Reviews

To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods – Falsche Götter by Molly X. Chang

hugallthecatss's review against another edition

2.5

Oof.

I think if you remove the repetitive dialogue/exposition this book could be about 100 pages shorter. 

The characters are very shallow and honestly I didn't care for any of them.  Almost all of the relationship building between Ruying and Antony happens during a 6 month off-page time skip. Their entire relationship feels incredibly flimsy and surface level, and I have no idea why she suddenly trusts him and is also smitten by him. I think that

Taohua's death

was supposed to be this big moment, but because there's almost no interaction I found that I didn't care at all.

Interesting ideas but incredibly poor execution.

kathynp's review against another edition

adventurous dark slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

lybrarie's review against another edition

medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

This one was a hard one to rate for me. Overall I enjoyed this book, I really enjoyed the writing style and I liked the characters - not necessarily because they are likeable characters, but because they are interesting. I liked getting to read about their different motivations and what they believe is "worth it". The plot itself had some issues, as did the pacing. But I had a pretty good time reading this book and I imagine I will likely pick up the sequel when it is released. 

juliabrooks103's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

ray_arcane's review against another edition

1.0

Enemies to lovers

There are no enemies, just a colonizer abusing and manipulating her. Enemies have an equal footing
There is no 'to' as she just falls for him/manipulated to love him for no reason
There are no lovers, as both are delusional.


In the end, just do not read this book it is not worth your time, certainly was not worth mine.

ehonganen's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense fast-paced

4.0

emowyn's review against another edition

challenging dark slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

This book needed alot more editing. The same thing said five ways is repeated throughout.  Actual sentences are repeated within a couple of pages of each other. 
About 80% of the book is Rui talking to herself but events then happen off page. Very frustrating. 
The book and the characters actions do not flow naturally but seem to be forcibly pushed into a direction. 
I was really looking forward to this book,  the premise and the world building sounded interesting but the lack of editing and the repeated prose completely spoiled it for me. 
I won't be looking for the sequel.

zobird's review against another edition

challenging dark tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

babiefats's review against another edition

adventurous slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

Do stand alones not exist anymore? 

I found this interesting to a point. I enjoyed the world, the history, and the lore—I did not enjoy all the twists being info dumped at the end of the novel to continue the story.

I may just be bitter because my only qualm is this era of series and not so much the book itself.

sophielaura1's review against another edition

medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.25

3.25 stars ✨ 

This was a bit of a weird one for me. On one hand, it was relatively enjoyable and well written, but on the other hand, there were some bigger issues that cannot be ignored.

I’ll start with the things I liked. I thought that magic system was really well written (although I was slightly confused when it came to the Gods and deities). Also, for a book one in a series, it was definitely a solid foundation.

To contrast, I found that the sci-fi elements (essentially the science aspect itself) were severely lacking, considering how detailed and cohesive the magic was, it was slightly disappointing. Towards the middle of the book, I was skim reading. It was just too slow for my taste. I’m normally one to defend the FMC  to the end, but Ruying just made far too many bad decisions. Like girl, come on! 

Now to the bigger issue, the coloniser romance. I picked up on this whilst I was reading and my view was confirmed when I read other people’s reviews. Honestly, I’m not really sure if it’s my place as a white woman to label something a ‘coloniser romance’, especially when it’s written by a POC author, so I’m not going to, I’m just going to say that those were the vibes emitted. However, it could also be argued that it wasn’t a coloniser romance, but the romanticisation of a coloniser.🤷‍♀️