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A review by talesofaddi
To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods by Molly X. Chang
2.0
lord have mercy, this book was... an experience. I'll probably give a full review later on this week but as of right now all I have to say is that this was 300 and something pages of missed potential. It read like a first draft that needed major reworking on its characters, the worldbuilding, the plot, the pacing etc. Like I genuinely don't know how this got approved by whoever is on the editing team for this because some of the issues in this book are just too blatant to ignore (
that was truly one of the main things that killed this story for me because how are you going from ryuing and antony making a deal with each other, with ryuing still heavily distrusting the prince for obvious reasons whilst not having that much control over her powers to her killing 48 people and describing antony's green eyes and his laugh, his cheeks and all that shit. Several steps were skipped here methinks and we the readers are supposed to just accept ryuings run-down of the past six months and call it a day. Like ik there has been some debate about whether the author intended for their relationship to be enemies to lovers or for it to be a clear case of manipulation on Antony's part but either way I still believe this was a huge mistake on the author's part to do this. to have the majority of their relationship development be offscreen is terrible because how am I suppose to believe or understand why Ryuing likes the guy? why she trusts him and truly believes in his vision of a peaceful era for both of their worlds? Like we don't see any of that, it's just told to us by Ryuing. And because of that, I can't take the relationship and either of the characters proclamations of their conflicting feelings for one another seriously. But beyond the relationship, I find it so weird how we don't see the first few kills Ryuing does on the orders of antony. A few chapters or scenes of her on her missons, seeing the types of people she is sent to kill and how it affected her would've been really compelling. but NOOOOO instead we are given a couple paragraphs where she describes the types of targets she killed in overly poetic writing. GAHHH okay end of rant
Spoiler
such as the six month time skip which I'm sorry for the incoming mini-rant but like wtf? how did she think that was a good idea?that was truly one of the main things that killed this story for me because how are you going from ryuing and antony making a deal with each other, with ryuing still heavily distrusting the prince for obvious reasons whilst not having that much control over her powers to her killing 48 people and describing antony's green eyes and his laugh, his cheeks and all that shit. Several steps were skipped here methinks and we the readers are supposed to just accept ryuings run-down of the past six months and call it a day. Like ik there has been some debate about whether the author intended for their relationship to be enemies to lovers or for it to be a clear case of manipulation on Antony's part but either way I still believe this was a huge mistake on the author's part to do this. to have the majority of their relationship development be offscreen is terrible because how am I suppose to believe or understand why Ryuing likes the guy? why she trusts him and truly believes in his vision of a peaceful era for both of their worlds? Like we don't see any of that, it's just told to us by Ryuing. And because of that, I can't take the relationship and either of the characters proclamations of their conflicting feelings for one another seriously. But beyond the relationship, I find it so weird how we don't see the first few kills Ryuing does on the orders of antony. A few chapters or scenes of her on her missons, seeing the types of people she is sent to kill and how it affected her would've been really compelling. but NOOOOO instead we are given a couple paragraphs where she describes the types of targets she killed in overly poetic writing. GAHHH okay end of rant