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pm_me_book_recs's review against another edition
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
elizajaquays's review against another edition
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
theritareads's review against another edition
dark
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? It's complicated
I really wanted to like this book. The premise sounds intriguing, but, unfortunately, there were a few key flaws that I could not overlook.
First, the writing: Much of the point about Ruying’s purpose for helping the Roman prince was repeated ad nauseum, to the point where it not only slowed down the pacing of the book but also eliminated room to explore plot elements that would have been useful. Other aspects, such as how hot Ruying found Antony and how much she trusted him, were also redundant.
Second, the missing plot elements: 1) The world building is missing a lot of key elements, such as the backstory of the magic, how/why their gods were needed to fight to the Qin Dynasty, and more. We get pieces of this, but there are still many unanswered questions. 2) We skip over 6 months of time between when Ruying is captured and when she is knee deep in working for Antony. In that time, the two have formed a bond. Clearly, something changed in those 6 months that led Ruying to trust Antony and buy into his plan. But because we never see how that bond develops or why she becomes convinced of the plan, it’s really hard to understand their relationship.
Third, their relationship: As other reviewers have noted, it is really hard to understand how the two are supposedly in love. Ruying is clearly an unreliable narrator, but without those missing 6 months, it’s hard to understand why she came to trust Antony, let alone started to fall in love with him. Because of that, what we get suggests that it’s more lust than love. It also makes it incredibly difficult to understand how Ruying goes from hating all Romans (rightfully so as the colonizers who are destroying her home and people) to suddenly trusting and falling in love with a prince (literally) of the colonizers. And that’s not even getting into the basics why a colonizer love story is problematic. What’s even more frustrating is this love story wasn’t needed. With a bit more development in the missing 6 months, we could have been given more reason why Ruying started to buy into Antony’s plan and thus why she started to trust him. That alone would have been enough for the reveal at the end of the book to hit just as hard (if not more so) and explain why she went back to hating Antony. Indeed, the sudden love for a colonizer makes it both unsettling and unbelievable. It also made it that much more obvious that a giant betrayal would be revealed.
What’s frustrating is there are elements of a good book here. I saw another reviewer say they wish the book had focused on Baihu and I agree. Or at least, on Baihu’s angle. Instead of a romance, we could have gotten a story of Ruying pretending to trust Antony as a way of working towards undermining his plans. Then the romance as a ploy would have made more sense. The betrayal revealed at the end would have added more fuel to her fire and, revealing her plan to Baihu, would have set up some interesting possibilities for the next book. Sadly, that’s not what we got and I’m not even interested in finding out what happens next.
First, the writing: Much of the point about Ruying’s purpose for helping the Roman prince was repeated ad nauseum, to the point where it not only slowed down the pacing of the book but also eliminated room to explore plot elements that would have been useful. Other aspects, such as how hot Ruying found Antony and how much she trusted him, were also redundant.
Second, the missing plot elements: 1) The world building is missing a lot of key elements, such as the backstory of the magic, how/why their gods were needed to fight to the Qin Dynasty, and more. We get pieces of this, but there are still many unanswered questions. 2) We skip over 6 months of time between when Ruying is captured and when she is knee deep in working for Antony. In that time, the two have formed a bond. Clearly, something changed in those 6 months that led Ruying to trust Antony and buy into his plan. But because we never see how that bond develops or why she becomes convinced of the plan, it’s really hard to understand their relationship.
Third, their relationship: As other reviewers have noted, it is really hard to understand how the two are supposedly in love. Ruying is clearly an unreliable narrator, but without those missing 6 months, it’s hard to understand why she came to trust Antony, let alone started to fall in love with him. Because of that, what we get suggests that it’s more lust than love. It also makes it incredibly difficult to understand how Ruying goes from hating all Romans (rightfully so as the colonizers who are destroying her home and people) to suddenly trusting and falling in love with a prince (literally) of the colonizers. And that’s not even getting into the basics why a colonizer love story is problematic. What’s even more frustrating is this love story wasn’t needed. With a bit more development in the missing 6 months, we could have been given more reason why Ruying started to buy into Antony’s plan and thus why she started to trust him. That alone would have been enough for the reveal at the end of the book to hit just as hard (if not more so) and explain why she went back to hating Antony. Indeed, the sudden love for a colonizer makes it both unsettling and unbelievable. It also made it that much more obvious that a giant betrayal would be revealed.
What’s frustrating is there are elements of a good book here. I saw another reviewer say they wish the book had focused on Baihu and I agree. Or at least, on Baihu’s angle. Instead of a romance, we could have gotten a story of Ruying pretending to trust Antony as a way of working towards undermining his plans. Then the romance as a ploy would have made more sense. The betrayal revealed at the end would have added more fuel to her fire and, revealing her plan to Baihu, would have set up some interesting possibilities for the next book. Sadly, that’s not what we got and I’m not even interested in finding out what happens next.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gaslighting, Colonisation, Drug use, and Toxic relationship
Moderate: Murder, War, and Violence
burnedoutbookdragon's review against another edition
dark
tense
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
Genre: fantasy
Diversity: Asian representation
This was one of the books I was most excited to read, however, I was very disappointed. The cover is gorgeous and the author's note, in the beginning, explaining her inspiration for the book was compelling and made me excited for the book. I REALLY, REALLY, REALLY wanted to like this book.
What I did love about the book was the magic system and the conflict is based off other civilization from another world through a portal. The writing was descriptive and beautiful.
What fell flat for me was:
- the colonial civilization was called Rome but they were modern with technology and clothing. Everything else is made up in the book with inspirations to Chinese civilizations or modern life. This may have been intentional for the author, so the reader can contextualize something familiar. It just didn't work for me.
- The FMC Ruying is not believable and unlikeable. I can chalk it up to being an unreliable narrator but I don't think it fits. Some of her actions and thought processes were inconsistent. For example, she was taught many things to survive and be politically savvy, but none of that shows. With all the references to what she was taught by her grandmother, I expected some Margaery Tyrell behavior and we did not get that.
- There were many repetitive phrases and thoughts by Ruying throughout the book that felt like the author was beating a dead horse. This might be something this debut author will work out as she grows in her writing.
This book is part of a series. I like the premise of the book and I think the themes of the story are important to share. I hope the author finds her stride in the rest of the books of this series. I wouldn't recommend this book as I found this wasn't an enjoyable read. If it wasn't a debut author, I would have DNF'd it. I pushed through hoping the climax and ending would be redeeming.
Thank you to NetGalley and Random House - Ballantine for providing me with an eARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.
Diversity: Asian representation
This was one of the books I was most excited to read, however, I was very disappointed. The cover is gorgeous and the author's note, in the beginning, explaining her inspiration for the book was compelling and made me excited for the book. I REALLY, REALLY, REALLY wanted to like this book.
What I did love about the book was the magic system and the conflict is based off other civilization from another world through a portal. The writing was descriptive and beautiful.
What fell flat for me was:
- the colonial civilization was called Rome but they were modern with technology and clothing. Everything else is made up in the book with inspirations to Chinese civilizations or modern life. This may have been intentional for the author, so the reader can contextualize something familiar. It just didn't work for me.
- The FMC Ruying is not believable and unlikeable. I can chalk it up to being an unreliable narrator but I don't think it fits. Some of her actions and thought processes were inconsistent. For example, she was taught many things to survive and be politically savvy, but none of that shows. With all the references to what she was taught by her grandmother, I expected some Margaery Tyrell behavior and we did not get that.
- There were many repetitive phrases and thoughts by Ruying throughout the book that felt like the author was beating a dead horse. This might be something this debut author will work out as she grows in her writing.
This book is part of a series. I like the premise of the book and I think the themes of the story are important to share. I hope the author finds her stride in the rest of the books of this series. I wouldn't recommend this book as I found this wasn't an enjoyable read. If it wasn't a debut author, I would have DNF'd it. I pushed through hoping the climax and ending would be redeeming.
Thank you to NetGalley and Random House - Ballantine for providing me with an eARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Death, Colonisation, and Murder
devynreadsnovels's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Physical abuse, Child abuse, Child death, Gore, Murder, Addiction, Death of parent, Genocide, Kidnapping, Xenophobia, Classism, Death, Drug abuse, Racism, Sexism, Slavery, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Grief, Gun violence, Torture, Toxic relationship, War, Pandemic/Epidemic, Blood, Colonisation, Confinement, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, and Violence
Minor: Sexual violence, Racial slurs, Misogyny, and Suicidal thoughts
nerdybookqueen's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
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
3.5
I received a digital copy of this book from netgalley in exchange for a review
I requested this one because the world sounded very interesting, and I was curious about the protag, Ruying. I love stories of badass women finding their worth and being amazing. And I did get that, though it took a bit longer than I personally would've liked, but then again, it is a series, so I don't want to judge it on that when there's at least one more book to flesh out the tale.
I found the world very interesting, and the magic system as well. I would love to learn more about how the magic works, and if possible see more stories like the myth Ruying tells about how her people have their powers.
The "romance," however, was questionable, and put me off a bit from the story. Not only was it rather clunky and awkward, the pairing was just a bit...uncomfortable. I enjoy a good enemies to lovers but I'm not sure "man who's the prince of the country that colonized mine" is a great pairing. With the ending, I'm hoping this relationship is not the endgame, and that the clunkiness and uncomfortable parts were meant to read that way, as to me, it really didn't read as a romance at all, and I mostly got the impression it was meant to be from the book description and things the characters said.
I'm looking forward to the next book, and did enjoy my time reading this one. I would especially love seeing her with her sister, I really like a good(or sad) sister dynamic.
I requested this one because the world sounded very interesting, and I was curious about the protag, Ruying. I love stories of badass women finding their worth and being amazing. And I did get that, though it took a bit longer than I personally would've liked, but then again, it is a series, so I don't want to judge it on that when there's at least one more book to flesh out the tale.
I found the world very interesting, and the magic system as well. I would love to learn more about how the magic works, and if possible see more stories like the myth Ruying tells about how her people have their powers.
The "romance," however, was questionable, and put me off a bit from the story. Not only was it rather clunky and awkward, the pairing was just a bit...uncomfortable. I enjoy a good enemies to lovers but I'm not sure "man who's the prince of the country that colonized mine" is a great pairing. With the ending, I'm hoping this relationship is not the endgame, and that the clunkiness and uncomfortable parts were meant to read that way, as to me, it really didn't read as a romance at all, and I mostly got the impression it was meant to be from the book description and things the characters said.
I'm looking forward to the next book, and did enjoy my time reading this one. I would especially love seeing her with her sister, I really like a good(or sad) sister dynamic.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Drug abuse, Violence, Addiction, Gaslighting, Racism, Colonisation, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, and Murder
Moderate: Drug use, War, and Torture
Minor: Slavery, Sexism, Misogyny, and Medical content
corabookworm's review against another edition
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
e-ARC provided by Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
I’m going to be honest, I have very conflicted feelings about this book. On one hand, it’s a debut novel, so I’m inclined to give it some grace. The plot was interesting, with intriguing political schemes and mysteries twisted around the main conflict. I only wish we could’ve seen the main character and her magic in action more. (She murders so many people? But all of it’s off-page? What?) There were also some super interesting concepts that were only hinted at, like bits of mythology and the details of their magic, that were left as loose ends, hopefully for the sequel.
The writing also had a lot of potential. I wasn’t a huge fan of the style–there was a lot of info-dumping, repetition, and internal-monologuing, all in a bit of an overdramatic voice–but given it’s a debut, I’m not too upset about it! I particularly liked Chang’s use of metaphors and descriptions in weaving her world and its magic. (Which I also have mixed feelings about.)
The writing also had a lot of potential. I wasn’t a huge fan of the style–there was a lot of info-dumping, repetition, and internal-monologuing, all in a bit of an overdramatic voice–but given it’s a debut, I’m not too upset about it! I particularly liked Chang’s use of metaphors and descriptions in weaving her world and its magic. (Which I also have mixed feelings about.)
The world of Pangu was super cool and had a really interesting magic system! I’m a sucker for magic based around some kind of element/theme like wind, fire, healing, or, in Ruying’s case, death, and the Asian-inspired mythology and world was awesome. But the invading world? Rome? That’s where she lost me. These places are different “worlds” (planets?) and I’m not sure if Rome is supposed to be Earth? Or some made up place? It feels like Earth? But…an alternate version of Earth? And they lean into the Roman theme (mostly with mythology and names) while having *incredibly* advanced technology, which was just disorienting? I don’t know, the explanations there just felt lacking, and I’d love to see it expanded upon in book 2!
Finally, like many other readers, the romance just didn’t sit right with me. (Mild spoilers ahead?) The author has said her intention was to make Ruying an unreliable narrator, and if this WAS the intention, it was done pretty well. The main character comes off frustratingly naive because of it. Stockholm syndrome to the extreme. The real problem is that this book was STILL marketed as a romance. By the author. Like if you’re genuinely recognizing that it’s an abusive and unhealthy relationship (which it is), it feels very weird to call it “enemies to lovers” as part of your marketing scheme? Idk.
Overall, this book had a lot of potential! It suffers from some common debut novel and YA book flaws, but it’s pretty decent otherwise. I’m not sure if I’m interested enough to continue the series, especially if the author continues with the “love-triangle”, but we’ll see!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Toxic relationship, Death, Colonisation, and Xenophobia
Moderate: Blood, Violence, Murder, Confinement, and War
Minor: Genocide, Vomit, Torture, and Child death
queergoth_reads's review against another edition
dark
emotional
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? Yes
2.5
To be completely honest I think I just didn't get on with the writing style. It felt like important things were glossed over while small details were expanded on.
Not wanting to touch on the romance too much because a lot of other readers have talked about it a lot better than i can but i will say I didn't like the relationship between Ruying and Anthony. The power dynamic made their interactions quite uncomfortable. While that is likely the point given how the whole story progresses it was hard to read in a story I was already struggling with.
I also thing it just needed to decide whether it wanted to be a dark story or not. It felt like it was straddling a line where it wanted morally grey characters but was forced to make them the good guys so i felt like some of the moral dilemma was not explored as fully as it could have been, which kind of left the characters just looking more evil.
I wanted to enjoy this more as I was really looking forward to it but it didn't quite hit for me.
Not wanting to touch on the romance too much because a lot of other readers have talked about it a lot better than i can but i will say I didn't like the relationship between Ruying and Anthony. The power dynamic made their interactions quite uncomfortable. While that is likely the point given how the whole story progresses it was hard to read in a story I was already struggling with.
I also thing it just needed to decide whether it wanted to be a dark story or not. It felt like it was straddling a line where it wanted morally grey characters but was forced to make them the good guys so i felt like some of the moral dilemma was not explored as fully as it could have been, which kind of left the characters just looking more evil.
I wanted to enjoy this more as I was really looking forward to it but it didn't quite hit for me.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Genocide, Colonisation, and Murder
sarrie's review against another edition
dark
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
1.0
TL;DR: I did not enjoy this. From the choppy, redundant writing to the VERY suspicious romance. This was not well thought out or edited.
Longer TL;DR with theory: I have a theory. This either initially meant to be a Shatter Me style story where in fact our Roman Prince WAS the love interest and he’s meant to truly be good. This is absolutely disgusting as the things he did were inhuman, cruel, and gross. Not to mention the author herself drew a parallel between the Romans and Unit 731 from WWII. I genuinely hope this is NOT the case, but I suspect it might have been. The other part of my theory/my prediction for this based on the swerve in marketing from enemies-to-lover to childhood-friends-to-lovers is that the second book in this series is abruptly going to turn to her romancing her ‘traitor’ of a best friend from childhood. This could be setup as a ACOTAR style change in romance or could be pitched as ‘this was meant to be a love triangle’. Either way, this is a mess.
I’m sincerely hoping my year has been frontloaded with 1 and 2 star books because this is getting out of hand. I had very high hopes for To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods but sadly they were dashed on the rocky shores of ‘toxic romance’ and ‘nothing but angry’.
This one has a fairly standard story, especially for this type of Young Adult/New Adult leaning Fantasy with romance. Our main character Ruying can kill people, her power over death allows her to pull the life force from someone and kill them. She is quietly living her life, attempting to not use her power while her people and country are colonized and persecuted by the Romans. The Romans (exactly who they sound like, just more technologically advanced) have also brought Opian (Opium) and use it to control the masses. Ruying spends the first 35-45% of the book telling us over and over how terrible and cruel the Romans are. Which yes, I agree with. However we get only brief moments of worldbuilding, of any character besides Ruying has no more depth than a sheet of paper and absolutely nothing else besides her rage marks her out as different.
After the 45% mark she is given a job by a Roman prince and the book seemingly becomes an Enemies-to-Lovers romance. He is the prince of the Romans, the people who are subjugating her own and he is blackmailing her into working for him - and there is a romance between them. I was very uncomfortable here, but it got worse as the ‘twist’ at the end showed him to be even worse and yet she was genuinely just upset that he lied to her. In fact she was told, no less than three times, what he was doing but she chose to ignore it. I’m not going to specify but you can find it easily by searching up Unit 731 which the book itself notes as inspiration.
While this is happening the writing itself is dragging us down. Choppy, repetitive with far too much of the same thing said over and over in every possible way. I did not enjoy the writing, and I especially did not enjoy the VERY uncomfortable romance. And I was again, extremely uncomfortable here. Especially when taken in reflection on the author’s ‘inspiration’ in Unit 731 and the very real war crimes and heinous acts inflicted on the real life victims of their crimes.
1 out of 5 stars
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Colonisation, War, Child abuse, Sexism, Xenophobia, and Sexual harassment