Apr 23

Apr 23 To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods (To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods, #1)

About the book

Author: Molly X. Chang
Publisher: Del Rey

More info:
The StoryGraph | Goodreads
Note: Content and trigger warnings are provided for those who need them at the bottom of this page. If you don’t need them and don’t want to risk spoilers, don’t scroll past the review.

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Bookshop.org (print) | Libro.fm (audio)

My Review

To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods was a solid start to a new fantasy trilogy! The magic system is unique (everyone’s is different and it feeds off your qi), and the worldbuilding is imaginative and a strong metaphor for history/colonialism (it’s the West bringing opium to China, where the West is still “Rome,” China is a different world altogether, and opium aka opian is a magic-enhancing drug).

I found the main character, Ruying, to be a breath of fresh air. She’s not a hero (at least, not yet in this book). She’s making morally gray choices to stay safe, stay alive, and keep her family fed and off the streets. I do think she’s tending toward chosen-one territory, but for this book, it was neat to spend time with an MC who isn’t focused on good vs evil, just survival.

There are a good number of reviews (mostly from early readers who were served, it seems, a different framing from the way this book was eventually marketed) calling it a colonizer romance. (Warning to skip the rest of this paragraph if you don’t want even the softest of spoilers.) While there IS a romance plotline in this book between Ruying and a prince of Rome, I thought it was pretty clear that he’s the Tamilin of this series (LOL). I guess we’ll see if that turns out to be correct, but just know he’s not her only option, people! Plus, she’s an unreliable narrator and probably has Stockholm Syndrome. TLDR, I need to read the second book before deciding if this feels cringey or not, because there’s a LOT of story left (at least two whole books!).

At the end of the day, I enjoyed this and look forward to the second book.