I was unfortunately disappointed with this boom overall, and struggled heavily with finishing my ARC. The story has a very jagged and uneven pace, and whilst things were happening tk Ruying throughout, there wasn’t a real sense of urgency anywhere through the plot. I was about 30% through and it felt like nothing at all had happened. Additionally, the writing felt heavily unedited, with some lines being repeated far too often and some plot points being not expanded upon enough. Oddly enough, I had the inverse issue with the worldbuilding, where I felt like I was being hammered in with the facts of this world with no real depth—there’s a lot of telling her, and almost no showing. This was one of my most anticipated reads of the year, and I’m so disappointed that I did not love it, Keeping my review fairly short, as I know the authors faced a lot of harassment over certain plot points, and I don’t wish to add to that even though my experience with this story was not the best

Thank you Netgalley & Penguin Random House for the e-ARC.

To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods follows Ruying, whose home has been invaded by the Roman Empire and whose 'gift' has been uncovered by the invaders 'enemy' Prince who covets her power leaving Ruying with a decision between whether to watch her world and all she loves disappear or to become the Prince's assassin. Perhaps unsurprisingly this novel is one which leads to an uncomfortable topic and plot device of the devastation of colonialism can have on society, through the eyes of decidedly imperfect characters that leave you questioning whose truth is the truth - who can Ruying truly trust? And is she even a reliable narrator?

If I had one critique it's the use of using Roman's a real historical empire, it somewhat feels jarring to anyone with those familiar with history a the Roman's in this book are quite clearly far from how they are depicted in archaeological remains or written history. Perhaps a fictional empire might have boded better for me, as I kept thinking of historical characters and how the actions in the novel would not have matched what is known about them.

To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods is an Asian inspired fantasy set against an occupation by invaders from a portal in the sky. Ruying is a girl blessed by Death and her ability to kill gains the attention of a foreign prince. She must balance his orders to kill with saving her family and herself.

Ruying is a very honest depiction of someone living under occupation. She doesn't have great ambitions of dying for freedom. Her only goal is to keep her remaining family safe. Based on the marketing I was expecting her to lean more morally grey but I don't think that describes her accurately at all. Ruying is very much a person with morals breaking them to save the ones she loves.

This book was very heavy on the telling which made the writing feel weak. Especially when Ruying was talking about her sister and how their relationship used to be. Despite being told how close they used to be I just couldn't picture it. The writing is definitely the weak point of the book but I found it forgivable since it's a debut.

I know this book is categorised as adult in the US and YA in the UK but I do think it fits very well in the YA age group. The themes all read very typically YA and there was very little any graphic content. I have a personal litmus of 'Would I hand this to the teens I know?' and this answer is absolutely.

TGUWG was compelling to read and pulled me through a slump. While the YA fantasy genre is full of choice, I personally haven't seen anything hitting the same themes. The marketing is a bit misleading and I wouldn't classify it as a romance at all, rather a story of being manipulated against one's own self interest. Content warnings for drug addiction, emotional abuse, parent death (off page), and human experimentation.

Thank you Netgalley and Penguin for the arc!

I enjoyed this book but it did unfortunately take me a little while to get into the flow of the story. I felt at points it was a little forced and I just wasn’t hooked like I usually am.
I did find the authors writing style a little inconsistent in places throughout the book with my one little peeve being that I found the monologuing a little too much.
Overall this was an interesting read and I was glad that I pushed through and finished it.

Thank you to Netgalley, the Author and the Publisher for an eARC copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

I just am not here for a book that an oppressor romance it feels so icky and gross so I won't be picking up anything from this author

This is a difficult review to leave. There have been many controversies surrounding this so i dont want to leave a negative review but sadly i really struggled with this.
It felt unedited, like it needed another round before publishing. The sentence structure and stylistic choices made in the writing made reading this incredibly difficult . The world building was somehow sparse, but also info-dumping at the same time. The same for the plot, it felt we got big pages of just info that just didnt really flow. I could see what this book was trying to be but it just missed that mark.
The advertising for this book also didnt help it, as i, like many people, went in expecting something different than we got.
Im not sure how i feel about the relationship developing between the main character and her colonizer. Even a friendship given the circumstances seems, an unusual choice and made me quite uncomfortable to read, but i understand the justification comes later in the story for what the author was trying to get across (though this concept was definitely not highlighted enough).
Overall a difficult read i didnt not enjoy for many reasons. There was also quite the level of repetition throughout that wasnt needed and didnt add to the story at all. Sadly a miss for me.

This book was so dark. It was just what I was in the mood for. Seeing Ruying doing terrible things and betraying her people and the way she was justifying it to herself. The way she was being manipulated by Antony the whole time. It was enthralling.

I hesitate to call it romance, but the relationship between Antony and Ruying was interesting. I had seen the author’s post about it beforehand, so I went into it knowing that it was meant to be dark and unhealthy, so I don’t know how I would have reacted if I’d gone into it blind. I do think the author’s intention for this relationship was made very clear in the last 10% of the book, so I’m really looking forward to how it progresses in the next book.

The setting was really interesting. I loved the combination of the historical magic based Er- Lang and the more modern science based Romans invading it. It was interesting to see that clash of cultures. Also the environmental concerns of the Romans was a good way to draw that issue into the book and show the selfishness of the Roman invaders. The way they had destroyed their world and were now trying to take over a whole new world to destroy.

I just think this was a really good well thought out book.

Thank you Netgalley and Publishers

I thought To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods was written well, the pacing started of slow but I felt it picked up once I got into the storyline.
I found the history aspect with the East Asian and Roman was an interesting concept and the world building with the in depth descriptions built the book up really well.
The storyline progressed well and I enjoyed the direction it went.

Thank you to Penguin Random House and NetGalley for providing an eARC to review!

I don't usually review controversial books and authors because there's so much to cover and I don't want to bring information to the table without proof. This time I really wanted to know if this book is as bad as the reviews indicate, but in hindsight maybe I shouldn't have. Okay, buckle up, let's touch the touchy subjects in another long-ass review.


First and foremost, the marketing
This book was initially marketed as enemies-to-lovers. That's the biggest trope of the moment, so usually we as the bookish community take it as a good thing to have in a book...

...but not when one of them is a colonizer, oppressor, captor. Please. It's common sense.

My theory (and what I hope to be true) is that the author was pressured into this. Whether it was by the publisher, editor, or alpha readers, I really hope that this is the case. Either way, there is no excuse to have this character as a love interest even in the earliest draft of a book.

I see now that the marketing of this book changed to friends-to-lovers. That's another potential love interest in To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods (and at first I thought this is the only love interest) but there's no attempt from either of them to form something more than the distant, cold, strictly-business relationship that they have in the beginning of the book.

I guess the plan was to keep both as potential love interests, so the author would be covered if there was backlash from the readers about the whole colonizer romance thing; which is wrong, because that means this possibility was taken into account and they still decided it's a good idea to publish it like this. Oh boy.


The colonizer MC and his villain origin story
Probably the one thing that bothered me the most while reading this book is everything about the colonizer MC, Antony. I'll start with the points that are not really spoilers, and then I'll move on to the spoiler parts.

If you've ever had a friend who was in a toxic relationship, you already know what you might feel while reading this book. I had a friend who fell for a hot guy, but that guy was such a manipulator and a liar; that was extremely obvious for me and her other friends, but she was blind to it because he kept telling her what she wanted to hear to keep her coming back to him. Eventually, me and all her other friends simply gave up. She was willing to defend him and his actions even when we had proof of his bullshit, and there's not much you can do when someone simply doesn't want to be helped and won't listen to anyone who says they're wrong.

That's our FMC Ruying here. Her sister, her childhood friend, the Phantom people, literally everyone who is not a Roman tries to tell her that this guy is horrible and a monster. "But he has green eyes and he told me he wants peace!" You get the point.

Spoiler alert! (also for Shadow & Bone because I had to compare villains)
I keep comparing this villain to the Darkling, and for good reason. The Darkling was this monster who killed people for sports (also family) and he used and manipulated everyone around him to get what he wants, including the girl who blindly fell for him. So it's pretty much the same situation, right?

Nope. The Darkling's backstory was very good. It didn't justify his crimes, but it helped us understand why he became the person he was later in life. To me at least, it made sense. And I'm pretty sure I wasn't the only one who understood and even sort of empathized with him.

For Antony, the Roman prince who isn't even related to the royal family, the backstory is just him being evil since he was a kid. I forgot to pull actual quotes, but it was something along the lines of "I always knew I wanted to be rich, and since my family was poor, when given the options of either being killed or killing my family, I chose the latter. I don't regret it and it made me prince, so I don't even miss my starving parents."

And this story, dear friends, made Ruying (the colonized, the oppressed, the captive) tear up for him. "Poor guy, his family was poor and they were living on the streets, good for him that he killed them to become prince."

I rest my case.


Ruying and the Stockholm Syndrome
In the foreword, the author mentions her grandpa and how he would be proud of the strong character that is Ruying and how she fights for her people and for her family.

Me and the author must've read different books, because Ruying is about as strong as my grandma's overcooked spaghetti. After she is captured and forced to kill people, she can't help but bend her morals and completely forgets about her bestie, all because of some colonizer green eyes. Spare me.

(Yes I made up a new eye color)

And she ends up fighting her friends and family over aforementioned eyes!! Are you kidding me? Where's the strength? Where's the "for her people"?

She ends up feeling indebted to this piece of work dude who reminds me of my ex because he saved her life twice. And he did so because he needed her to do his killing. He used her. And she feels indebted to him.

Is this even real??

I want to say that she finds her strength in the last 10% of the book, but it's just her thoughts; no actions yet, so I have no idea if she's more like my al dente spaghetti now. I guess I'll have to read book 2 to find out.


Some other thoughts and not an actual review
I don't really want to write an actual review of this book. So many others did that before me, and a lot better than I ever could. However, I feel like this book is the result of too much feedback. The author mentions in the acknowledgements that this book has been in the works for 8 years. That's a lot of time for alpha readers, friends, editors and potential publishers to give a piece of advice (both good and bad, I suppose) and too much time for the author to change, update, improve it in a way that hopefully would finally get it published. There's also the pressure of including tropes to satisfy the booktok community, and I know a lot of publishers ask the authors to constantly promote their books on Tiktok and Instagram in a way that will attract the "right" audience; we all know that means the authors need to add as many popular tropes as possible in a 10-15-second tiktok/reel.

I can't possibly know if this was the plot from the beginning or not, and I'm not trying to find excuses for the author; but I do think that there are a lot of things going on behind closed doors that we'll never learn about. I'm also against putting all the blame on the author, because there's at least one editor that has the chance and the power to prevent this disaster from happening. That's also what alpha readers are for, and I'm sure there are a lot more people who had the opportunity to say something before this book was uploaded to NetGalley.


Finally.
I didn't even feel like it was necessary to mention aspects like the worldbuilding and the plot, since the romance and the characters are clearly the elephant in the room. I do want to mention that the writing is really good, so hopefully everything that went wrong in this book is just an unfortunate marketing decision. Not every enemies-to-lovers is a good one, and we don't need that trope in every single fantasy book. Sometimes you can just have a fantasy book with little to no romance and it'll be the biggest hit. (see The Poppy War)

Whatever the author decides to write next, whether it's the sequel of To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods or something new, hopefully it will be more appropriate considering the setting and/or the historical inspiration behind it. This should be the most important lesson of all the negative and constructive criticism that this book has received so far.

I have been living for all these beautifully written Asian inspired fantasies just like this one! The story was a little bit of a slow burn but the writing and interesting characters kept my attention! I can't wait to read the next book in the series!

Thank you, NetGalley & Penguin Random House, for approving an ARC of this book it was bloody brilliant!

This story is set around 2 worlds who have merged into 1 the Xianlings who are odten born with abilities and these can vary alot, they also believe in the old gods and the Romans who are more science and technology based (simular to us) The story is told from the POV of Ruying who has the ability to call upon death and unalive someone.

Ruying has avoided using her powers since an accident when she was a child caused a boy to die, also the Romans are gaining more and more control of the Xianlings and they are ending up dead or missing and the Romans have turnt their once beautiful world into the opposite.

Ruying catches the eye of one of the Roman princes, and she has to do what she needs to do to protect herself, her sister, and her grandmother as well as what she thinks will save her people.

This book had it all, fast paced (no whiplash), easy world building, enemies to lovers, brilliant plot with twists, and a likeable FMC who you can understand why she is doing what she does.

A young girl with magical powers living in an occupied city who is forced to become an assassin as part of the Roman government's military strategy.

Ruying has powerful magic abilities and is concerned mainly with keeping her drug-addicted twin sister and grandmother safe at all costs, in the city they live in that is part of the empire of Er-Lang, occupied by the Romans who exert power with cruelty, opiates and destruction. When the Prince of Rome, son of the Emperor uncovers her power he forces her hand to become his personal assassin and further his own political agenda, with Er-Lang on the brink of full-on warfare and potential ruin.

This is an, exciting fantasy scenario with strong characters, our heroine Yang especially is really one to root for and a strong, powerful lead character who is compromised and challenged in myriad ways. The writing style is very easy to read which makes this accessible for a meaty, involved fantasy/sci fi book but does also almost clunk along at times & overall the slightly cheesy romantasy element is a bit less gripping than the main thrust of the story.

I was intrigued by the morally grey characters, the magic, and the sci-fi elements in this story. The premise was new and intriguing and very much an exploration of colonialism so this book is heavy on the politics. There are difficult decisions, betrayals, and one woman stuck in the middle of it all. A part of me did feel for Ruying, whose home has been invaded by the Romans, and her people forced under their rule, victims of oppression and constantly in danger. The politics of it all is seemingly complex, with allegiances difficult to understand, but by drawing the wrong attention, Ruying finds herself unleashing her powers when all she wants to do is save her people and foster peace. I wanted to really love this story but whilst I was interested enough in where it was going to keep reading, I found it quite slow paced, and lacking the chemistry and relationship building needed to convince me there’s anything like romance brewing on these pages. When the villain has so many red flags, I always find it difficult to watch the female main character be manipulated and used so obviously. Ruying’s naivety is painful to see and I wanted to save her. As someone who hasn’t had an easy upbringing, and lives in a city being squashed by invaders, I thought she might have more understanding of the world and not so easily become a pawn. That being said, she is strong and she’s powerful, and her history and her determination are great to see.

I received a free copy of this book. All views are my own.

Such a great book!

I'm literally obsessed with this book and the writing style.
From page one I wasn't sure which male character i had to root for.

the story is so captivated and the relationships with the 3 main characters as well.

LOVED LOVED THIS

I don't know if it's just me but I struggled a little with this book. I found myself having to force myself to read it, I wasn't gripped at all. The romance between the FMC and MMC didn't appeal to me and it just fell a bit flat.

To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods follows Ruying, a girl with the ability to kill by stealing a person’s life energy. Having hated the ability since childhood, Ruying swears that she will never use it again, but she finds herself forced to use her power when her family is put in danger. Soon, Ruying is one of the most powerful weapons in the war between Er-Lang, her homeland, and Rome, the enemy invaders, and nobody at all – not even people that she thought she understood – can be trusted.

This book was one of my most anticipated reads of the year, and it absolutely did not let me down. The blurb warned that I wouldn’t be able to pick a character and stay loyal, and it was absolutely true, with every page causing me to doubt who I trusted and who the real enemy was. Ruying is an incredible protagonist whose voice was clear from the very beginning, and her complicated relationships with both Antony and Baihu were fascinating to read. Also, every single character in this book is morally grey, which I adored.

The scene setting and plot were both incredibly strong as well, though I did find the pacing a little off at times, as important scenes seemed to be skimmed over or skipped entirely. This was a minor issue however, and the majority of the story was well-developed and beautifully written.

I truly expect this to be one of my favourite fantasy reads of the year, and I’ll be easily recommending it to anyone who’ll listen. It’s an incredibly fast-paced, unique, morally grey high-fantasy, and I absolutely cannot wait for the next instalment.

A bit of a slow start, but I enjoyed the mix between the Roman History aspect and the East Asian History, a very interesting concept I hadn't seen before! I would have liked to have seen the switch in POVs earlier in the book, but the authors writing style was beautiful in it's descriptions and I am excited for the second book in the series.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC of the book.

To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods was one of my anticipated reads this year and it did not disappoint. "To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods" offers a unique blend of fantasy and quasi-science fiction, set in a world inspired by ancient China that has been invaded by the Roman Empire. The narrative delves into themes of colonization, moral ambiguity, and the clash between magic and advanced technology.

The protagonist, Ruying, wields the power of death magic and becomes embroiled in a perilous web of politics and betrayal after being coerced into serving as an assassin for the Roman prince, Antony. The complex dynamic between Ruying and Antony may be triggering for some readers due to its colonialist undertones, so it's worth noting before diving in.

[ARC provided by NetGalley and Penguin Random House. Thank you for the opportunity to read and review To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods.]

Rating: 2.5/5

To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods is an emotional story filled with incredibly high stakes, very flawed characters, and an uncomfortable plot that some may struggle getting through. As this book deals with the devastation of colonialism, I anticipated that this could be a hard read at times, but I didn’t expect this bleak tale to be packed with such frustrating characters. I’m glad I saw it through to the end because the final part provides a faint ray of hope for the rest of this series, but getting to that point was quite difficult.

This books follows Ruying, a young woman gifted with death magic who is discovered by an enemy prince who covets her power greatly. Prince Antony along with the Roman Empire and their advanced science have occupied Pangu, Ruying’s home, with terrible brute strength, and as their grip on the country grows tighter and tighter, Ruying must decide if she can become the Prince’s assassin to protect those close to her, or watch her world burn along with everyone she loves.

Prior to reading this I had heard of some controversy surrounding the book, mostly that there was a coloniser romance at the heart of the story which made me a little nervous. On one hand, I can say that the book was pretty easy to get through and I didn’t struggle with anything like the pacing or the world building, which I’ve seen others have issues with. But for me, my problem was with Ruying and her actions. She was an incredibly frustrating FMC and I can understand and even support flawed characters, but to deal with that for an entire book makes for a rough time. I think if the revelations that come at the end of this book happened sooner, I could have got behind Ruying, but instead I felt like I was being painstakingly pulled through bad decision after bad decision until ultimately I didn’t know if I wanted to root for her at all.

I also didn’t love the vagueness surrounding science and thought it was strange that the people of Pangu never make any strides in this great unknown that the Roman’s brought with them. I can get that they would be behind the Roman’s on the many intricacies of technology but to have made no effort in this area didn’t make sense to me. Another small issue I had was the lack of originality in Rome as a location. I think giving this fictional place a fictional name would have worked better as my mind was imagining the Roman’s I know from history and placing them in this story.

I’m a little intrigued to know how this story will progress but I doubt I will be the one to read it. If you can deal with frustrating characters and a questionable plot then you might enjoy this, but ultimately I don’t know if I would recommend this.

This is a very interesting premise. I applaud and appreciate the writer's efforts. Ruying (the FMC) and her world (Pangu) are invaded and occupied by foreign settlers, the Romans, who’ve come through a portal. I’m going to preface this by saying that this feels more semi-fantasy than full-fantasy as there are elements like opian, choices of modern worlds/descriptions (jet fighters, misses, video, audio, bulletproof glass) that may make it tricky to divorce it from actual East Asia history (Opium Wars) and fully immerse into an escapist world.

In a nutshell, my understanding of the landscape and its players:
The Romans (antagonists) – they bring advance technology, cars, planes/jetfighters, weapons of mass destruction, modern medicine, drugs (opian) and their world seems to be today’s Earth people, but maybe far more advanced given they travelled to a different universe? world? to access Pangu. Following their namesake, they are depicted to follow leaders elected based on merit (and this means the next heir may not be from the same bloodline.) Key to note the main villain and love interest, Antony Augustus, is not related by blood to the other two Roman princes. At present, their occupation is heavily focused on Er-Lang and the story follows their attempts to expand their stronghold to the other empires in Pangu.

Pangu – Inspired by a fantasy/ancient backdrop of China. There are five (?) empires within this realm which is Er-Lang (where the FMC resides and the story takes place), Sihai, Lei-Zhen, Ne-Zha, Jiang. Xianlings are a group of humans blessed with magical gifts—in this case, the FMC has the gift of Death, able to take the qi (or life essence/energy) of a person, effectively killing them without a trace. Clearly a power that the Romans would exploit to get rid of immediate threats. Dissent by the Phantom (a shadowy rebellion leader) are crushed and neutralised by the Romans’ more advanced military might and the drug, opian, that weakens the average folk and the Xianlings—getting them dependent and addicted on the substance.

—————

Romance
1) There are two love interests: Antony Augustus (one of the 3 Roman princes) and Baihu (the morally grey childhood friend who turned to work for the Romans in exchange for favours and better prospects.) Oh the endless love triangle possibilities!!! There is a nostalgic yearning from Ruying for who Baihu used to be and what they once shared—a girl and boy who grew up together and could have gotten married before the invasion tore their realm apart. I very much adore the pining in this!!!!!
2) Imho, the dynamic between Antony and Ruying could have been tagged/marketed as a Dark Romance/Dark Romantasy—as there is physical/mental/emotional abuse, deceit, kidnapping, blackmail and manipulation between them. He convinces her to help stamp out any growing insurgency to the Roman’s regime to avoid his grandfather from unleashing their full military power (vs Pangu who largely fight with blades, swords, arrows etc.) and ignite an all-out-war in exchange for “peace” and protection for Ruying’s sister and grandmother. Essentially, she becomes his assassin/bodyguard. As an enemies-to-lovers enthusiast, I do love the complicated nature of their feelings and forbidden attraction.
3) There are some moments where the FMC is repeatedly told “Do you have any idea what Antony is doing to our people?” and she responds with “I don’t know and I don’t care.” And honestly, despite understanding every character needs growth and an arc, I’m unsure how to feel about this.

—————

That being said, it’s been a joy to read the weaving of Chinese myths, folktales, customs and beliefs into the story. The tales behind Sihai, their waters and dragons were probably one of my favourite parts! I’m very much looking forward to see where the writer takes this story, and how they will reconcile what Antony has done and Ruying’s feelings/connection to him given the ending of Book 1 and the title of Book 2!!! Is there going to be angst of betrayal and separation? Sign me up for all that deliciousness!!!!

Thank you so much to Molly Chang, Penguin Random House UK and Netgalley for the e-ARC in exchange for an honest review!