I had a good time with this story! The characters were written well and i was able to feel attachment to them which i love. i am not totally sold on the romance side of this but i enjoyed the lore and magic system set up in this world and will definitely read the sequel!

Thank you Random House Publishing Group and NetGalley for this ARC!

To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods is centered around Ruying, who tries to survive the Romans who have invaded her world. Her magical gift is death and her struggle with it is seen throughout the book. After a series of choices she's stuck working with the very people who invaded. This is the first book in a trilogy.

What I enjoyed about this book was the world and the magic system, it felt unique but also had some real world influences, Romans being colonizers. Ruying is a young girl trying to handle many things and this is evident by the choices she makes but remembering how young she is her mistakes make sense. The writing was also great.

The plot felt like it took around 50% of the book to get into which felt slow but once the story had legs I was invested. We got a lot of inner monologue and I think that affected the character development of other characters. Which made it feel like we barely knew them, and I know this is a trilogy but the "romance" fell so flat and forced it was honestly unnecessary. The story would of been more impactful if the romance plot was in other books once we got more character development.

Overall the ending was crazy and it does make me want to read the other books in the series but I'm not sure if I'd reread the this first book.

Who’s a Coward and Who’s Brave?

When gods invade your homeland and slowly crush your people under their boots, when is the time right to rebel?

When big problems are laid in front of you, is it hard to grapple with them or hard to not?

Is love a weakness? Or the thing that makes us human?

A parting thought: do we all believe our parents’ lives were in halcyon days? Will our children look back on our times and find them simpler, desirable, somehow? Only time may tell.

DNF @ 2%

Thank you Netgalley for the E-Arc exchange for an honest review.

The fact it's the Romans that supposed to be the conquers that come from a portal to the Main Character world is all I need to know about this book. I was already bored in the first chapter.

To gaze upon wicked gods is a first in a ya fantasy series! Idk how long this series will be but I am excited for book 2. Sadly I have to wait till April 2025 for the sequel so long!!! This was a buddy read I did with my friend April from Bookedallaroundtheworld on instagram & Titkok! We started to buddy read this one back in March of this year but I couldn't finish it at the time so I decieded to DNF it at first, but I picked it back up in June and fell in love with it again. Although I don't think that there was any LGBTQ Characters in here it did helped me with a reading challenge and that is: A 5+ word in the title.
I would say it did take me a little while to get into the book just because it's a new world and new characters but overall I really enjoyed it! Solid 4 stars almost 3.5 for me but in the end the fight scene and politics were intruging, I honstley can't wait for book 2!(:

I was unsure if I was going to actually reading this following all the controversy surrounding this book but after looking into it, I decided to give this book a shot. I wanted to go into it with little to no expectations, considering that I have been having a very difficult time reading fantasy these last few years. I did enjoy this book overall! It wasn't the best fantasy book I've ever read but I was entertained and interested, which Iconsider a win! I did read this book in one day of traveling and never really wanted to stop reading. It seems like this book was really inspired by The Poppy War Trilogy, which is one of my favorite series of all time, and I think that lowered my enjoyment. The magic system was interesting and I think I would read more books in this series!

Honestly, I really enjoyed this book. I loved it so much that I went out and got a hardcover copy of it as soon as it was released.

The combination of magic and science was fantastic. It was such an interesting premise. I liked the characters as well. They are just doing their best with what they have and no one really has all the information. I’m very interested to see where this goes.

Thank you Random House Publishing for sending me an eARC of "To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods" to read and provide an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

First of all, I want to say that I requested this book back in 2023 because I thought the cover was stunning. All I have to say is, this book is darker than the cover implies, so DEFINITELY do not judge the book by its cover.

Two, I'll be honest and say I had some apprehension before starting this book at the beginning of this month. When I went to click on "currently reading" on Goodreads, I also saw a slew of poor/bad reviews. My curiosity got the better of me and so I read a few. Most were criticizing the fact that this novel had a "colonizer romance" where the oppressed FMC fell in love with her captor, the MMC. While I didn't take this to heart (like, I understood how problematic this is, but I think that the purpose of it hasn't quite been revealed yet), I likened it more to Stockholm Syndrome than anything (as it's similar to the relationship between Feyre and you-know-who in ACOTAR #1). However, this fact has nothing to do with my 2-star review. I just wanted to address the situation.

The worldbuilding was extremely complex, which I appreciated as an aspiring fantasy writer (I KNOW how long it takes to build a well-rounded world; the amount of thought, research, and planning it requires). It was a combination of fantasy/magic, sci-fi/technology, and a little historical fiction. The magic system, history, and world overall were all well-explained. However, the WAY the explaining was done . . . it didn't leave me feeling all that appreciative. It was very much info-dumped onto the reader, which made me consider DNF-ing from as early as 25% in.

Further, the characters were one-dimensional, and while I also appreciated Ruying's love of her family, I considered her an unreliable narrator. Her inner dialogue was very repetitive, which was a little annoying. I thought her romance with Antony was unneeded and felt forced.

The pacing was good, at least. Chang kept me on the edge of my seat as I read, waiting to see what poor decision Ruying made next (lol) and what would happen to her family and kingdom. The fight/action scenes were well written, and I'm curious to learn more about how Rome's portal system (and other technology) works.

Overall, all I really wanted from this book was to have a more reliable narrator (I think Meiya would have been a better/ more interesting choice, seeing as she is on the "right" side of history despite her addiction to opian), no romance, and more focus on the political/technology side of the impending war between Rome and Er-Lang.

Will I pick up the sequel? I'm not sure yet because, while I have a lot of questions, I don't know if the next book will have the same problems as this one (which will make me not want to read it). I guess it will depend on when the sequel releases (because I REALLY don't want to reread this).

Thanks to Del Rey for gifted access via Netgalley. All opinions below are my own.

This story turns colonization on its head a bit. The Roman empire is alive and well and has reached another planet after destroying their own. They very quickly conquer the people living there and we join them in a place of oppression. Our main character has the ability to kill people by stealing their chi. She is forced to work for a Roman prince to keep her family safe. Initially being quite handcuffed by him to kill who she pleases but like every good romantasy these days, she falls for him and he for her and their decisions become a little muddled.

Normally the romance aspect, especially with the super naive girl character would not work for me. But I liked the world building of this one, a little taken from the real world and a little bit of magic. I also thought it was a very accurate view of colonization and all of the efforts to overturn rule often coming down to one person or one choice defining its success. I also enjoyed the twists.

I have very mixed feelings about To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods. It has some fresh takes on old stories, but also falls into some of the pitfalls new authors often do. There's great action and character development in the first 30%. We get to know Ruying and her world intimately and the struggles she faces in her occupied homeland. We get to know her sister, her childhood friends and then bam- we meet the mysterious Roman Prince that takes her captive because of her powers. Sounds great right? It was until the middle 40% of the book. I feel like two different people wrote this book because suddenly we're getting a lot of internal dialogue, telling not showing, and whole time jumps that make no sense- we skip past all the character development that happens as Ruying acts as Athony's assassin. The relationship between the leads feels very forced and underdeveloped. There's a lot of nonsequitor moments between them that gave me emotional whiplash when I know the author's goal was likely angst. It didn't hit home at all. That said, the last 30% of the book picks up speed, and adds the plot points that should've been sprinkled throughout the book. I'll definitely give the second book a try, but I do hope the author turns down the volume on internal monologues and has a developmental editor address pacing and relationship development.

This unfortunately didn't work for me personally. The pacing was off in the beginning which didn't entice me to want to dive in. I had trouble connecting with the characters, pacing, and the writing style. Ultimately I was unable to continue on and finish it. It may work for other readers and the synopsis does sound really good, but sadly, it just didn't end up being my type of read.

I wanted to like this book, but I unfortunately did not enjoy any part of reading it. It took me almost 2 months to read, probably because it just felt so unpleasant. I may try the second book because I want to see the main character fight back now that she’s no longer going to be a coward. I could not see how Antony could have anything positive about him, so I wasn’t surprised when more darker elements were revealed. Additionally, there were more gory descriptions of deaths than I expected and that just felt unnecessary.

The only reason that I’m not giving it 1 star is that Ruying finally realized that she was maybe siding with the wrong side, so maybe the second book will be better.

A quick read with smooth and accessible writing! Thank you to the publisher and the author for providing the ARC!

To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods has good bones - the author clearly has a rich image of the world in her mind, and the story had the potential to be a beautiful, heart-wrenching conflict between heroism and survival, loyalty to your family versus loyalty to your people. Unfortunately, the execution made what should have been a thrilling dystopian-fantasy into a repetitive slog through the muck of repeated phrases.
The plot laid out for us - a girl with the power to kill, forced to wield it against her own people for the survival of her family - was wonderful. Once the story got moving, I desperately wanted to see how it was going to resolve.
Our characters were interesting, but done a disservice by the prose and style of the narrative. Yang Ruying’s need to save her family was compelling, but the sheer number of words spent in her head spiraling, repeating the same few things in the same few turns of phrase, was grating and exhausting. Baihu, her childhood friend turned rival, was interesting, and I genuinely wish we had gotten to see more of him.
I am in no place to speak on whether this is or is not a colonizer romance. What I will speak on is what the text showed versus the way it was marketed.
According to Chang herself, To Gaze is a romance between Yang Ruying and Antony Augustus, inspired by Zuko and Katara from Avatar: The Last Airbender. Dear reader, it was not any of those things.
On the romance count: at no point did I feel like what Ruying and Antony had was a true romance. Throughout the book, it was blatantly obvious that Antony was a lying, manipulative bastard, and it was wonderful in the same way a haunted house is wonderful - thrilling in the anticipation of when the scare-actor is going to get you.
Antony is a liar, a killer, and a conman, and we are shown this from the beginning. The fact that Ruying falls so easily for him and his lies, I thought, was meant as a sense of creeping dread, knowing that he was going to turn around and betray her in the end.
From the beginning, I was expecting Baihu to be the true love interest, and that is still my expectation for book two.
On the Zutara count: what makes Zutara work is a few things - 1) Zuko never holds any real significant power over Katara. She is never his captive. He never tortures her. 2) Katara could kick Zuko’s ass any day and is more than willing to prove it. She could wipe the floor with him. 3) Zuko is, inherently, a good and kind person who has been misled and spends a fuck of a long time trying to atone for his mistakes and make it up to the people he’s hurt, including Katara.
None of this is true of Antony and Ruying. He practically enslaves her, tortures her emotionally and physically, holds the upper hand in combat for the majority of the book, and is a horrible person pretending to care just to have his way with her power.
I loved him as a character, in the sense that I loved watching him dig his own grave and I cannot wait for Ruying to absolutely fucking obliterate him in the sequel. But it was not a romance, it was nothing like Zutara, and it never should have been marketed as such.
The setting was probably my third biggest hangup when it came to this book, which is impressive, because it threw me for a loop. To Gaze is a sci-fi-dystopian-fantasy wherein a fantasy analogue for China is conquered by a culture that came from a futuristic world that has no magic. A world that is our very own Earth, after humans stripped it of resources and made it nigh-unlivable.
For some unknown reason, this futuristic empire is called Rome. They are Romans. With guns. And helicopters. And three piece suits.
This might not bother everyone, but I adore the aesthetics of ancient Rome and am always on the hunt for more Roman-inspired fantasy, so this really harshed my vibe.
Outside of that, the world of Pangu was lovely and rich, I just wish, like everything, we had spent more time exploring it instead of rotting inside Ruying’s head.
Prose and theme take the top two places in the contest for “Things I Didn’t Like About This Book,” but my issue with the theme is really an extension of my issue with the prose.
In a well-written novel, the theme should be an undercurrent that connects all other aspects of the book, something subtle yet vital that brings the whole thing together. In To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods, the theme is more like a wet fish with a handful of phrases assigned to it that the author bludgeons us over the head with every few pages just to make sure we don’t forget what the book is about.
If I had a nickel for every time the phrases ‘wicked gods,’ ‘heroes die, cowards live,’ ‘one eye open, one eye closed,’ or ‘the girl blessed by death’ were said, I would have enough money to buy the drink I so desperately needed after finishing this book.
I want to make it clear that I don’t have a problem with theme-driven books; I really love when a book knows what its trying to say and says it with its whole chest. The issue with To Gaze was not about the importance of the theme, but about the hamfisted nature of the prose.
Every single thing I liked about this book was overshadowed by how achingly boring the MC’s narration was - the vast majority of the book was spent in her head, listening to her repeat the same few ideas over and over as we floated from place to place, untethered from whatever action was happening in the world outside of her thoughts.
The best example of this was the very first chapter in which nothing - I repeat, nothing - actually happened. Ruying walked down the street as it rained, and told us in ten different ways how awful the Romans were, how terrible the state of her world was, and how powerless anyone was to stop it.
No action demonstrated the cruelty or the squalor, we were just told of the horrors that had been inflicted without seeing it for ourselves. It made the narration feel stale and shallow, and distanced us from the world she inhabited.
Instead of walking beside Ruying through the streets of Er-Lang, we were trapped inside her mind, straining to catch glimpses out the windows of her eyes.
All that being said, I did truly enjoy the story, I just wish I didn’t have to fight so hard to find that enjoyment. I’m glad I didn’t DNF, and I will most likely read the sequel, especially if I get another ARC.
If you don’t mind being stuck in a character’s head, if you are a fan of science-fantasy or dystopian fantasy, or if you enjoy watching a truly terrible person set up their own downfall by manipulating someone who could kill them with a look, I think you will love this book.
Thank you to Del Rey and NetGalley for the chance to read an ARC.

This book is mix of fantasy, science fiction, and Asian mythology. To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods was an emotional journey with morally grey implications that had me invested. At first I wasn't as sure where the story was headed but once the pieces started coming together it made me anxious to see how it would all work out. I kind of like the reading experience of being kept in the dark and figuring it out alongside the main character. It was a little confusing to gather my thoughts about the world building but the more I sat back the more it started coming together.

I also really enjoyed the romance aspect of the story. I love having no idea who she will end up with and I also really enjoyed that this aspect was kept to more of a subplot. I don't love when it is immediately obvious and I like the characters to work through it before falling hard for each other.

This was an interesting debut that felt pretty unique. While the writing style wasn't always my favorite I do feel like the author has potential to keep getting better going forward.

I've tried to get into this book a couple times but - unfortunately romantasy just really isn't for me. I LOVE fantasy but really struggle to get into plots centered around a relationship and all the angst that is typical in romance novels.

I was really looking forward to reading this book early on, but unfortunately due to prevalent discourse comparing this story to the horrifying human experimentation and bio/chemical warfare by Unit 731 in Japan, I ultimately decided not to complete it. I am very grateful to Del Rey and associated imprints of PRH for sharing an early copy with me. As is evident by my reviewing history, I always aim to read the ARCs that are sent to me and share thoughtful reviews. Unfortunately, I am unable to do so for this book.

I thought this book was so good! The writing style was great and the story line kept me intrigued the whole book. I will be looking forward to reading more from this author.

This novel follows Ruying, a teenage citizen of Pangu living under the subjugation of the militarily superior Romans. Ruying is one of the ever increasingly rare group of people born with magic, and her magic is control over death: she can pull the strands of qi from people. Determined to not use her magic no matter the cost, Ruying is caught up in a plot much bigger than herself, where she is unwittingly partnered with Antony, Roman prince and second in line, and forced to use her magic to keep herself and her country alive.

I fell in love with the cover of this book and thought the jacket blurb was intriguing, but ultimately this ended up being a DNF for me at 54%. A lot of Ruying's narration is full of unnecessarily flowery and repetitive language, to the point that I think you could skip every other line and not lose any meaning. The world also felt very empty. Ruying has a few connections, but they aren't really part of the story: it's just Ruying and Antony. Ultimately, the biggest turn off for me was that this, intentionally or not, is a colonizer romance. I don't think the author was going for that, but any evolution of Ruying and Antony's relationship happens off page, so from my point of view, he never changes, never denounces the bad things he's done and is complicit in, etc. Ruying's motivations for helping him also felt so paper thin. This novel had potential, but it really missed the mark for me.