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hekate24 's review for:
To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods
by Molly X. Chang
1.5 stars I’m rounding up because there’s some setup that means the next book might have potential.
Note: I’ve decided to challenge myself and make my way through books that have been subject to a lot of discourse and controversy and review bombing. Lately, I’ve been wanting to take these works at face value and judge them on their own merit, not just received wisdom. Hence this bookshelf!
Type of controversy: How DARE you write this topic?
So, you know that phrase “I wanted to like this book?” It’s kind of a pet peeve of mine. But in this case it sure fits because boy did I want to like this book! The premise- exploring the worst of Japanese war crimes in China through fantasy world expys- is a hard sell. But I tend towards being a free speech absolutist when it comes to fiction, and I think fiction can be a great vehicle, actually, for exploring real world horrors. And regardless of what I think about the prose quality, the author does come from Harbin and does write movingly in the intro about her grandfather’s stories about the occupation. The potential was there. It was always bound to be offputting to some readers but I don’t think the author should be banned or review bombed for the attempt.
Unfortunately, the actual plot and prose made for a muddled book that does (what I believe to be) its intended message no favors. This is a huge problem when the premise of your novel is so high stakes (in terms of in world issues and real world reception.)
I’m gonna make a list of why this book just doesn’t work out for me:
1. Clunky prose.
The first two chapters are essentially info dumping about the world we are in. And to add insult to injury it’s repetitive, too. We hit the same few beats over and over again. The Romans are evil. The citizen of Er-Lang are desperate (and sometimes decadent.) The main character is afraid and judgmental and worries about her family. This pattern will hold for the rest of the book. We hit upon these exact ideas again and again. I was able to read this book really fast because I could tell when we were about to get hit with paragraphs of the same exact ideas we’d seen before. It takes up time
That could be spent on character establishing dialogue or characters making decisions rather than navel gazing. Which brings me to…
2. Aimless characters
Either characters change motivation and personality based on what the plot beats require. Or they repeat the exact same dialogue over and over again (MEIYA….)
Ruying makes a show of being fiery and defiant but things pretty much just happen to her and she rarely makes decisions of any consequence. She finally starts acting like a protagonist towards the end which is why I’m curious about the second book. But for the most part she exerts no agency or will of her own. I don’t mean she should be going all Mad Max on the Romans, but… like, okay, here’s an example: she eventually moves into Antony’s manor and is given free rein mostly. We could have gotten some scenes of her exploring the place, trying to eavesdrop and learn more about the guy who basically owns her, etc. She even gets a badge at one point that makes it so people have to be polite to her in the Roman quarters. We couldn’t even get a scene with her going to one of the sterile, boring cafes and trying to learn more about the enemy via people watching? Or what about going to a shrine to Nüwa and trying to remain in touch with her community and roots?
Agency doesn’t have to mean action sequences. It can just mean actions that show you still are invested in the world around you. We hear a lot about how she loves her country and wants to protect it. How much she wants to stay alive and fight for her family. But we’re rarely allowed to see her do anything in action. It all gets skipped over and/or stated outright.
Most of the action happens during interactions between her and Antony (and pretty much all her acts of agency involve him.) I think this is why some people read this as a colonizer/colonized romance being played straight. The author says- and I believe her- that this is going to be a story about Ruying coming into her own and NOT falling for the dude’s manipulations. But this can get drowned out when there’s so much weight placed on romantic interactions between the two.
Basically, rhe book’s priorities are in conflict with its thesis.
3. Training montages
I don’t know what else to call them. Ruying basically becomes a magical assassin under duress and we get an “interlude” with her just reciting what she did for half a year and how sad it makes her feel and how Antony is always there to manipulate- I mean- comfort her. THIS would have been the perfect place to build up her relationship with Antony.
For this premise to work the reader needs to be lulled into a false sense of security when it comes to their relationship. You know how in Midsommar the main character seemingly finds catharsis and community in white supremacist bloodthirsty cult and how in spite of all that it can be easy to feel happy for her when she’s crowned may queen and people actually let her cry? We needed that kind of vibe with Ruying and Antony. And the moment for that was when he was breaking her down to make her into his tool.
But no let’s fast forward right past the origins of this toxic relationship and just expect the reader to have buy in.
4. Unconvincing relationships
Ok I’ve already rambled about the romantic relationship. So let’s talk about the family relationship, aka the thing that’s driving the character to make such extreme decisions. We only see her interact with her grandmother once.
And oh my god her relationship with her sister is a disaster. Their fighting isn’t a problem. It’s that Meiya is so goddamn one dimensional when she picks fights that I don’t see her as a person. I see her as another mechanism for Ruying’s self loathing.Like. Okay. Ruying is disappeared by the colonizers, and there are rumors everywhere that the magic users like her are being experimented on and killed. Eventually Ruying and Meiya cross paths and just…….. pretty much any sibling would First react like “oh my god you’re alive??? Holy fuck thank god???” It was a great moment to show us how these two got along so well in the Before Times (which Ruying keeps swearing existed.) but instead Meiya just calls her a complacent traitor yet again and flounces. It’s fine if they part on bad terms in their encounter but please. Just. Please. Throw us a bone here. Give us a glimpse of what it was like when they liked each other?
Baihu is pretty much the only person with depth and he’s off screen most of the book.
5. Muddled world building
Holy fuck.
Okay, so, in this book Ancient Rome takes the place of Japan. Actually I can only talk about this through spoilers.
But yeah the dimension hopping sort of takes a while to become fully clear iirc. I spent large portions of the book like “why do the Asian countries get to have fantasy counterpart names? Why are the Romans just … Romans???” It was hideously distracting, especially before I full got what was going on. I wasn’t against the idea of a fantasy Rome existing into the twentieth century and beefing with fantasy China, but I kept being like “why can’t you rename it idk Byzantia or something??”
And if you’re going to make the occupiers Roman (or Roman cosplayers) then make them Roman! Don’t give us these bland WASP types. Give us some modern takes on togas or the weird tunics of late stage western Rome or an updated version of the bling of Constantinople. Antony kinda has the background of Justinian. Why can’t he have some of Justinian’s Looks if you’re going to give him a gun and a helicopter. Let’s get wacky with it if we’re going to have some Civilization 6 type vibes here
But yeah. Nitpicking aside I just … never warmed to the idea of replacing Japan with an expy of another nation. I hardly know what to say about this aspect, it just feels in really poor taste to me. And that will have to suffice.
Also… a Roman called Dawson? Seriously?
Note: I’ve decided to challenge myself and make my way through books that have been subject to a lot of discourse and controversy and review bombing. Lately, I’ve been wanting to take these works at face value and judge them on their own merit, not just received wisdom. Hence this bookshelf!
Type of controversy: How DARE you write this topic?
So, you know that phrase “I wanted to like this book?” It’s kind of a pet peeve of mine. But in this case it sure fits because boy did I want to like this book! The premise- exploring the worst of Japanese war crimes in China through fantasy world expys- is a hard sell. But I tend towards being a free speech absolutist when it comes to fiction, and I think fiction can be a great vehicle, actually, for exploring real world horrors. And regardless of what I think about the prose quality, the author does come from Harbin and does write movingly in the intro about her grandfather’s stories about the occupation. The potential was there. It was always bound to be offputting to some readers but I don’t think the author should be banned or review bombed for the attempt.
Unfortunately, the actual plot and prose made for a muddled book that does (what I believe to be) its intended message no favors. This is a huge problem when the premise of your novel is so high stakes (in terms of in world issues and real world reception.)
I’m gonna make a list of why this book just doesn’t work out for me:
1. Clunky prose.
The first two chapters are essentially info dumping about the world we are in. And to add insult to injury it’s repetitive, too. We hit the same few beats over and over again. The Romans are evil. The citizen of Er-Lang are desperate (and sometimes decadent.) The main character is afraid and judgmental and worries about her family. This pattern will hold for the rest of the book. We hit upon these exact ideas again and again. I was able to read this book really fast because I could tell when we were about to get hit with paragraphs of the same exact ideas we’d seen before. It takes up time
That could be spent on character establishing dialogue or characters making decisions rather than navel gazing. Which brings me to…
2. Aimless characters
Either characters change motivation and personality based on what the plot beats require. Or they repeat the exact same dialogue over and over again (MEIYA….)
Ruying makes a show of being fiery and defiant but things pretty much just happen to her and she rarely makes decisions of any consequence. She finally starts acting like a protagonist towards the end which is why I’m curious about the second book. But for the most part she exerts no agency or will of her own. I don’t mean she should be going all Mad Max on the Romans, but… like, okay, here’s an example: she eventually moves into Antony’s manor and is given free rein mostly. We could have gotten some scenes of her exploring the place, trying to eavesdrop and learn more about the guy who basically owns her, etc. She even gets a badge at one point that makes it so people have to be polite to her in the Roman quarters. We couldn’t even get a scene with her going to one of the sterile, boring cafes and trying to learn more about the enemy via people watching? Or what about going to a shrine to Nüwa and trying to remain in touch with her community and roots?
Agency doesn’t have to mean action sequences. It can just mean actions that show you still are invested in the world around you. We hear a lot about how she loves her country and wants to protect it. How much she wants to stay alive and fight for her family. But we’re rarely allowed to see her do anything in action. It all gets skipped over and/or stated outright.
Most of the action happens during interactions between her and Antony (and pretty much all her acts of agency involve him.) I think this is why some people read this as a colonizer/colonized romance being played straight. The author says- and I believe her- that this is going to be a story about Ruying coming into her own and NOT falling for the dude’s manipulations. But this can get drowned out when there’s so much weight placed on romantic interactions between the two.
Basically, rhe book’s priorities are in conflict with its thesis.
3. Training montages
I don’t know what else to call them. Ruying basically becomes a magical assassin under duress and we get an “interlude” with her just reciting what she did for half a year and how sad it makes her feel and how Antony is always there to manipulate- I mean- comfort her. THIS would have been the perfect place to build up her relationship with Antony.
For this premise to work the reader needs to be lulled into a false sense of security when it comes to their relationship. You know how in Midsommar the main character seemingly finds catharsis and community in white supremacist bloodthirsty cult and how in spite of all that it can be easy to feel happy for her when she’s crowned may queen and people actually let her cry? We needed that kind of vibe with Ruying and Antony. And the moment for that was when he was breaking her down to make her into his tool.
But no let’s fast forward right past the origins of this toxic relationship and just expect the reader to have buy in.
4. Unconvincing relationships
Ok I’ve already rambled about the romantic relationship. So let’s talk about the family relationship, aka the thing that’s driving the character to make such extreme decisions. We only see her interact with her grandmother once.
And oh my god her relationship with her sister is a disaster. Their fighting isn’t a problem. It’s that Meiya is so goddamn one dimensional when she picks fights that I don’t see her as a person. I see her as another mechanism for Ruying’s self loathing.
Baihu is pretty much the only person with depth and he’s off screen most of the book.
5. Muddled world building
Holy fuck.
Okay, so, in this book Ancient Rome takes the place of Japan. Actually I can only talk about this through spoilers.
Spoiler
Well, Ancient Rome going through some inter-dimensional portal. From our world it would seem? But we don’t have Ancient Rome around anymore either!! Maybe the second book will pleasantly surprise me and we’ll find out the Romans are scientists cosplaying as Romans for cryptofascist reasons idkBut yeah the dimension hopping sort of takes a while to become fully clear iirc. I spent large portions of the book like “why do the Asian countries get to have fantasy counterpart names? Why are the Romans just … Romans???” It was hideously distracting, especially before I full got what was going on. I wasn’t against the idea of a fantasy Rome existing into the twentieth century and beefing with fantasy China, but I kept being like “why can’t you rename it idk Byzantia or something??”
And if you’re going to make the occupiers Roman (or Roman cosplayers) then make them Roman! Don’t give us these bland WASP types. Give us some modern takes on togas or the weird tunics of late stage western Rome or an updated version of the bling of Constantinople. Antony kinda has the background of Justinian. Why can’t he have some of Justinian’s Looks if you’re going to give him a gun and a helicopter. Let’s get wacky with it if we’re going to have some Civilization 6 type vibes here
But yeah. Nitpicking aside I just … never warmed to the idea of replacing Japan with an expy of another nation. I hardly know what to say about this aspect, it just feels in really poor taste to me. And that will have to suffice.
Also… a Roman called Dawson? Seriously?