Scan barcode
A review by venanana
To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods by Molly X. Chang
1.0
I really, really wanted to like this book. This book needed another round of developmental editing.
To start, I am a white reader, it is not my place to comment on the Chinese culture, experience, and traumas. It is not my place to comment on if this a colonizer romance, but I do have some opinions on the dynamic outside of the potential it is a colonizer romance. While my experience with this book was not a pleasant one, I want to make it very clear this is purely about the craft and the story itself rather than a reflection of the creator, the cultures, or the real events this story had been inspired by.
The prose leaves a lot to be desired, it all purple and flowery and certainly detailed. Detailed in all the wrong ways, we spend far too much time in Ruying's head instead of in the story, doing nothing but having the almost word-for-word same conversation about her power, about keeping her family safe, about how she can't trust Antony...But he's so dreamy and he cares. Sometimes, she repeats herself within a page or two, or uses the same few phrases and the moment I picked that up it drove me CRAZY.
There is a total of maybe 11~12 actual scenes in the whole book, that's how much time is spent in her inner monology. The scene with her sister, one with her childhood friend, then her other childhood friend who appears twice and is never mentioned again, one with her grandma, THEN the actual inciting incident where she's kidnapped, her assassin training, there's a mini scene where she visits her family home but monologues the whole time and no dialogue happens, another scene with her sister, a scene with Antony's brother who tries to drug her(again) and Antony says he trusts her(why?), one with her childhood friend again, then a scene with the foreign Emperor, and the scene on the boat.
There aren't characters and there isn't a plot. Nothing happens in this book. INSTEAD, this book should have started at the 25% mark when Ruying is kidnapped and made Antony's assassin. Then spend the first 50ish% training her, working her on small jobs and manipulating her into properly trusting Antony into revealing more about her family; why she cares so much about protecting them that she'd become a killer. Then the second half should be where Antony takes Ruying to the neighboring kingdom that intends to ally with Rome.
Speaking of Rome; and genuinely what made think 'this book is dumb! who edited this!?' is when Antony is mansplaining to Ruying, he mentions GREEK gods, not just Roman....Why the hell did he mention Zeus and Hades? HE'S ROMAN???? At that point, why not just throw in Jesus Christ while we're here. Also why do we have cars? Why are there cars? How did they get the cars across the veil? What are they using to fuel those cars, there aren't gas stations around. That is all I'll say about the worldbuilding.
Ruying is a passive protagonist and it's "on purpose" because Ruying is a coward, she doesn't believe in any real causes, and she believes a life on her knees is better. There are a million better ways to write a coward of a protagonist than just having her no do anything all book. You can feel the author making these choices because no character has enough presence to make any of their own. Ruying doesn't have much personality either, we keep being told she sasses Antony and he thinks it's funny but that's never shown, only told in the inner monolouge. I would have LOVED to see her be witty and standing up to asshat #1.
Don't get me started on Antony, the slimy lil weasel is my enemy and it is on SIGHT!!! Again, it is not my place to comment on if this is, or is not a colonizer romance. It is still deeply inappropriate and kinda disturbing for him to say things like "Remember who I am. Then remember your place" because that implies he completely understands the power imbalance-despite also claiming he saw them as "equals"- Then to protect her with his own body, even though the attack was FOR HIM ANYWAYS! He is a manipulative little worm and I hate him. The romance is FORCED. They kiss once and he calls her "my love" bro...why? why are you in love? How? there's not enough scenes in the book for yall to love each other.
This book needed more time spent editing, less time in Ruying's head. Even if she's a coward who doesn't want to rock the boat, she can still do things. She can find ways to get around her deal, to plan to get her family to safety, to escape once they're far away. She doesn't have to do nothing, even if she resigned to her fate like maybe getting more involved in the politics part of the world?
I do not recommend this book, I am genuinely so disappointed because I thought I'd really like this book. It sounded right up my ally with death magic, assassin, wayward princes, and cool women with cool powers.
To start, I am a white reader, it is not my place to comment on the Chinese culture, experience, and traumas. It is not my place to comment on if this a colonizer romance, but I do have some opinions on the dynamic outside of the potential it is a colonizer romance. While my experience with this book was not a pleasant one, I want to make it very clear this is purely about the craft and the story itself rather than a reflection of the creator, the cultures, or the real events this story had been inspired by.
The prose leaves a lot to be desired, it all purple and flowery and certainly detailed. Detailed in all the wrong ways, we spend far too much time in Ruying's head instead of in the story, doing nothing but having the almost word-for-word same conversation about her power, about keeping her family safe, about how she can't trust Antony...But he's so dreamy and he cares. Sometimes, she repeats herself within a page or two, or uses the same few phrases and the moment I picked that up it drove me CRAZY.
There is a total of maybe 11~12 actual scenes in the whole book, that's how much time is spent in her inner monology. The scene with her sister, one with her childhood friend, then her other childhood friend who appears twice and is never mentioned again, one with her grandma, THEN the actual inciting incident where she's kidnapped, her assassin training, there's a mini scene where she visits her family home but monologues the whole time and no dialogue happens, another scene with her sister, a scene with Antony's brother who tries to drug her(again) and Antony says he trusts her(why?), one with her childhood friend again, then a scene with the foreign Emperor, and the scene on the boat.
There aren't characters and there isn't a plot. Nothing happens in this book. INSTEAD, this book should have started at the 25% mark when Ruying is kidnapped and made Antony's assassin. Then spend the first 50ish% training her, working her on small jobs and manipulating her into properly trusting Antony into revealing more about her family; why she cares so much about protecting them that she'd become a killer. Then the second half should be where Antony takes Ruying to the neighboring kingdom that intends to ally with Rome.
Speaking of Rome; and genuinely what made think 'this book is dumb! who edited this!?' is when Antony is mansplaining to Ruying, he mentions GREEK gods, not just Roman....Why the hell did he mention Zeus and Hades? HE'S ROMAN???? At that point, why not just throw in Jesus Christ while we're here. Also why do we have cars? Why are there cars? How did they get the cars across the veil? What are they using to fuel those cars, there aren't gas stations around. That is all I'll say about the worldbuilding.
Ruying is a passive protagonist and it's "on purpose" because Ruying is a coward, she doesn't believe in any real causes, and she believes a life on her knees is better. There are a million better ways to write a coward of a protagonist than just having her no do anything all book. You can feel the author making these choices because no character has enough presence to make any of their own. Ruying doesn't have much personality either, we keep being told she sasses Antony and he thinks it's funny but that's never shown, only told in the inner monolouge. I would have LOVED to see her be witty and standing up to asshat #1.
Don't get me started on Antony, the slimy lil weasel is my enemy and it is on SIGHT!!! Again, it is not my place to comment on if this is, or is not a colonizer romance. It is still deeply inappropriate and kinda disturbing for him to say things like "Remember who I am. Then remember your place" because that implies he completely understands the power imbalance-despite also claiming he saw them as "equals"- Then to protect her with his own body, even though the attack was FOR HIM ANYWAYS! He is a manipulative little worm and I hate him. The romance is FORCED. They kiss once and he calls her "my love" bro...why? why are you in love? How? there's not enough scenes in the book for yall to love each other.
This book needed more time spent editing, less time in Ruying's head. Even if she's a coward who doesn't want to rock the boat, she can still do things. She can find ways to get around her deal, to plan to get her family to safety, to escape once they're far away. She doesn't have to do nothing, even if she resigned to her fate like maybe getting more involved in the politics part of the world?
I do not recommend this book, I am genuinely so disappointed because I thought I'd really like this book. It sounded right up my ally with death magic, assassin, wayward princes, and cool women with cool powers.