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raven_nivhaar's review
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
2.0
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.
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.
Now, the story itself sounded very interesting, and the magic system was the strongest aspect of the novel for me, but unfortunately that was about it.
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.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Colonisation
Moderate: Xenophobia
Minor: Addiction and Death
lucien_png's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
I really liked this book's exploration of a colonial relationship between two nations. With that being said, I found the FMC really annoying, she was really self deprecating and that got old really fast. One thing that was annoying to me was I felt like the author over explained things and tended to repeat things just a few pages apart, though this became less of an annoyance after the first part.
Spoilers for the book
I feel like Ruying was too quick to trust Anthony, and took too long to lose that trust. I understand why she helped him but I was surprised that she basically lost all skepticism towards him and his actions. I thought the fact that she gained feelings for him was kind of stupid.
Spoilers for the book
Content Warnings
Graphic: Xenophobia, Violence, Toxic relationship, Genocide, War, Torture, and Trafficking
jebecky's review
Ugh, I hated all the characters, the story felt really unoriginal, there was no character development. The reason I almost finished the book is because introduction by the author was so interesting.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racial slurs, Torture, Drug use, Xenophobia, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Gun violence, Toxic relationship, Murder, Racism, Misogyny, Medical content, and Medical trauma
Moderate: Death of parent, Genocide, Death, Addiction, and Grief
madscientistcat's review against another edition
challenging
dark
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
This is a deeply human, complicated, slow paced dark fantasy. A story of an idealistic but unknowingly naive young woman trying to do the right thing without any true understanding of what that is or what it means. This isn’t a romantasy, it’s The Poppy War.
There’s no easy fantasy escapism story here - only murky, morally gray characters caught in a losing battle on all sides. It wasn’t perfectly done, but I really appreciated seeing a very real depiction of humanity where we don’t have all the information, where we don’t magically know the right answer or find the ideal solution. We stumble in the dark and do what we can with what’s in front of us. And, all things willing, we learn from the consequences.
There’s no easy fantasy escapism story here - only murky, morally gray characters caught in a losing battle on all sides. It wasn’t perfectly done, but I really appreciated seeing a very real depiction of humanity where we don’t have all the information, where we don’t magically know the right answer or find the ideal solution. We stumble in the dark and do what we can with what’s in front of us. And, all things willing, we learn from the consequences.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Colonisation, Gun violence, Medical trauma, Xenophobia, Death, Violence, and War
Moderate: Murder
Minor: Child abuse
eatallthestars's review against another edition
challenging
dark
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
1.5
Good if you like a morally reprehensible, pro-colonisation, legitimately villainous main character. This isn't a romance.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Colonisation and Xenophobia
Moderate: War, Death, Violence, and Murder
Minor: Classism
pm_me_book_recs's review
challenging
dark
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.0
That's gonna be a no for me....
I was earnestly very excited for this book, but even before the first chapter was through, I had a bad feeling about it. My main issues are with the "romance", vague and shallow worldbuilding, repetitive dialogue, length of monologues, and the lack of action (despite marketing).
For transparency sake, I am a white, US based reviewer and am aware of the 1 star brigade this author experienced as a reaction to being an Asian Author. While I really hated this book, I plan on reading the other installment(s) after reviews are posted and will give other titles a shot as well. There were good ideas, but I had too many issues with the content and execution. Reviewers of global majority have done extensive analysis and provide in-depth criticism here, definitely read their words for more info! Hopefully the author is receptive.
As an abuse survivor, the "romance" definitely made me uncomfortable and furious-I kept waiting, hoping, for her to have been deceiving him into false security. But no, she's actually into it. Let's maybe leave romanticizing Stockholm Syndrome behind next time. Considering the amount of psychological, emotional, and physical abuse Ruying is put through by Antony, and then having it romanticized, this should not be graded YA... teens should not think this behavior is acceptable or normal from a partner.
The worldbuilding felt like it was supposed to be reminiscent of Nimona, a meeting of medieval China and cyberpunk... but it wasn't fledged out at all and was so confusing to digest with the little information given. It really broke the suspension of disbelief that Pangu (China) is given a fantastic name, but then we have ROME. Rome in helicopters and slinging guns? Like modern warfare Rome complete with hyper Latin names, statuesque blonde curls and handsome noses. And there's no real explaining where Rome is, they arrive via sky portals (which wasn't made clear until towards the end), and there are references to "their world"... but then it sounds like they ARE on the same planet?? This vague reference happens 2/3 through and threw me completely off. Do they have spaceships that were not talked about? What is going on?
The dialogue is either boring or immature, and much of the book is internal monologue of repetitive information dumps or rehashing traumatic events.
The description got me amped up for a high-action, dangerous fantasy (originally assumed that Baihu was the enemy-lover) but most of the action happens off-screen. There are a few fight scenes, but we only really see one assassination and it's not... action driven (which was best, in that case). Once I learned that these hyped up assassinations were her own people, I didn't want to read about it anyways.
Thank you Netgalley for access to this ARC.
Also, these content warnings are NOT given lightly!
I was earnestly very excited for this book, but even before the first chapter was through, I had a bad feeling about it. My main issues are with the "romance", vague and shallow worldbuilding, repetitive dialogue, length of monologues, and the lack of action (despite marketing).
For transparency sake, I am a white, US based reviewer and am aware of the 1 star brigade this author experienced as a reaction to being an Asian Author. While I really hated this book, I plan on reading the other installment(s) after reviews are posted and will give other titles a shot as well. There were good ideas, but I had too many issues with the content and execution. Reviewers of global majority have done extensive analysis and provide in-depth criticism here, definitely read their words for more info! Hopefully the author is receptive.
As an abuse survivor, the "romance" definitely made me uncomfortable and furious-I kept waiting, hoping, for her to have been deceiving him into false security. But no, she's actually into it. Let's maybe leave romanticizing Stockholm Syndrome behind next time. Considering the amount of psychological, emotional, and physical abuse Ruying is put through by Antony, and then having it romanticized, this should not be graded YA... teens should not think this behavior is acceptable or normal from a partner.
The worldbuilding felt like it was supposed to be reminiscent of Nimona, a meeting of medieval China and cyberpunk... but it wasn't fledged out at all and was so confusing to digest with the little information given. It really broke the suspension of disbelief that Pangu (China) is given a fantastic name, but then we have ROME. Rome in helicopters and slinging guns? Like modern warfare Rome complete with hyper Latin names, statuesque blonde curls and handsome noses. And there's no real explaining where Rome is, they arrive via sky portals (which wasn't made clear until towards the end), and there are references to "their world"... but then it sounds like they ARE on the same planet?? This vague reference happens 2/3 through and threw me completely off. Do they have spaceships that were not talked about? What is going on?
The dialogue is either boring or immature, and much of the book is internal monologue of repetitive information dumps or rehashing traumatic events.
The description got me amped up for a high-action, dangerous fantasy (originally assumed that Baihu was the enemy-lover) but most of the action happens off-screen. There are a few fight scenes, but we only really see one assassination and it's not... action driven (which was best, in that case). Once I learned that these hyped up assassinations were her own people, I didn't want to read about it anyways.
Thank you Netgalley for access to this ARC.
Also, these content warnings are NOT given lightly!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Misogyny, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Physical abuse, Classism, Cultural appropriation, Colonisation, Police brutality, Addiction, Confinement, Death, Racism, Death of parent, Toxic relationship, Drug use, Grief, Genocide, Gun violence, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Murder, Slavery, Torture, Violence, War, and Xenophobia
justinekorson's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
EDITED TO ADD QUOTES AS OF 4/23/24
Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with an ARC of this story
SPOILERS TO FOLLOW
*I'm going to edit this later to add quotes to my review for the examples I'm about to give. I don't want to put the quotes now though because I'm not sure what I'm allowed to share since this is an ARC and the quotes may or may not have changed so I will compare them to my physical copy when it arrives.*
I'm sure many of you (If you follow Booktok/Booktwitter closely know about everything that happened with Molly and that other author I refuse to mention who was incredibly racist toward Molly but I'm not here to talk about that. What I do plan to talk about is what happened after. I've followed Molly for a while (even before that author debacle) because I'd heard about her publishing deal and the story sounded great! I was hyped for it and emphasized with her when everything started to go down. To my surprise, not long after what I'm sure was a completely terrible experience for Molly, I saw a lot of criticism over her novel being thrown her way.
Most of this criticism centered around the main characters Ruying and Antony. People were discussing how Molly had written a colonizer romance (Antony is a Roman and has come from a different world to enslave/decimate the Pangu people using drugs and weapons) and how this narrative was very harmful towards the Asian community, (as well as other communities that have also been colonized by white people). Molly ended up writing a few tweets about how her story is NOT a colonizer romance and the context of the story would show this. I couldn't find the tweet I was looking for to backup my point (so unless I dreamed it) but I remembered reading a tweet from Molly that said something along the lines of, "The next story in this saga is called To Kill A Wicked Prince. Do with that what you will." (EDIT: I HAVE FOUND THE POST SHE ACTUALLY SAID THE NEXT TITLE IS "To Kill A Monstrous Prince" which further solidifies my review in my opinion). So with that tweet in mind, I decided to go into the story with the mindset that Ruying DOES NOT love Prince Antony and that she is a victim of her circumstances. Because of this, I saw the story so much clearer.
Ruying does not love Antony and I say this with my whole chest because I watched Antony manipulate her over and over and over until she felt like she was safe with him. But a false sense of security does not equate love. I can not blame her for seeking comfort in him and his empty promises. Antony threatened her family from the very beginning and Ruying mistook his money and his protection as anything other than another way to control her, to keep her living with the fear that it could disappear. Meiya and Baihu argued with her over and over that she wasn't doing this for peace of for her family but for herself. "So what if I am? There is no sin in wanting to live, in wanting a better life for those I love." Who wouldn't fall victim to Antony though? Especially after the manipulation tactics he applied to make her believe he was going to save her and her people from destruction.
Ruying was also clearly terrified from the beginning of what it would mean to be on the other side of Rome's attention. If she wasn't Antony's guard then she was nothing more than something to be discarded. She is in constant turmoil with herself over what she's doing, struggling between wanting to trust Antony and knowing that she CAN'T trust him because he doesn't fully trust her. "His words were like sweet lies. I wanted these melodies to sing true. I wanted to linger in the world he painted so badly. But Antony couldn't make me a hero. If I stayed loyal to him, I would never be a hero to my people. Not after what I did." There was very little romance between them. Lingering gazes, and small touches barely mean anything. The two of them only kissed once and it was so brief and short it was barely there and Ruying's immediate thought afterwards was, "When tomorrow came, we could never be this close again. Because Antony Augustus was my people's enemy. Nothing could ever change this." Those are not the thoughts of someone head over heels in love. The only reason she's conflicted is because she wants to believe he's a good person even though she knows he's not.
Ruying wanted to believe Antony's lies so bad that she tried to convince herself that killing for him was better than fighting for herself, fighting for freedom for her people. She wanted to live and wanted to help her family and I think a lot of people in her position would find themselves in the same situation as her. "I thought I had to do this for them. For us. For survival. But if I was really doing this for them, I wouldn't fight on the side of our enemy."
I don't know if it was because I went in with the mindset that I couldn't trust Antony, but I didn't believe a word he said the entire novel. Especially after Taohau was never mentioned again I knew that something bad happened. I knew the other should would drop and Ruying would finally see him clearly and be able to shake herself free of him. Nobody should believe this is a colonizer romance after Antony gloats TO HER FACE, "You almost can't blame my people for what we are doing" about the genocide of her own people! She had a very bad visceral reaction to this. Ruying hates Antony she just can't show that to him. Even in Antony's own POV I hated him (there's only one chapter of it) and it didn't endear me to him at all. If anything it made me hate him more because of how he talked about Ruying.
Anyways, this was longer than I anticipated. Overall I truly enjoyed the story. I really liked the magic and the world building. It was like a fantasy world crossed with futuristic one. I'm interested how Rome managed to dimension hop(??) and if that will be explained in the other installments. I'm also curious to see if this mysterious third younger brother will make an appearance in the story. I wanted to see more of Meiya but what we got of her was brilliant. The angry, younger sibling (who will probably not make it until the end of the series judging on a few factors) who wants to save the world is always a fun trope! I also truly think Ruying's real love interest will make an appearance in the second novel. (It's either going to be The Phantom or Baihu himself.) I think the next novel will show more of Ruying trying to break free from Anotony and trying to help her people and I can't wait!
Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with an ARC of this story
SPOILERS TO FOLLOW
*I'm going to edit this later to add quotes to my review for the examples I'm about to give. I don't want to put the quotes now though because I'm not sure what I'm allowed to share since this is an ARC and the quotes may or may not have changed so I will compare them to my physical copy when it arrives.*
I'm sure many of you (If you follow Booktok/Booktwitter closely know about everything that happened with Molly and that other author I refuse to mention who was incredibly racist toward Molly but I'm not here to talk about that. What I do plan to talk about is what happened after. I've followed Molly for a while (even before that author debacle) because I'd heard about her publishing deal and the story sounded great! I was hyped for it and emphasized with her when everything started to go down. To my surprise, not long after what I'm sure was a completely terrible experience for Molly, I saw a lot of criticism over her novel being thrown her way.
Most of this criticism centered around the main characters Ruying and Antony. People were discussing how Molly had written a colonizer romance (Antony is a Roman and has come from a different world to enslave/decimate the Pangu people using drugs and weapons) and how this narrative was very harmful towards the Asian community, (as well as other communities that have also been colonized by white people). Molly ended up writing a few tweets about how her story is NOT a colonizer romance and the context of the story would show this. I couldn't find the tweet I was looking for to backup my point (so unless I dreamed it) but I remembered reading a tweet from Molly that said something along the lines of, "The next story in this saga is called To Kill A Wicked Prince. Do with that what you will." (EDIT: I HAVE FOUND THE POST SHE ACTUALLY SAID THE NEXT TITLE IS "To Kill A Monstrous Prince" which further solidifies my review in my opinion). So with that tweet in mind, I decided to go into the story with the mindset that Ruying DOES NOT love Prince Antony and that she is a victim of her circumstances. Because of this, I saw the story so much clearer.
Ruying does not love Antony and I say this with my whole chest because I watched Antony manipulate her over and over and over until she felt like she was safe with him. But a false sense of security does not equate love. I can not blame her for seeking comfort in him and his empty promises. Antony threatened her family from the very beginning and Ruying mistook his money and his protection as anything other than another way to control her, to keep her living with the fear that it could disappear. Meiya and Baihu argued with her over and over that she wasn't doing this for peace of for her family but for herself. "So what if I am? There is no sin in wanting to live, in wanting a better life for those I love." Who wouldn't fall victim to Antony though? Especially after the manipulation tactics he applied to make her believe he was going to save her and her people from destruction.
Ruying was also clearly terrified from the beginning of what it would mean to be on the other side of Rome's attention. If she wasn't Antony's guard then she was nothing more than something to be discarded. She is in constant turmoil with herself over what she's doing, struggling between wanting to trust Antony and knowing that she CAN'T trust him because he doesn't fully trust her. "His words were like sweet lies. I wanted these melodies to sing true. I wanted to linger in the world he painted so badly. But Antony couldn't make me a hero. If I stayed loyal to him, I would never be a hero to my people. Not after what I did." There was very little romance between them. Lingering gazes, and small touches barely mean anything. The two of them only kissed once and it was so brief and short it was barely there and Ruying's immediate thought afterwards was, "When tomorrow came, we could never be this close again. Because Antony Augustus was my people's enemy. Nothing could ever change this." Those are not the thoughts of someone head over heels in love. The only reason she's conflicted is because she wants to believe he's a good person even though she knows he's not.
Ruying wanted to believe Antony's lies so bad that she tried to convince herself that killing for him was better than fighting for herself, fighting for freedom for her people. She wanted to live and wanted to help her family and I think a lot of people in her position would find themselves in the same situation as her. "I thought I had to do this for them. For us. For survival. But if I was really doing this for them, I wouldn't fight on the side of our enemy."
I don't know if it was because I went in with the mindset that I couldn't trust Antony, but I didn't believe a word he said the entire novel. Especially after Taohau was never mentioned again I knew that something bad happened. I knew the other should would drop and Ruying would finally see him clearly and be able to shake herself free of him. Nobody should believe this is a colonizer romance after Antony gloats TO HER FACE, "You almost can't blame my people for what we are doing" about the genocide of her own people! She had a very bad visceral reaction to this. Ruying hates Antony she just can't show that to him. Even in Antony's own POV I hated him (there's only one chapter of it) and it didn't endear me to him at all. If anything it made me hate him more because of how he talked about Ruying.
Anyways, this was longer than I anticipated. Overall I truly enjoyed the story. I really liked the magic and the world building. It was like a fantasy world crossed with futuristic one. I'm interested how Rome managed to dimension hop(??) and if that will be explained in the other installments. I'm also curious to see if this mysterious third younger brother will make an appearance in the story. I wanted to see more of Meiya but what we got of her was brilliant. The angry, younger sibling (who will probably not make it until the end of the series judging on a few factors) who wants to save the world is always a fun trope! I also truly think Ruying's real love interest will make an appearance in the second novel. (It's either going to be The Phantom or Baihu himself.) I think the next novel will show more of Ruying trying to break free from Anotony and trying to help her people and I can't wait!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Child death, Classism, Violence, Gaslighting, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, Gun violence, Xenophobia, Sexism, Addiction, Racism, Drug abuse, Drug use, Torture, Toxic relationship, Kidnapping, Genocide, Grief, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, War, Misogyny, and Murder
mindsplinters's review
challenging
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
Thanks to NetGalley and Ballantine for an Advanced Reader Copy - pub date 4/16/2024. Just going to get it out of the way here - This is one of the prettiest darn covers I have seen in a long time. It is absolutely breath-taking. Now for the story... Heroes die, cowards live. It's one heck of a power statement to build a story on and to set in front of a character. For one thing, it drives home that this is not going to be a standard Hero's Journey and you can expect a lot of grey shades. The core of this book, of the story Chang offers, is not an easy or even a palatable one at times and, for that, it is strong. Wars (even fantasy wars) are not neat and tidy. Rarely do you have a side that is purely good and one that is purely evil. Fantasy might work like that but not reality and so this book bridges the gap a bit more than most. You have the grit and the grime and the misery, the collaborators and the oppressed and the oppressors.
Even our main character Ruying is a wavering bundle of human wants and needs. Actually, strike that. There is no "even" about it. More than most other characters in the book, Ruying shows the hard choices and compromises that a person might need to make in an oppressed nation. The survival of her sister and grandmother comes first, full stop. She herself is low on the totem pole of People To Protect. In fact, her deeply seated self-value issues put her lower than just about everyone. When your Gift is Death, though, and your mom died giving birth to you and your addict dad blamed you... I suppose it's easy to see how her ego is rock bottom. Equally as easy to see how she can react so well to the slightest bit of respect or praise. (Of course, that does not mean her reaction to a certain someone is HEALTHY.)
The best parts of this book are the descriptions - lush and graphic and powerful - and the growing moral questions and ambiguity. Chang makes it hard to know what the "right path" is and you are right there with Ruying in trying to decide how best to navigate the dangerous world. So many of the choices are no-win, an emotional gut-punch of damned if you do but damned if you don't. Very much like I imagine living in a land under the thumb of another would be.
However, working against these high points, you have a very slow start. Pacing was a weakness of the book, especially in the first half, and I felt like I was constantly revisiting the litany of "Romans are evil and vicious and hateful" and "I am cursed" and such. The second half picks up but then the last 50 pages are a race to the end combined with a sudden science infodump. Very odd.
Two other more personal points. I had to deal with a rather violent dislike/distaste for Ruying's sister but that might be a Me Thing. Also the sudden chapter from Antony's POV was a very odd stylistic choice. After 43 chapters of Ruying's POV, a short 2-3 pages of Antony was more than a little jarring.
All in all, I look forward to reading the second book to see what happens and who betrays who... Because it is definitely going to get worse before it gets better for Ruying. I also am willing to bet that the pacing issues and repetitiveness that interrupted my total enjoyment of this first book will be resolved since the world will be fully fleshed out already.
Even our main character Ruying is a wavering bundle of human wants and needs. Actually, strike that. There is no "even" about it. More than most other characters in the book, Ruying shows the hard choices and compromises that a person might need to make in an oppressed nation. The survival of her sister and grandmother comes first, full stop. She herself is low on the totem pole of People To Protect. In fact, her deeply seated self-value issues put her lower than just about everyone. When your Gift is Death, though, and your mom died giving birth to you and your addict dad blamed you... I suppose it's easy to see how her ego is rock bottom. Equally as easy to see how she can react so well to the slightest bit of respect or praise. (Of course, that does not mean her reaction to a certain someone is HEALTHY.)
The best parts of this book are the descriptions - lush and graphic and powerful - and the growing moral questions and ambiguity. Chang makes it hard to know what the "right path" is and you are right there with Ruying in trying to decide how best to navigate the dangerous world. So many of the choices are no-win, an emotional gut-punch of damned if you do but damned if you don't. Very much like I imagine living in a land under the thumb of another would be.
However, working against these high points, you have a very slow start. Pacing was a weakness of the book, especially in the first half, and I felt like I was constantly revisiting the litany of "Romans are evil and vicious and hateful" and "I am cursed" and such. The second half picks up but then the last 50 pages are a race to the end combined with a sudden science infodump. Very odd.
Two other more personal points. I had to deal with a rather violent dislike/distaste for Ruying's sister but that might be a Me Thing. Also the sudden chapter from Antony's POV was a very odd stylistic choice. After 43 chapters of Ruying's POV, a short 2-3 pages of Antony was more than a little jarring.
All in all, I look forward to reading the second book to see what happens and who betrays who... Because it is definitely going to get worse before it gets better for Ruying. I also am willing to bet that the pacing issues and repetitiveness that interrupted my total enjoyment of this first book will be resolved since the world will be fully fleshed out already.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Drug abuse, Xenophobia, Torture, and Violence
elizajaquays's review
dark
slow-paced
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
There’s been a lot of controversy surrounding this book calling it a colonizer romance and as a white woman, it is not my place to wade into that.
What I will say is that while the book’s cover copy is everything that I should love, the book itself fell flat for me. I didn’t dislike it at any point and I would classify it as a very solid 3 star read, but it also didn’t make me fall in love with any part of it.
I always love a magic system that has consequences for using it, and the magic in To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods was no exception. This was the strongest part of the book and is what kept me coming back for more.
I think my biggest struggle with this was how much information was spoon fed to me. It opens with a massive lore and back story dump with tiny bits of character and plot sprinkled into the first chapter. And even was we got into the story, there were multiple instances of jumping to the past to expand on pivotal lore in ways that jolted me from the story. I’m assuming this was an intentional stylistic choice, but it wasn’t one that worked for me. Other people may really enjoy it!
The second half of the book felt very disjointed from the first. I would have liked to spend more time with Ruying dealing with the fallout of the choice she made to serve the prince or not instead of having a six month time skip. Overall the pacing was weird, dragged in some places with exposition and backstory and then a mad dash of plot, action, and revelations through the last 15%.
The characters felt very one-dimensional, and a lot of that is because it felt like I couldn’t go more than a couple of pages without being reminded about how terrible they were. Ruying’s only personality trait was that she wanted to protect her sister and grandmother. And don’t get me wrong, I love a self-sacrificing hero, but I like them to bring more to the table. And Antony wasn’t much better. I think we were supposed to get lulled into complacency that he wasn’t really all that bad of a guy so that the reveal at the end that he’s actually been a monster this whole time would hit harder, but there was never a moment where I believed him to be anything other than awful, because Ruying constantly told us of how terrible he was as she justified why he wasn’t actually all that bad. I think if there’s been a bit more trust in the reader to pick up that he was intentionally supposed to be a terrible person, it would have worked a lot better.
Overall, I was underwhelmed by a book that was one of my most anticipated reads of the year. I’m still planning to pick up the sequel to see where the story continues, but it’s not one I’ll likely rush to get to.
Thank you to NetGalley and Del Rey for the ARC, all thoughts are my own.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Torture, Emotional abuse, Death, Xenophobia, Colonisation, Murder, Violence, and Physical abuse
mythian's review
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
This book takes place in an alternate universe where some people are born with magic. Their Chinese-inspired world has been invaded and essentially conquered by Romans from another realm, masters of science and military warfare. The protagonist struggles with her powers of death and the oppression from the Romans, but is recruited by the Roman Prince Antony to be his assassin.
I was immediately hooked by the title and was interested in reading a Manchurian-inspired fantasy. The book started out strong, with good description of the harsh realities of colonization from the Roman Empire. The writing is very flowery. I liked how the author inserted sayings in Chinese text that the characters would use to describe a situation. The book was about 300 pages and read more like YA, so there could be crossover appeal. It does cover dark subjects like addiction, slavery, genocide, and torture. It's a quick read; I read the book in two sittings.
The author set up how bad things are under Roman occupation, that once we started getting to know Prince Antony and see Ruying working for him, the reader has no inclination to trust him and it seems dubious that Ruying would believe anything he tells her. She seems stupid for falling for his lies. The writing is a bit more "romantasy" than perhaps intended; a good portion of the book is Ruying thinking about how hot the prince is. Ruying's friends and family are only brought in for dramatic tension; I didn't feel a great bond between them even though Ruying is working to keep them safe throughout the book. There is a time-jump about halfway through the book that I wish had been fleshed out more. We went straight from Antony making Ruying murder people against her will to them cuddling after each assassination within pages.
If you are into dark romance, this book might be for you because the Romans do some terrible things and it is a colonizer romance, although it is unknown if they will end up together by the end of the series.
Disclaimer: I received a free advanced reader copy of this book from NetGalley.
I was immediately hooked by the title and was interested in reading a Manchurian-inspired fantasy. The book started out strong, with good description of the harsh realities of colonization from the Roman Empire. The writing is very flowery. I liked how the author inserted sayings in Chinese text that the characters would use to describe a situation. The book was about 300 pages and read more like YA, so there could be crossover appeal. It does cover dark subjects like addiction, slavery, genocide, and torture. It's a quick read; I read the book in two sittings.
The author set up how bad things are under Roman occupation, that once we started getting to know Prince Antony and see Ruying working for him, the reader has no inclination to trust him and it seems dubious that Ruying would believe anything he tells her. She seems stupid for falling for his lies. The writing is a bit more "romantasy" than perhaps intended; a good portion of the book is Ruying thinking about how hot the prince is. Ruying's friends and family are only brought in for dramatic tension; I didn't feel a great bond between them even though Ruying is working to keep them safe throughout the book. There is a time-jump about halfway through the book that I wish had been fleshed out more. We went straight from Antony making Ruying murder people against her will to them cuddling after each assassination within pages.
If you are into dark romance, this book might be for you because the Romans do some terrible things and it is a colonizer romance, although it is unknown if they will end up together by the end of the series.
Disclaimer: I received a free advanced reader copy of this book from NetGalley.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Xenophobia, Drug abuse, War, Torture, and Murder
Moderate: Racism
Minor: Death of parent