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A review by solastalgic
To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods by Molly X. Chang
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
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? Yes
3.25
Full 45-minute review on YouTube: https://youtu.be/BCXvucXnTQw?si=v0t7aebmPzc4w7-A (ALL the spoilers inside)
One whole star was earned by the very pretty writing style. I love flowery prose; I honestly wish it was even more poetic. I think Molly X. Chang has the potential to develop a spectacular writing style, so long as the instant-gratification publishing industry doesn’t force her to dumb it down.
Genuinely 9.9/10 on the prose.
The 0.25 was for the impact of the emotional scenes which I think Molly wrote very well. Her descriptive and flowery writing style really lends itself well to bringing out an emotional response and I genuinely think there was some serious skill demonstrated in GODS with respect to that.
That leaves about 2 stars for GODS without the elements I liked.
It didn’t feel right to have the villains of GODS be something as much of a non sequitur as the Romans (the Sino-Roman relations weren’t very prominent. The most common forms of interface were indirect through the Indian Ocean trade routes and the Silk Road, and major occupation or even invasion events never took place).
Unit 731, one of the most atrocious crimes against humanity in the history of the world, was perpetrated by the Japanese and covered up by the Americans, and you can assume that most of your readers will be Americans. Molly states in her author’s note that GODS was inspired by the Russian and Japanese invasions of Manchuria, but I don’t personally feel that’s quite enough considering that a huge portion of people doesn’t know about Unit 731 to begin with.
TO GAZE UPON WICKED GODS’ fatal flaw though was Chapter 43.
In this chapter, we get the book’s only Antony POV, and it completely blows out of the water the image that had somewhat unsurely but definitely intentionally been presented to us by Molly thus far of Antony manipulating and abusing Ruying. We discover that Antony has romantic feelings towards Ruying and would supposedly do anything to keep her safe. That he trusts her. That he likes her. This is where my hope withered, unfortunately.
The fatal flaw was the death knell for what was almost excellent—if Antony was presented in the way he would logically and realistically be in a plot such as this, I would’ve easily given GODS a 4.5+. Unfortunately, the fatal flaw that was Chapter 43 undercut a lot of the story for me and I think it was a serious mistake by everyone involved at every step of publication.
Ultimately, as a colonised indigenous minority Asian person myself who read this book specifically to suss out the “coloniser romance” allegations, I went into TO GAZE UPON WICKED GODS with hopes of defending Molly X. Chang. On some level, I could. And I did. But on another level, it simply wasn’t plausible.
I guess I leave GODS as conflicted as I entered it, albeit more enlightened.
One whole star was earned by the very pretty writing style. I love flowery prose; I honestly wish it was even more poetic. I think Molly X. Chang has the potential to develop a spectacular writing style, so long as the instant-gratification publishing industry doesn’t force her to dumb it down.
Genuinely 9.9/10 on the prose.
The 0.25 was for the impact of the emotional scenes which I think Molly wrote very well. Her descriptive and flowery writing style really lends itself well to bringing out an emotional response and I genuinely think there was some serious skill demonstrated in GODS with respect to that.
That leaves about 2 stars for GODS without the elements I liked.
It didn’t feel right to have the villains of GODS be something as much of a non sequitur as the Romans (the Sino-Roman relations weren’t very prominent. The most common forms of interface were indirect through the Indian Ocean trade routes and the Silk Road, and major occupation or even invasion events never took place).
Unit 731, one of the most atrocious crimes against humanity in the history of the world, was perpetrated by the Japanese and covered up by the Americans, and you can assume that most of your readers will be Americans. Molly states in her author’s note that GODS was inspired by the Russian and Japanese invasions of Manchuria, but I don’t personally feel that’s quite enough considering that a huge portion of people doesn’t know about Unit 731 to begin with.
TO GAZE UPON WICKED GODS’ fatal flaw though was Chapter 43.
The fatal flaw was the death knell for what was almost excellent—if Antony was presented in the way he would logically and realistically be in a plot such as this, I would’ve easily given GODS a 4.5+. Unfortunately, the fatal flaw that was Chapter 43 undercut a lot of the story for me and I think it was a serious mistake by everyone involved at every step of publication.
Ultimately, as a colonised indigenous minority Asian person myself who read this book specifically to suss out the “coloniser romance” allegations, I went into TO GAZE UPON WICKED GODS with hopes of defending Molly X. Chang. On some level, I could. And I did. But on another level, it simply wasn’t plausible.
I guess I leave GODS as conflicted as I entered it, albeit more enlightened.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Death, Drug abuse, Genocide, Colonisation
Moderate: Misogyny, Racism, Violence, Police brutality, Death of parent, War