Title: To Gaze Upon the Wicked Gods
Author: Molly X. Chang
Publisher: Del Rey (Penguin Random House Group)
Published Date: April 16, 2024
Genre: Fantasy
Rating: ★★☆☆☆
REVIEW
Disclaimer: I received a copy of this from NetGalley and Del Rey in return for an honest review.
This book suffered from its advertisement, I think. It was marketed as a high fantasy but it definitely felt more relationship focused, and not in a good way. It was also listed as YA on some sites and adult on others. Seeing that it's published under Del Ray, which is not a YA publishing imprint, and the subject matter in this book, I would not call this YA. I judge fantasy in three main categories; characterization, magic system, and world-building. It's really hard to do all three well, but I'd hope that at least one of them can carry a book. Even if one is strong, I normally end up enjoying the book.
Let's start with characters. The beginning did grip me. It started off fast-paced with the main character, Ruying, stealing from the people that rule to help what was left of her small family. It set her up to be selfless and self-sacrificing, but also willing to do what is necessary. However, as the story went on, she seemed to lose all agency and just seemed to become someone else entirely. The "romance" was cringy and didn't feel natural at all. Can someone please tell me why we have all of these stories where the woman falls in love with her oppressor's? It is not romantic, it is not fun to read about, and we need some better ideas. Enemies to lovers is a trope I can enjoy, but in this context I absolutely hated it.
It is made worse in the fact that Ruying is basically the only character that we really get to learn anything solid about for at least half of the book. There is a lot of speculating about Antony happening, but he really isn't expanded upon until far too late.
Now for the magic system. This is probably the strongest bit of the book. It was very interesting to learn about what we were given, which honestly wasn't much. We know that sometimes their powers are hereditary but sometimes not, using it shortens your lifespan for some unexplained reason, and that those with powers are slowly dwindling as their kingdom dwindles alongside it. The bones were definitely there, but I feel like I needed to learn more to fully appreciate the magic in this world. Ruying's magic, death, is something that I really love in fantasy. Death magic is super interesting and there are many different interpretations of how I can be done. My issue with Chang's created magic system, is that it wasn't built or explained particularly well. We were told "this is what these people can do" and not really given much more than that.
The worldbuilding was the worst of these three categories. The different planets never made sense, especially because all we were given was "there's a portal in the sky that planes fly through". Also, the creativity in the worldbuilding was very subpar. The kingdom where the story takes places is a fictional China, but the bad guys are from Rome? Does that mean they came from our world? Earth? The whole book I was picturing ancient Roman gladiators but with a modern twist. Also, the drug that a large portion of the population was addicted to was called opian, which was just opium with a different name. I think Chang had a lot of interesting ideas, but sadly none of them were written to make sense.
I hate that I don't like this book. The description sounded so promising and I was expecting a lot of internal struggle, death magic, and once the rebels were brought up I was also hoping for more of them. This book didn't need a hint of romance either. While romance in fantasy can be great and I do enjoy reading it, there are some fantasy books that do not need it. Just because fantasy-romance (romantasy) is a hit these days, some authors just need to leave it out entirely. I'm just glad this book didn't go full romantasy and did keep it to a more minimal aspect of the book. Overall, I didn't enjoy this reading experience, and judging from a lot of reviews, I'm not the only one with similar thoughts.
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