy books, so it is great to know what is out there. This one wasn't my favorite, but I think there is an audience out there and I will be recommending.

To start what I will say is the cover is absolutely STUNNING and the vivid descriptions of Pangu and Sihai are beautiful. I think the author does a great job describing the world and even the characters.

Unfortunately, I DNF’d this book a few times, but wanted to see it through till the end and I don’t believe I will be continuing on with the series after this.

I’m not even really sure how to review this?

I was very *very* confused about the ‘world’ we were in. I didn’t find out until I finished this book and read other reviews that Pangu and ‘Rome’ are two different planets entirely and while I was reading it I kept thinking how I didn’t understand the portal and why was it Rome? Because it is technologically advanced compared to Pangu in this story, but I kept thinking of Ancient Rome. When they had bombs of today I’m thinking the Roman’s are still wearing togas lol I almost wish she had made up a completely different name for them because I never felt like I was ever fully invested in the story because I was so lost!

Our main female character Ruying was so unlikable. Almost as unlikable as Antony! Pangu is a world of magic and she is someone who has death magic, although her grandmother has essentially forbade her from using it. The more you use magic the more it can negatively affect you and when the Roman’s invade pangu they introduced opian (opian vs opium, kind of wish she had just made it opium but that’s fine) that ‘enhances’ their magic but with terrible consequences. Ruying lives in poverty with her sister and grandmother in the family’s crumbling mansion. She’s trying to help her sister get off opian so she gets help from a former friend who works with the Roman’s named Baihu and that relationship right there was the start of me being pissed off with Ruying and kept me annoyed the entire book!
Baihu wants Ruying to use her powers against the Roman’s but she refuses… but she works with Antony (the enemy) instead. And IMO it didn’t take much convincing. So she has all of this animosity towards Baihu for working with the Roman’s but he is a spy for a resistance group but falls for Antony who wants her to kill her own people? Lord.

In the end the thing you knew would happen, happens, and FINALLY Ruying gets it and it’s like.. wow took you long enough ma’am! I really hate the fact that she fell for the colonizer! I know there is a lot of discourse online about whether this book should be called a colonizer romance and I don’t want to get too deep into that, but ultimately who does she fall for in book 1 and what is that person considered? Will he redeem himself in the next book? Will he stop his family and sacrifice himself to save her? Will they end up together in the end? I’m not looking forward to her still possibly hesitating to kill him because she has feelings for him!

The only thing I would actually look forward to is learning more about Meiya the sister. She might be able to redeem the series, but I fear she will have to die as a plot device at some point to spur Ruying to action and I don’t want to suffer that.

An interesting premise boggled down by poor writing and controversial drama brought by the author. I had high hopes for this book when it was announced, and I felt quite lucky to receive an advanced copy to read, however it took me months to even get past the first chapter because of how convoluted the writing was.

The introduction did not flow well, constantly stopping the narrative to explain background information for a few paragraphs before jumping back into the present, so much so that I forgot who the characters were every time I picked up the novel.

The sentence variation was also subpar for such a high profile book- every sentence was [Topic], comma, [Explanation]. No matter how hard I tried I could not get through a significant portion of the novel at any point, and thus have left it unfinished at around 15%.

This book was a troubling psychological thriller and while I appreciated the premise, I found the world building uncreative and the writing was redundant. I think this book could have been a lot better with significant editing. I could see glimpses of genius but the end product did not deliver.

The dual-world concept has potential but the relationship was hard to read with the manipulation and imbalance between the characters.

dnf at 19%, i couldn't like the characters like ruying and the prince, or the writing style which i found repetitive and unnecessarily dramatic. i loved the plot though so i might give it another chance in the future.

I really love the title and the book cover! The world building is intriguing but also a little confusing. I don’t love that there is a lot of repetition throughout the writing. This was definitely an interesting read and I did enjoy it overall.

One of the most poorly written titles I came across unfortunately. Immediate infodump, excessive monologues and a lack of trust in the reader. Shows a clear lack of developmental edits.

While I found the writing juvenile, the concept was intriguing but worldbuilding choices made no sense

This felt like a messed up colonizer romance, and that's exactly what it was. I did dnf this book 50% of the way through and gave it 1 star. Not my cup of tea and was let down.

To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods was a beautifully written YA(?) fantasy. And it has such a pretty cover 😍😍 The author does an amazing job painting a picture of the world they are in. I thought Ruying (FMC) was well written and I enjoyed the story! I wish the MMC was more fleshed out though. He seems like a very complicated person and I wish we could've had either more about him or more from his perspective towards the end of the novel.

I'm not very familiar with Chinese history or mythology, so this was all very new and unique for me 🩷 and Ruying's gift is a doozy!!

There's a lot of inner monologue in this novel (so if you don't like that, you may wanna skip this one). That alone didn't bother me, but a lot going on in Ruying's head is really repetitive. She's indecisive about her choice--we get it. I also wish there was a little more of a connection between the FMC and MMC--I really wasn't feeling it from Ruying 🫤 I would hesitate to call this romantasy, mostly just fantasy IMO.

Overall I enjoyed and would recommend. Hopefully there's a sequel coming soon so we can see how everything plays out ⚔️⚔️

I think this book had an interesting premise, but it ultimately fell short for me unfortunately. I didn’t enjoy the FMC and found her to be a very flip floppy character that didn’t have the clearest motivations. It was also a bit repetitive at times. Thank you Random House for this ARC

I wanted to love this book so, so hard. I mean, just look at that synopsis! That cover! The marketing! And then, before I read it, I saw the reviews. I read about the review bombing scandal. I decided that I wouldn't let it color my thoughts on the book because, after all, if I had a nickel for every 3-star-reviewed book on GoodReads that has a prized place on my shelf...well, I'd probably have enough by now to buy myself one of those nice Illumicrate editions.

Unfortunately, I've got to side with the three star average on this one. Conceptually, I still think this book is a stunner. The bones are there -- a girl with horrifying death powers becomes a killer for the colonizers, in the hopes that she may save her people by doing so. The metaphors and allegories are totally in place, and the worldbuilding is intriguing. And the romance? Well, I applaud Chang for what she did here, because a colonizer romance this is not (despite the myriad of one star reviews stating so -- did we read the same book?). This is not a romance; it's a portrayal of a woman manipulated into loving our awful, awful villain, and I found Chang's depiction of that toxicity to be masterful.

But what I didn't love is how stagnant the book feels. Ruying, our MC, spends a good portion of the book saying, doing, and thinking the same things: how awful killing is, how she does it for her family, how she has to take another life but vows it'll be the last, etc. I also had some issues with the prose, which feels similarly repetitive. Many short paragraphs follow each other in close succession and appear to say the same thing in different ways. I don't typically mind this in a shorter book -- prose like this can definitely take on a dream-like quality in a short story or novella -- but it just felt like Wicked Gods would have benefitted from a heavier hand on the line edits.

Because of this, I am not sure if I'll continue with the series. If given a chance, I may grab an ARC of Book 2, if only to see whether the Ruying/Antony "romance" goes where I think (and hope) it will go. But that's a big if.

Many thanks to NetGalley, Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine/Del Rey, and Molly X. Chang for giving me this e-ARC in exchange for my honest review.