Алхимизирани

by SenLinYu, СенЛинЮ, Йоана Гацова (Translator)

Какво толкова важно смяташ, че пазиш в главата си?
Войната приключи.
Холдфаст е мъртъв.
Вечният пламък угасна.
Не е останал никой, когото можеш да спасиш.

В този завладяващ дебют в най-добрите традиции на мрачното фентъзи една жена с изгубени спомени се бори за своето оцеляване в свят, разкъсан от война между некромантия и алхимия – и срещу мъжа, който трябва да разкрие най-дълбоките тайни от миналото ѝ.

Някога обещаващ алхимик, сега Хелена Марино е пленница – и на войната, и на собствения си помрачен разум. Приятелите и съюзниците ѝ от Съпротивата са брутално избити, способностите ѝ – потиснати, а светът, който е познавала, е разрушен.

След края на дългата война новият управляващ елит на Паладия – покварени семейства и извратени некроманти, чиито гнусни неживи твари са извоювали победата – държи Хелена в плен.

Според архивите на Съпротивата тя е била незначителна лечителка. Но Хелена страда от необяснима амнезия и враговете ѝ искат да разберат дали изгубените ѝ спомени не крият последните отчаяни планове на Съпротивата?

Присъдата е Хелена да бъде изпратена при Върховния губернатор – един от най-могъщите и безмилостни некроманти в новия свят. Затворена в неговото разпадащо се семейно имение, Хелена едва започва истинската си битка – да защити изгубеното си минало и да съхрани последните останки от своята скрита същност. Защото и затворът, и нейният надзирател крият свои собствени тайни… тайни, които Хелена трябва да разкрие – на всяка цена.

Genres: Fantasy, Romance, Romantasy, Dark Romance, Fiction, Audiobook, Dark

1216 pages, Hardcover

First published September 23, 2025

About the author

SenLinYu grew up in the Pacific Northwest and studied classical liberal arts and culture. They started writing in the Notes app of their phone during their baby’s nap time. Their collected online works have garnered over twenty million individual downloads and have been translated into twenty-three languages. They live in Portland with their family. ALCHEMISED is their first novel.

Reviews

[Angie · Rating 5 out of 5]

♾️ ⭐️ Heartbreaking. Devastating. Harrowing. This macabre tale will shatter your heart, tear it from your chest, and haunt you long after the last page. Prepare to be destroyed.


"You're like a rose in a graveyard, I wonder what you could have turned into without the war."


WHAT TO EXPECT:
✨ dark fantasy / romance / horror
✨ alchemy and necromancy
✨ post-war / wartime
✨ morally grey MCs
✨ healer x soldier/spy
✨ enemies-to-lovers
✨ romance under extreme conditions
✨ 1/5 spice (in parts 2 and 3, non-descriptive)
✨ captor x captive
✨ imprisonment
✨ memory loss
✨ mystery
✨ espionage
✨ non-linear narrative
✨ HEA - It's not quite like the fairytales, but it's the best you could hope for.

Trigger Warnings: wartime violence, religious abuse, depictions of complex trauma, suicidal ideation, self-harm, PTSD, medical torture, eugenics, cannibalism, s3xual assault, r4pe, and allusion to necrophilia.

*Sexual violence and related themes are present throughout the story and are significant to the plot and character arcs. They are referenced frequently, but are depicted on-page only a small number of times and not described in explicit or gratuitous detail.

My Thoughts:

Alchemised is a literary masterpiece. Where do I even begin? I could honestly write an entire essay about this story, but I’ll write as much as I can till I reach the word limit on Goodreads. lol

This is a DARK story that dives deep into the terrible nature and psychological effects of war. The trauma, sacrifice and loss experienced by these characters are unfathomable, and due to the phenomenal writing, you'll find yourself sucked into this world and experience pain and suffering alongside them. It’s easy to lose yourself in this story, so fair warning: if you’re an empathetic person, you may experience second-hand trauma.

Necromancy adds an additional layer of darkness to this story. SenLinYu has created an immersive, grotesque world where every corner is soaked in horror and dread. The dead are everywhere: used as soldiers, servants, experiments, or vessels for other souls. And everything about them is written in detail, from the stench of the bodies to their stages of decomposition. Many of these reanimated corpses are people the FMC, Helena, once knew, leaving her (and the reader) horrified at what unfolds. Decaying bodies are a recurring element, so if you’re squeamish, this might not be an easy read. Personally, while I avoid this kind of thing on TV, reading it didn’t bother me as much. Though there were some parts I definitely made a face of disgust and mentally gagged.

Regardless of the dark themes, Alchemised has one of the most devastatingly beautiful romances I've ever read. In the midst of a gruesome war, the world is horrifying and bleak, with almost no space for happiness or reprieve. Yet in the darkness, two lonely, broken people find their way to each other and cultivate an all-consuming, passionate love that stands the test of time. Even though the world has failed them, they refuse to fail each other. And they really only live to keep each other alive. The circumstances surrounding their love are tragic, yet their devotion to one another is beautiful.

The world-building is masterful - fantasy at its finest. SenLinYu has created an intricate and sometimes terrifying world that feels completely original. The lore of Paladia, the Order of the Eternal Flame and their religion, politics, societal structures, the corruption - it’s overwhelming in the best way possible. The magic system in particular is so interesting and well done. Alchemy isn’t something I’ve ever read before, and while it took some time to learn the terms and understand the world, everything eventually clicked. Alchemy governs metals and it's a huge part of the magic system, but there's also other magics including pyromancy (fire), necromancy (control over the dead), vivimancy (control over the living), and animancy (control over minds). It’s complex, technical, and utterly fascinating. If you’re someone who loves highly detailed magic systems, this book will blow you away.

Another interesting aspect of the world-building is the lore of Luna and Lumithia, Orion and the Necromancer, and the Holdfast dynasty. SenLinYu weaves these stories into the narrative at just the right moments, giving us a deeper understanding of how the world works and why things are the way they are - all while showing off her incredible creativity. It’s clever, immersive, and makes the world feel fully alive.

PS: If you want to read a theory I have about the story of Luna and Lumithia, head to the end of the review!!!

My heart and soul belong to Helena Marino and Kaine Ferron. These two are some of the most complex, unforgettable characters I’ve ever read. The wild part is I wouldn’t even say I’d want to be friends with them, nor are they characters I can relate to. But they are utterly compelling.

Helena and Kaine are brilliant at what they do - Helena with her healing, Kaine with his killing - and they’re essentially two sides of the same coin. Together, they become the ultimate exploration of morality in wartime: what actions are or aren’t acceptable when fighting for your cause and protecting the ones you love? They had me questioning everything I thought I knew about right and wrong, good and evil.

Through Helena, we witness the rot within the Order of the Eternal Flame. There's blatant misogyny, emotional manipulation, and abuse dressed up as righteousness. Through Kaine, we see how even the Necromancer’s side can attract followers whose motives may not have been entirely villainous. Neither side is clean. Both are corrupted (even though one is obviously worse than the other). But that’s what makes Helena and Kaine so unforgettable. They make choices where the ends justify the means, even if those choices are morally gray/black. And ultimately, their actions, however unforgivable, end up saving Paladia. Which begs the question: at what point do we excuse evil if the outcome is good?


*SPOILERS AHEAD*


Helena is one of the strongest fictional characters I’ve ever encountered. Since the beginning of the war, she did what was necessary, what no one else was willing to do. She used her vivimancy to save countless lives even though this resonance was considered by the Order to be proof of a corrupted soul, making her an outcast. She constantly left the safety of Headquarters to forage in the wetlands to make up for the hospital's lack of supplies. She works herself to the bone and often goes without food or sleep. She agrees to giving her life to a dangerous enemy now and after the war in order to protect Luc, the heir and leader of the Resistance and her best friend. She endured trauma after trauma, and still found the strength to fight.

Every single thing Helena did was for the people she loved, even if it meant losing herself in the process. She wanted to win the war and save a world she knew she could never be a part of because of all the things she did to save it. Her selflessness, courage, loyalty, and devotion left me in awe.

In the end, the only reason the Resistance triumphed was Helena’s courage to do what was necessary, no matter how morally compromising and no matter the cost to herself. Through those choices, she found both survival and her salvation with Kaine.

Kaine is a fascinating character because he forces us to ask: how far would you go to protect the ones you love? While Helena fights to save the world, Kaine fights to save her. He sacrifices everything until there’s nothing left but what the war has made him - all because of his obsessive, all-consuming need to protect Helena. He isn’t a hero to anyone but Helena, and she knows it. Even after the war when Lila mentions that Kaine doesn't care about anything or anyone but Helena, she says:

“Love isn’t always as pretty or pure as people like to think. There’s a darkness in it sometimes. Kaine and I go hand in hand. I made him who he is. I knew what that array meant when I saved him. If he’s a monster, then I’m his creator.”

Everything Helena did was for Luc, the Resistance, and the future of Paladia. But everything Kaine does is for Helena because she is his entire world. There is no line he wouldn't cross to protect her - even participating in their own r4pe (yes, they were BOTH victims). We may not forgive Kaine for the terrible things he did; however, I believe we can understand his actions.

When we find out the reason Kaine joined the Necromancer was because they were torturing his mother, my heart broke. And then, he was forced to murderer and become a part of the Undying. All of this happened to him at 16 years old. Kaine didn't want this life, but it was forced upon him. However, once his mother died, his sorrow turned to hate, and that pain set him on the path to becoming a monster.

And he truly is a monster: a mass murderer of men, women, and children alike. Anything that stands in his way is annihilated. That’s what makes him so compelling. Helena sees his cruelty firsthand, yet glimpses of humanity keep breaking through. In the beginning, he keeps his distance and is cruel to protect himself, but once he falls for Helena, there’s no turning back. Watching this monster reveal the human beneath is haunting because it's a reminder that monsters are made, not born.

I love his character because it truly makes me wonder, if someone commits atrocities to protect the one they love, can their actions ever be considered entirely evil?

Another incredible aspect of Alchemised is how it explores the systemic oppression of women. This story exposes the underappreciated work, ignored contributions, silenced voices, and denied agency of women, as well as the impossible sacrifices they are forced to endure. Both before and during the war, Paladia was deeply misogynistic, and women are repeatedly unsafe, undervalued, and constrained by rigid social structures. From guild restrictions and inheritance laws to barriers in studying alchemy or obtaining leadership positions, there's plenty of examples where women are treated unfairly simply because of their gender. Additionally, women face horrific consequences if captured during the war, including r4pe and reproductive servitude. Helena herself endured these horrors and more. Not only during the war but even before it, when she was coerced into sterilization at sixteen to prove her loyalty and work as a healer for the Order of the Eternal Flame - a brutal reminder of how the system controls women’s bodies. These injustices run throughout the narrative, leaving the reader both heartbroken and enraged.

Helena is the clearest example of how women are overlooked and undervalued. As an immigrant from the South with vivimancy, she’s doubly marginalized, and her superiors constantly question her loyalty and worth. She is essentially “sold” to Kaine Ferron to gather information, overworked, and given little support or recognition. The worst part? None of her efforts were truly acknowledged. Whether she was saving lives in the hospital or working behind the scenes with Kaine, her contributions were mostly ignored. Or, if anyone noticed and things went well because of her efforts, all the credit went to Sol, their god, or her superiors. And at the end of the war, the cruelest injustice of all: after everything Helena endured, after giving herself completely to the Resistance and almost losing her mind, history writes her off as a footnote: “She was a non-active member of the Order of the Eternal Flame and she did not fight.” That’s it. . . That’s all she gets. . . After everything she went through. . . . Helena’s sacrifices are erased, and it’s absolutely devastating. Even now, writing this, I'm getting choked up and teary-eyed because it’s not fair. And that, sadly, is often how the world works for women.

But Helena is not alone. Even characters like Lila, who has one of the most prestigious positions in Paladia as Luc’s paladin, struggles under this system. Though her circumstances are entirely different than Helena’s (she was born into privilege), she must maintain perfectionism and strict self-control to retain her position - even hiding her vivimancy so others do not think her soul is corrupt. She closes herself off from romantic relationships, trains harder than most, and keeps tight mastery over her magic and her life because any slip could cost her everything.

The story does an incredible job of showing how women survive, endure, and work within a system that constantly undervalues them, adding a layer of emotional depth and frustration that lingers long after the last page.

The last thing I'll talk about is the religious abuse in Alchemised. The religion of the Order of the Eternal Flame is more about control and less about faith. The leaders exploit religious devotion to manipulate the Resistance. They encourage people to see favorable outcomes a “miracles” or "favors" from Sol or teach that victory comes only through purity and obedience, while privately knowing it’s a lie. Faith is wielded as both a beacon and a chain, used to control, push the war effort forward, and give people hope in an otherwise hopeless fight. This abuse adds another layer of oppression, showing how belief can be weaponized to justify cruelty and erase personal agency. It also frustrates me how science is ignored when it conflicts with faith. Certain fields, like vivimancy, are outright banned because they’re considered a corruption of the soul, even though the science behind them can save lives. The parallels with our own world are impossible to miss, which made the injustice feel all the more real.

Overall, Alchemised is extraordinary and unlike anything you've ever read. The world-building is brilliant, the characters are complex, the storyline is heartbreaking, and the moral quandaries are thought-provoking. My heart repeatedly broke, but somehow by the end, it was put back together - albeit with cracks. This story makes you feel things you didn’t think possible. It is brutal, horrifying, beautiful, and unforgettable. Absolutely a MUST READ!


***Luna/Lumithia Theory. Okay, so if you look at the map of The Known World, it looks like Europe if certain areas were flooded, and it says it’s 2000 years after The Great Disaster. Paladia and Etras have different versions of the story, but essentially, at some point, Luna (the moon) and Lumithia (celestial body) collided. Fire rained down on the world, Luna "nearly fell from the sky", and the seas rose. Lumithia ended up sharing the sky with Luna (2 moons), and from the fire that came down, "gifts of alchemy were bestowed upon mankind". So what if this actually takes place on a future Earth after a huge celestial disaster happens that almost wiped out the human population, where years later people who live in Paladia (where parts of the comet or asteroid or planet that hit the moon fell) end up discovering lumithium and resonance (which is used to channel alchemy)???? A friend and I both come to this conclusion on our own, so I'm thinking there has to be some truth to it. And when she asked SenLinYu, Sen just sent back 👀. But also, I seriously hope Sen does a prequel of people surviving right after the Great Disaster!!!!!! Post-apocalyptic and dark! I need it!


Favorite Quotes:

"Do I know you?"
"I suppose you do."
_______

"If I'd known what pain you'd cause me, I never would have taken you. . . But, at this point, I suppose I deserve to burn. I wonder if you'll burn, too."
_______

She couldn't fix herself anymore, and no one else seemed inclined to even notice she was breaking.
_______

They were the inverse and counter to each other. A healer and killer, circling slowly, the push and pull inexorable.
_______

"Don't die, Kaine," she said.
"There are far worse fates than dying, Marino."
"I know. But that one you don't come back from."
"All right, then, but only because you asked."
_______

“I can’t—I can’t do this again—,” he finally gasped out. “I can’t care for someone again. I can’t take it.”

She blindly found his face, pressing her hand against his cheek, felt tears slide along her palm and down her wrist.

“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry, Kaine.” She said it again and again. She was apologizing for everything.
_______

“You are not replaceable,” he said, his hands trembling against her shoulders. “You are not required to make your death convenient. You are allowed to be important to people. The reason I'm here— the reason I'm doing any of this— is to keep you alive. To keep you safe."
_______

Like a star, he was glittering and ice-cold from afar, but when the space was bridged, the heat of him was endless.
_______

When he kissed her, it felt like the beginning of something that could be eternal.
_______

"I should have known - the moment I looked into your eyes, I should have known I would never win against you."
_______

“You’re mine. You swore yourself to me. Now. And after the war. I’m going to take care of you. I’m not going to let anyone hurt you. You don’t have to be lonely. Because you’re mine.”
_______

If he couldn't hide her, he would hoard her to himself as much as he was able to. She'd fallen for a dragon.
_______

"You don't get to have everything, Helena. There's a point when you have to realize you aren't going to get everything you want, and you have to choose and let it be enough for you..."


"I don't want to choose. I always have to choose, and I never get to choose you. I'm so tired of not getting to choose you."
_______

"I have warned you, if something happens to you, I will personally raze the entire Order of the Eternal Flames. That isn't a threat, it's a promise. Consider your survival as much a necessity to the Resistance as Holdfast's. If you die, I will kill every single one of them."

_______

The war was an abyss that took everything and was never satisfied. There was always more required. Another life. An additional measure of blood. Be better. Smarter. more ruthless. Quicker. More cunning. Accept a second portion of pain. It was never enough.
_______

No amount of evasion could hide him; he was the fabric of her thoughts. Her every action tied to him.
_______

"Every time you asked, I promised I was yours. Always. There aren't any exceptions or expirations dates on always."
_______

He'd loved her, even though he never expected them to be anything but doomed. He'd loved her all the same.
_______

She was a non-active member of the Order of the Eternal Flame and she did not fight.
_______

[Noelia (thisbookishlove) · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is by far one of the hardest and most conflicting times I've ever had when writing a review to date. No kidding.
I probably wrote, deleted, rewrote, and edited this more times than I could count on, to finally come up with the version you're seeing uploaded here today.

Fleshing out thoughts on paper is never easy. Some books are complex and hard to understand and dissect, allowing all kinds of interpretations about their possible deviations.

I wish I could say that those were the same things that kept me up all night regarding Alchemised.

Reality, as usual, has nothing to do with expectations.

I equate the experience of going through this monstrous doorstopper (and it certainly is, running over at the impressive mark of little more than 1000 pages) to that of coming back home from an excruciating crusade. One torturous, unending, exhausting crusade.

And here we are, my friends, at the end of all things.

I confess that when I first shelved this book little did I know what I was getting myself into. By now, I should've known better than to fall for a pretty cover, but it seems I never learn.
I was fool enough to believe that this book was something that's not.

I was today years old when I found out that this was actually the trad-published version of a very popular Dramione fanfiction (apparently, Dramione fics have become a thing since my long-gone days as a hardcore Potterhead of the first dawn).
But I was even more today years old when I learned about its controversies, mainly due to the presence of sexual assault scenes and its very problematic takes about it (I'll come back to this later on, I promise).

An unfortunate turn of events for the author, perhaps, but expected to happen when you take the most disturbing aspects of The Handmaid's Tale just for emotional impact and sensationalism, depriving it of all the social critique Margaret Atwood intended with it in the first place.

I wasn’t aware back then that I was setting myself up for the most traumatizing, discomforting and twisted story I've ever experienced as a reader.
But also, and without a question, one of the poorest written and edited ones, making it the worst book I've read in my life, by MILES.

A lot of adjectives, I know, but I'm at the brink of pulling out my hair from my scalp from seeing all those raving, biased, highly unreliable, five-star reviews.
How this has a 4.55 average rating on Goodreads is something I don't and probably will never understand (yeah, yeah, don't look at me like that. "To each their own," but I would have expected for people to do better than this. Sorry not sorry. And by the way, this ain't meant to say I'm judging you for liking a book. I'm judging certain people for their lack of judgment when analyzing this book, which is a completely different thing).

But hey, let’s look at this positively. If you're planning on publishing your book, you might have a chance after all.
The bar has never ever been so low.

For the most part, diving into this book felt like being trapped inside one big endless loop. It's the best allegory I can come up with to describe the overuse of the same recycled scenes over and over, like a bad song playing on repeat.

I've lost count of how many times I've read about Helena touring around the house, or walking down the courtyard, her infinite seizures, her eyes or vision going red, her going back and forth between the Outpost and Headquarters and the other way around to meet Ferron ( for your information, part 2 consists of 43 chapters, the equivalent of about 500/600 pages, of which 90% are iterations of this same scene), her being saved by him, him being saved by her, and the recurring scenes of both characters getting injured and being healed by the other.

For a book this long, it certainly falls short on ideas. And after finishing this, I see no motives to justify this behemoth being over 1000 pages. At all.

But besides being borderline on repetition, Alchemised suffers from some of the heaviest exposition and info dumps I have ever read in a trad-published book, something kind of expected in rough drafts from aspiring writers trying their hand at writing for the first time, but not in stuff from such renowned publishers (or so I thought) as Del Rey and Penguin Random House.

There's too much passive voice and excessive telling over showing, with a lot of relevant events happening offstage, the most obnoxious and unforgivable one almost at the very end. To give you all an idea, It's the kind of information that makes it unfathomable to think how it was simply left aside as a side note, something in the magnitude of finding out about Voldermort's death in a Daily Prophet article, or learning about Sauron's downfall because of some tavern gossip.

When a book tells instead of showing, it rips you away from the possibility of feeling what the characters are going through. It deprives you of the emotional connection we might develop towards a certain character and whatever we may feel towards them.
People cater to stories for this. We want to feel what they're feeling, see what they're seeing, live what they're living. Stories, after all, revolve around characters. Everything falls second if readers don't care about them.

Excessive telling makes readers feel the way I did while reading this.

Disengaged. Cold. Aloof. Detached.

With everyone and their mother being devastated and heartbroken, and screaming-crying- throwing out, I thought, well, maybe I'm just a savage, heartless bitch.
But nope. This is not a case of "Hi, I'm the problem, it's me", but of the book failing at its very basics of making me even care at all.

I have never read Manacled (the fanfic this originated from) nor do I have plans to. Like ever. But having learned about this book's fanfic roots pretty much explains the reasons why it can barely stand on its own.

The way I see it, you alone are setting up yourself for trouble by trying to claim this as your own original work of fiction, without changing much of the overall story, and not having seven books lore as a backbone to rely on anymore.

Without HP background, a lot of stuff just doesn't make sense, like how Helena and Luc came to be friends, how Helena and Ferron came to know each other, the motives that led to the war..... In this scenario, readers without zero clue about the fanfic are forced to do mental gymnastics to understand what the hell is going on half of the times, or who are certain characters and the role the play within the story.

Here, there aren't prior books to established how those characters came to know each other, how they interacted between them all those years and how they became the persons they turn out to be. There aren't also years and years of history that eventually led to a war.
We are just thrown in the middle of it and left on our own to figure it all out.

Without HP solid ground pretty much everything feels out of place, once beloved characters now turned into empty shells with made up names and no past. Nothing but no ones no one cares about.

Worldbuilding and magic system are also messy and not so well defined.
People have "resonance" but they still bring steel swords to a fight. There are cars, photocameras, and bombs, but fighters geared up in steel armor for battle.
There's medical equipment and knowledge, allowing a character to revert a tubal ligation, and yet the only way to impregnate an unwilling woman is by sexually assaulting her.

Magic system tries to be complex, but ends up being a mishmash and a lot of mumble jumbled words.
And even so, it looks suspiciously familiar to the one of Fullmetal Alchemist.

But, besides its dubious quality, which makes me automatically side-eye anyone labeling this as a masterpiece or comparing the prose to the likes of Rothfuss or Tolkien (what a way to admit you're smoking fungi), there are the controversies surrounding this book and the reason why it's getting so much heat.

Does this book romanticizes rape?

The answer is a much more complex one than a simple yes or no.

Deconstructing those scenes alone: yes, it's rape, and there's no beating around the bush about it. People saying otherwise are either in denial or being delusional. It doesn't matter the excuses the author comes up with further along in the story; at the moment it happens, consent is not given, which categorizes the situation as blatant rape.
What other name would you call it if your longtime partner took advantage of you while you were intoxicated, or forced you to have intercourse even after you told him no several times? Try talking a judge or a jury round about it not being rape. Be my guest, please.

I might give it to the author and the fans that the actual scenes are not romanticized. I wouldn't say either that they are treated with sensitivity, as some people say. The tone is actually dry, emotionless, not far from the one of someone giving you the weather report.

But problems arise when the author twists the narrative, going all the way to make up excuses to justify what's unjustifiable. I could summarize part 2 as nothing more than a lengthy scapegoat so that readers with 512 MB RAM memory can start developing feelings of pity and compassion towards a very questionable character like Ferron.

Looking out at the whole picture, the overall message is far worse than whether simplifying if this is romanticizing rape or not.

What this book actually does is to glorify abuse, cajoling people into the belief that love can be born out of it.
It displays an imbalanced relationship of dominant/subordinate, or rather oppressor/oppressive, one that's deep-seated in fear, coercion, abuse, and emotional dependence.

It is not love, but trauma bonding, disguised as some kind of romantic redemption. And people praising it as so and believing that a mass murderer like Ferron is worthy of devotion and redemption because of a single act of kindness or sporadic, random gestures of tenderness in the midst of all his violence and cruelty, just makes my blood boil.

I can't for the life of me understand how people are willing to turn the blind eye on a character of his caliber, with the excuse that he didn't have a choice or that he was just following orders.
Or that he did it all for a greater good, so the ways and means to achieve that actually don't matter, even if they are deeply unethical.

As society we should have learned by now that the end does not justify the means. Ever.

We could say Ferron's ways are a distorted version of the old trope "I'll burn the world for you", so typical of romantasies, but taken to the extreme, with the character killing and torturing persons, because, hey, he's doing it for her, and he doesn't have a choice, and can't you see he's traumatized?

So, in Alchemised´s fashion, mass murderers are forgivable, if they show some glimpses of remorse of conscience at night.
How lovely.
What a terrible and dangerous way of thinking.

You probably think I'm exaggerating and that I'm taking this too far. But nope. Let me elaborate.
There's actually one scene when Ferron kills a whole family with only his bare hands, by cracking their necks. Three of them, children.
Or somes scenes in part 3 when he tortures innocent people. Oh, but he´s being forced, you know. He can´t choose or he´s gonna blow up his cover. Besides, who cares for the expendable lives of 300/1000/10000 souls just to save only ONE, right?

I actually don't know what's worse. The author toying with the narrative so people can feel empathy towards a genocidal, or Helena giving two flying fu##$ about it. This scene actually exists, where he literally comes to meet her at night, after a long working day torturing people. And she greets him like nothing has happened and feels pity towards him, 'cause remember, he's doing all that because of some great cause.

People, there's always a choice.
Even those under a chain of command, who follow orders from a superior, have the free will to choose to do what's right. Even if going against them is risky and comes at the cost of your job, or your own life. There's no scenario when choice is not an option.
Ironic that being born as Harry Potter fanfic, this book misses one of the most crucial messages from that series: that you always have the choice to do what's right, instead of what's easy. It's ours choices who define us, which shows what kind of person we are.

Stating that choices aren´t our own, or that someone can´t be held accountable for its actions because he was just obeying, is a pretty lame excuse to elude that person´s personal responsability for them.

I might be an idealist (I can't help it being an INFJ), but to me, ideals and values are not negotiable. Willing to do even the worse in the name of love isn´t romantic. It´s selfish.

You see, books like this one, that deal with such sensitive topics, need to keep the rightful narrative tone, so readers don't end up romanticizing things that shouldn't be romanticized.
It's a given when you're an author. There's some responsibility that comes with it, and the stuff you put out to the world.
I don´t expect characters to be moral endorsements, nor stories to be perfect utopias, but when dealing with such delicate themes, like torture or sexual assault, you gotta keep it right so the message you wanted to convey doesn't get twisted.

For example, no one who has read Margaret Atwood would think she was justifying rape or using graphic violence as an aesthetic resource, just to add more drama.
No one who has read Wuthering Heights with a critical mind would think that Cathy and Heathcliff were tragic lovers. Emily Brönte didn't write that book for people to swoon over the idea of an impossible, tragic love, but to reflect on how destructive, possessive and consuming some relationships could turn.

I find it quite disturbing when the author puts in Helena's mouth stuff like "we were both raped", or "love isn't as pretty or pure as people like to think. There's a darkness in it sometimes. [...]. I made him who he is [...]. If he's a monster, then I'm his creator".

The scene where the last quote is delivered needs an analysis on its own, because it´s the perfect example as how the wrong narrative tone changes the perception of the story.
When a character with common sense confronts Helena about Ferron's red flags (such as his possessiveness over Helena, his isolation, and his refusal to interact with anyone other than her), and the nature of their relationship, she simply shrugs it off, regarding her feelings for him as "love".

Instead of highlighting Helena's traumatized mind, what becomes evident is the author's deliberate intention to glorify a deeply toxic relationship, one born of submission and subservience, and not one out of a pure, free love.
Instead of condemning possessiveness, obsession, and emotional codependency as red flags in a relationship, they´re glorified as true love, when actually they are not. Ask any couples therapist or check out any book on couples psychology about it. Again, be my guest, please.

When I see the author reposting Helena/Ferron fanart on their Tumblr account, or a post about emotional codependency as something to be exalted or romantic (cause you know, healthy relationships are boring), I can't help but wonder if maybe this was deliberate, and that maybe this whole thing about the book being a gothic war novel is simply a way to gaslight people who don't know much about how shipper fanfics works.

This is why I can't consider this book a war novel. People who say this make me wonder if they've ever read one (stuff like "All the Light We Cannot See", "The Heart of Darkness", Anne Frank´s The Diary of a Young Girl") or if they're just repeating what the author says like an echo chamber.

While the story takes place during one, it's used more as a setting for the story itself to develop.
You see, war stories are rarely told from the audience's armchair, by telling instead of showing, and they rarely if ever focus on the romantic relationship between two characters, leaving everything else aside.

Alchemised attempts to reflect on certain themes, but by focusing so much on said relationship, it loses all meaning. What could have been a profound message ends up being superficial.
Choosing to tell Helena´s pregnancy and giving birth to her baby, instead of making the reader live firsthand the resolution of the conflict, says it all about the real purpose of this book.

Overall, I can't help but see this book as what it was originally intended to be: nothing more than a fanfic.
It is, from a technical standpoint, but especially from a plot standpoint.
Throughout the most part, this book largely reminded me of a soap opera or a telenovela, with its cheap drama and emotional undertones. This type of content relies on intense emotions, but not on serious or well-crafted story arcs.
Putting your characters through all kinds of suffering to generate drama is not indicative of a good story; it's quite the opposite. The use of drama and violence to shock, but without substance.

Those of you who follow me know that I don't usually say don't read this, but I'll allow myself an exception.
Don't waste your time on this. I've sacrificed some of my own so you don't have to, and objectively, for the general public, this is not an interesting nor a relevant book.
I just can't imagine anyone other than fans liking this.
It's 1,000 pages of a very deppresive, boring misery porn, which I wouldn't recommend even to my worst enemy.

Don't be afraid of feeling FOMO. Sometimes, Ignorance is bliss.


*Quality based rating: ⭐️
*Liked based rating: ⭐️

TW #graphicviolence #sexualassault #warviolence #torture #violenceagainstwomen #forcedpregnancy #miseryporn #darkromance

DISCLAIMER: if you want to comment, keep it civil.
While I consider myself an advocate of freedom of speech and tolerance, that doesn't mean I'll indulge in someone else's negativity and will to start a fight over a book.
Get a grip, make yourself some chamomile tea, venture into mindfulness or consider getting into anger management therapy.
All this to say: any disrespectful toy chihuahuas barking from a tiny purse will be banned and ignored.

[Bailee Latham · Rating 5 out of 5]

6 stars. Perfection. No notes.

I honestly went into this a little bit scared, worried that it wouldn’t live up to expectations.. happy to say, it surpassed them. This is a masterpiece. Please also know that this is DARK. Check TW’s.

You can tell how much research and thought went into it. The world is so broad and intricate, the magic is SO detailed and well thought out, and the characters… they’re perfectly imperfect.

You can read this surface level, or you can dive deep. Personally I don’t know how to not read into things or how not to try and find the deeper meaning (it’s the Scorpio in me). The themes in this book are SO important, and honestly are such a reflection of the world we live in. It made my heart hurt, it made me rage, and it made me feel. The love story was phenomenal, but that’s not all this book was. It was a story about hate, about elitism, about being silenced, used, and broken for a cause. It’s about corruption in power, war caused by ego and lies, and the people caught in the middle. About how love can turn you into something you don’t want to be, and that redemption IS possible, no matter what you’ve done. It’s a story about perseverance, and love and hope when there is none to be had, even if you find it in your supposed enemy.

It was an epic story. I love the characters, and I loved this book. Kaine and Helena will live in my mind forever.

[Marianna Moore · Rating 5 out of 5]

Infinity stars. Nobody talk to me for like 8-10 business months. I’m in severe emotional pain. Without out a doubt one of the best books I’ve ever read. God tier. Perfection. Nothing will ever compare but my god did it HURT. I have so many thoughts I cannot put into words right now.

KAINE. FERRON. He altered my brain chemistry in every way. Him and Helena my babies must be protected at all costs. I like actually don’t know how to function after reading that like I can’t even think about anything else. I feel like I just got hit by a bus of emotional anguish. Art. Masterpiece. I will take no criticism. Maybe I’ll write a full review at some point but I truly don’t know how to put this into words. I feel like I need to curl up in a ball and stare at a wall for 24 hours so I’m gonna do that.

“You’re like a rose in a graveyard,” he said, and his lips twisted into a bitter smile. “I wonder what you could have turned into without the war.”

[Sreegita · Rating 1 out of 5]

EDIT : AS A SA VICTIM MYSELF, CAN Y'ALL PLS GET OFF MY ASS?

how beautiful to see a fic where draco r@pes hermione is getting trad published meanwhile everyday actually talented bipoc and qpoc authors are struggling to get even a deal
loveeeee to see r@pe fantasy books dominating the romance space!!!

it's been years since i read manacled but making romantic versions of handmaid's tale is so unbelievable; years from now we'll look at this trend of romanticizing r@pe in the name of dark romance, how we look back at coho books now. LOVEEEE how the author gave a magical reason for hermione (a member from an oppressed community) getting r@ped by someone who is from the oppressor community
a woman forgiving her r@pist and being in a romantic relationship with him!!! peak romance!!!!!

[rory gilmore]

i do not apologise for who i will be when this book comes out

[Stella]

THE Dramione fanfic being traditionally published??? Prepare to be sick of me.

[Ana · Rating 5 out of 5]

♾️ nothing will ever compare...

This was an absolute masterpiece.. I'm so unwell right now.. I didn't finish this book, this book finished me.. It destroyed me.. It's one of those books you carry with you always, in the depths of your soul.

Reading it felt like if someone punched me in the gut, then reached into my chest cavity and ripped my heart out, then put it back just to stab me fourteen times and leave me to bleed in the darkness..
There's a light at the end of the tunnel, but you'll get there bruised and battered, barely alive...

Please be aware that this a dark fantasy and while this is still a love story, it is not romantic.. Tragic, epic, unforgettable and absolutely incredible, but not a romance in the sense that most people have come to expect.. It's filled with heavy themes and soul-crushing and traumatic moments, but their love was unbreakable.
It was a love story for the ages, but so painful!
But most importantly this is a story about war, about the sacrifices they had to make, about the trauma they'll always carry, about survival. So many difficult themes were touched and a lot of parallels can be drawn to real life and that made this book hurt even more..
Please check content warnings before you decide to read this!!

My love for Helena and Kaine will never die. They suffered so much, sacrificed everything, just to not be remembered in the right way and that hurt the most. The treatment Helena was given was atrocious, she was manipulated and treated as expendable when she was the one that sacrificed so much.. I hated them, for everything they put her through!! But she was strong and determined and did everything for the people she loved.
And Kaine, I'll defend him until my last breath, he sacrificed every part of himself until only a ghost of him was left. His morality was questionable, but his love for Helena was always there, in the end he did it all for her. Their love was born out of loneliness and desperation, but it was immovable. The torture they had to endure was unfathomable, and the scars of it will never disappear, both physical and mental. They were both victims and deserved so much better..

This book is full of pain, it shows you the horrors of war and the faults of both sides, Helena and Kaine were always fighting for the different sides of the same coin...
It shows what uncontrollable power does and the dangers of religious fanaticism and just how little the government cares and how expendable to them are the lives of people they deem not "pure". It shows the impossible things people have to do to protect the ones they love and what it truly takes to take down the enemy and how far that enemy will go to show that he remains in power. And it shows how sometimes the ones who helped create that world again will just be a footnote in the history books...

This book truly and utterly destroyed me, but it was worth it! All the tears, every crash out, it was so worth it, because this book will always have a piece of my soul.. It hit harder for me, because I understand better than many people do..

For me, the pace was perfect and I didn't have that much problems following the worldbuilding, but it was slow at times.
I honestly thought that the first part is going to hurt the most, but part two and the flashbacks hurt so much more, especially when I would recognize the conversations they had in part one.. Seeing their story unfold and then remember everything that happened in part one was heartbreaking.. But the beginning of part three was for me, personally, the worst. I cried so many times I lost count.. I don't think I'll ever truly recover..
I think SenLinYu did an amazing job reimaging the world and the characters. They created a world what stands firmly on its legs, but still has everything that made it so special in the first place.

This is not a happy story, it's a story full of agony and grief and guilt and angst and so much trauma.. Now, if you wondering if it has a happy ending, I'll tell you, but if you don't want to know skip the next sentence!!
I feel like the ending was perfect for them, they suffered so much and have so many reminders of the war and to me that was the only ending that made sense. It's what they always wanted. So, yes, it has a happy ending. I wish the world knew their story and that last sentence will forever haunt me, but I understand why.

༻﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡༺

“𝓓𝓸 𝓘 𝓴𝓷𝓸𝔀 ����𝓸𝓾?”
“𝓘 𝓼𝓾𝓹𝓹𝓸𝓼𝓮 𝔂𝓸𝓾 𝓭𝓸.”

“𝓘𝓯 𝓘’𝓭 𝓴𝓷𝓸𝔀𝓷 𝔀𝓱𝓪𝓽 𝓹𝓪𝓲𝓷 𝔂𝓸𝓾’𝓭 𝓬𝓪𝓾𝓼𝓮 𝓶𝓮, 𝓘 𝓷𝓮𝓿𝓮𝓻 𝔀𝓸𝓾𝓵𝓭 𝓱𝓪𝓿𝓮 𝓽𝓪𝓴𝓮𝓷 𝔂𝓸𝓾.”
“𝓑𝓾𝓽 𝓪𝓽 𝓽𝓱𝓲𝓼 𝓹𝓸𝓲𝓷𝓽 𝓘 𝓼𝓾𝓹𝓹𝓸𝓼𝓮 𝓘 𝓭𝓮𝓼𝓮𝓻𝓿𝓮 𝓽𝓸 𝓫𝓾𝓻𝓷. 𝓘 𝔀𝓸𝓷𝓭𝓮𝓻 𝓲𝓯 𝔂𝓸𝓾’𝓵𝓵 𝓫𝓾𝓻𝓷, 𝓽𝓸𝓸.”

“𝓨𝓸𝓾’𝓻𝓮 𝓵𝓲𝓴𝓮 𝓪 𝓻𝓸𝓼𝓮 𝓲𝓷 𝓪 𝓰𝓻𝓪𝓿𝓮𝔂𝓪𝓻𝓭,”
“𝓘 𝔀𝓸𝓷𝓭𝓮𝓻 𝔀𝓱𝓪𝓽 𝔂𝓸𝓾 𝓬𝓸𝓾𝓵𝓭 𝓱𝓪𝓿𝓮 𝓽𝓾𝓻𝓷𝓮𝓭 𝓲𝓷𝓽𝓸 𝔀𝓲𝓽𝓱𝓸𝓾𝓽 𝓽𝓱𝓮 𝔀𝓪𝓻.”

“𝓨𝓸𝓾 𝓪𝓻𝓮 𝓷𝓸𝓽 𝓻𝓮𝓹𝓵𝓪𝓬𝓮𝓪𝓫𝓵𝓮,”
“𝓨𝓸𝓾 𝓪𝓻𝓮 𝓷𝓸𝓽 𝓻𝓮𝓺𝓾𝓲𝓻𝓮𝓭 𝓽𝓸 𝓶𝓪𝓴𝓮 𝔂𝓸𝓾𝓻 𝓭𝓮𝓪𝓽𝓱 𝓬𝓸𝓷𝓿𝓮𝓷𝓲𝓮𝓷𝓽. 𝓨𝓸𝓾 𝓪𝓻𝓮 𝓪𝓵𝓵𝓸𝔀𝓮𝓭 𝓽𝓸 𝓫𝓮 𝓲𝓶𝓹𝓸𝓻𝓽𝓪𝓷𝓽 𝓽𝓸 𝓹𝓮𝓸𝓹𝓵𝓮. 𝓣𝓱𝓮 𝓻𝓮𝓪𝓼𝓸𝓷 𝓘’𝓶 𝓱𝓮𝓻𝓮—𝓽𝓱𝓮 𝓻𝓮𝓪𝓼𝓸𝓷 𝓘’𝓶 𝓭𝓸𝓲𝓷𝓰 𝓪𝓷𝔂 𝓸𝓯 𝓽𝓱𝓲𝓼—𝓲𝓼 𝓽𝓸 𝓴𝓮𝓮𝓹 𝔂𝓸𝓾 𝓪𝓵𝓲𝓿𝓮. 𝓣𝓸 𝓴𝓮𝓮𝓹 𝔂𝓸𝓾 𝓼𝓪𝓯𝓮. 𝓣𝓱𝓪𝓽 𝔀𝓪𝓼 𝓽𝓱𝓮 𝓭𝓮𝓪𝓵.”

“𝓦𝓲𝓽𝓱 𝔂𝓸𝓾. 𝓘 𝔀𝓪𝓷𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓲𝓽 𝓽𝓸 𝓫𝓮 𝓵𝓲𝓴𝓮 𝓽𝓱𝓲𝓼 𝔀𝓲𝓽𝓱 𝔂𝓸𝓾.”

“𝓘 𝓼𝓱𝓸𝓾𝓵𝓭 𝓱𝓪𝓿𝓮 𝓴𝓷𝓸𝔀𝓷—𝓽𝓱𝓮 𝓶𝓸𝓶𝓮𝓷𝓽 𝓘 𝓵𝓸𝓸𝓴𝓮𝓭 𝓲𝓷𝓽𝓸 𝔂𝓸𝓾𝓻 𝓮𝔂𝓮𝓼, 𝓘 𝓼𝓱𝓸𝓾𝓵𝓭 𝓱𝓪𝓿𝓮 𝓴𝓷𝓸𝔀𝓷 𝓘 𝔀𝓸𝓾𝓵𝓭 𝓷𝓮𝓿𝓮𝓻 𝔀𝓲𝓷 𝓪𝓰𝓪𝓲𝓷𝓼𝓽 𝔂𝓸𝓾.”

“𝓑𝓮𝓲𝓷𝓰 𝓪𝓵𝓲𝓿𝓮 𝓲𝓼 𝓷𝓸𝓽 𝓽𝓱𝓮 𝓼𝓪𝓶𝓮 𝓪𝓼 𝓵𝓲𝓿𝓲𝓷𝓰. 𝓘 𝓱𝓸𝓹𝓮 𝓼𝓸𝓶𝓮𝓭𝓪𝔂 𝔂𝓸𝓾’𝓵𝓵 𝓱𝓪𝓿𝓮 𝓪 𝓬𝓱𝓪𝓷𝓬𝓮 𝓽𝓸 𝓻𝓮𝓪𝓵𝓲𝓼𝓮 𝓽𝓱𝓮 𝓭𝓲𝓯𝓯𝓮𝓻𝓮𝓷𝓬𝓮.”

“𝓑𝓮𝓬𝓪𝓾𝓼𝓮 𝓘 𝓱𝓪𝓿𝓮 𝔀𝓪𝓻𝓷𝓮𝓭 𝔂𝓸𝓾, 𝓲𝓯 𝓼𝓸𝓶𝓮𝓽𝓱𝓲𝓷𝓰 𝓱𝓪𝓹𝓹𝓮𝓷𝓼 𝓽𝓸 𝔂𝓸𝓾, 𝓘 𝔀𝓲𝓵𝓵 𝓹𝓮𝓻𝓼𝓸𝓷𝓪𝓵𝓵𝔂 𝓻𝓪𝔃𝓮 𝓽𝓱𝓮 𝓮𝓷𝓽𝓲𝓻𝓮 𝓞𝓻𝓭𝓮𝓻 𝓸𝓯 𝓽𝓱𝓮 𝓔𝓽𝓮𝓻𝓷𝓪𝓵 𝓕𝓵𝓪𝓶𝓮. 𝓣𝓱𝓪𝓽 𝓲𝓼𝓷’𝓽 𝓪 𝓽𝓱𝓻𝓮𝓪𝓽, 𝓲𝓽’𝓼 𝓪 𝓹𝓻𝓸𝓶𝓲𝓼𝓮. 𝓒𝓸𝓷𝓼𝓲𝓭𝓮𝓻 𝔂𝓸𝓾𝓻 𝓼𝓾𝓻𝓿𝓲𝓿𝓪𝓵 𝓪𝓼 𝓶𝓾𝓬𝓱 𝓪 𝓷𝓮𝓬𝓮𝓼𝓼𝓲𝓽𝔂 𝓽𝓸 𝓽𝓱𝓮 𝓡𝓮𝓼𝓲𝓼𝓽𝓪𝓷𝓬𝓮 𝓪𝓼 𝓗𝓸𝓵𝓭𝓯𝓪𝓼𝓽’𝓼. 𝓘𝓯 𝔂𝓸𝓾 𝓭𝓲𝓮, 𝓘 𝔀𝓲𝓵𝓵 𝓴𝓲𝓵𝓵 𝓮𝓿𝓮𝓻𝔂 𝓼𝓲𝓷𝓰𝓵𝓮 𝓸𝓷𝓮 𝓸𝓯 𝓽𝓱𝓮𝓶. 𝓖𝓲𝓿𝓮𝓷 𝓽𝓱𝓪𝓽 𝓽𝓱𝓮 𝓻𝓲𝓼𝓴 𝓽𝓸 𝓽𝓱𝓮𝓲𝓻 𝓵𝓲𝓿𝓮𝓼 𝓲𝓼 𝓽𝓱𝓮 𝓸𝓷𝓵𝔂 𝔀𝓪𝔂 𝓽𝓸 𝓶𝓪𝓴𝓮 𝔂𝓸𝓾 𝓿𝓪𝓵𝓾𝓮 𝔂𝓸𝓾𝓻 𝓸𝔀𝓷.”

“𝓘𝓯 𝔂𝓸𝓾 𝓭𝓲𝓮, 𝓗𝓮𝓵𝓮𝓷𝓪, 𝓘’𝓶 𝓭𝓸𝓷𝓮. 𝓘 𝔀𝓸𝓷’𝓽 𝓬𝓸𝓷𝓽𝓲𝓷𝓾𝓮 𝓽𝓱𝓲𝓼. 𝓘’𝓶 𝓽𝓲𝓻𝓮𝓭.”

“𝓨𝓸𝓾 𝓪𝓻𝓮 𝓼𝓸 𝓶𝓾𝓬𝓱 𝓶𝓸𝓻𝓮 𝓽𝓱𝓪𝓷 𝔀𝓱𝓪𝓽 𝓽𝓱𝓮 𝔀𝓪𝓻 𝓱𝓪𝓼 𝓭𝓸𝓷𝓮 𝓽𝓸 𝔂𝓸𝓾.”

“𝓨𝓸𝓾 𝓪𝓵𝔀𝓪𝔂𝓼 𝓼𝓪𝓲𝓭 𝔂𝓸𝓾 𝔀𝓸𝓾𝓵𝓭𝓷’𝓽 𝓬𝓱𝓸𝓸𝓼𝓮 𝓶𝓮 𝓸𝓿𝓮𝓻 𝓮𝓿𝓮𝓻𝔂𝓸𝓷𝓮 𝓮𝓵𝓼𝓮. 𝓘 𝓪𝓶 𝓬𝓱𝓪𝓲𝓷𝓮𝓭 𝓽𝓸 𝓪 𝓼𝓲𝓷𝓴𝓲𝓷𝓰 𝓼𝓱𝓲𝓹. 𝓘 𝔀𝓲𝓵𝓵 𝓷𝓸𝓽 𝓽𝓪𝓴𝓮 𝔂𝓸𝓾 𝔀𝓲𝓽𝓱 𝓶𝓮.”

“𝓨𝓸𝓾 𝓭𝓲𝓭𝓷’𝓽 𝓼𝓪𝓿𝓮 𝓶𝓮,”
“𝓨𝓸𝓾 𝓳𝓾𝓼𝓽 𝓹𝓾𝓽 𝓾𝓼 𝓲𝓷 𝓱𝓮𝓵𝓵 𝓯𝓸𝓻 𝓽𝔀𝓸 𝔂𝓮𝓪𝓻𝓼.”

“𝓘 𝓵𝓸𝓿𝓮 𝔂𝓸𝓾. 𝓐𝓷𝓭 𝓘 𝓪𝓵𝔀𝓪𝔂𝓼 𝔀𝓲𝓵𝓵. 𝓐𝓵𝔀𝓪𝔂𝓼.”
“𝓘 𝓵𝓸𝓿𝓮 𝔂𝓸𝓾. 𝓨𝓸𝓾 𝓵𝓮𝓯𝓽, 𝓪𝓷𝓭 𝓘’𝓭 𝓷𝓮𝓿𝓮𝓻 𝓽𝓸𝓵𝓭 𝔂𝓸𝓾.”

“𝓘 𝓭𝓸𝓷’𝓽 𝔀𝓪𝓷𝓽 𝓽𝓸 𝓬𝓱𝓸𝓸𝓼𝓮. 𝓘 𝓪𝓵𝔀𝓪𝔂𝓼 𝓱𝓪𝓿𝓮 𝓽𝓸 𝓬𝓱𝓸𝓸𝓼𝓮, 𝓪𝓷𝓭 𝓘 𝓷𝓮𝓿𝓮𝓻 𝓰𝓮𝓽 𝓽𝓸 𝓬𝓱𝓸𝓸𝓼𝓮 𝔂𝓸𝓾. 𝓘’𝓶 𝓼𝓸 𝓽𝓲𝓻𝓮𝓭 𝓸𝓯 𝓷𝓸𝓽 𝓰𝓮𝓽𝓽𝓲𝓷𝓰 𝓽𝓸 𝓬𝓱𝓸𝓸𝓼𝓮 𝔂𝓸𝓾.”

“𝓗𝓮𝓵𝓮𝓷𝓪, 𝓘’𝓶 𝓽𝓲𝓻𝓮𝓭.”

“𝓣𝓱𝓲𝓼 𝔀𝓪𝓼 𝓸𝓾𝓻𝓼 …”
“𝓣𝓱𝓮𝔂 𝓽𝓸𝓸𝓴 𝓲𝓽 𝓯𝓻𝓸𝓶 𝓾𝓼, 𝓫𝓾𝓽 𝓲𝓽 𝔀𝓪𝓼 𝓸𝓾𝓻𝓼.”

“𝓔𝓿𝓮𝓻𝔂 𝓭𝓪𝔂. 𝓘’𝓵𝓵 𝓬𝓱𝓸𝓸𝓼𝓮 𝔂𝓸𝓾. 𝓣𝓱𝓪𝓽 𝔀𝓪𝔂 𝔂𝓸𝓾’𝓵𝓵 𝓴𝓷𝓸𝔀 𝓲𝓽’𝓼 𝓼𝓽𝓲𝓵𝓵 𝔀𝓱𝓪𝓽 𝓘 𝔀𝓪𝓷𝓽.”

“𝓛𝓸𝓿𝓮 𝓲𝓼𝓷’𝓽 𝓪𝓼 𝓹𝓻𝓮𝓽𝓽𝔂 𝓸𝓻 𝓹𝓾𝓻𝓮 𝓪𝓼 𝓹𝓮𝓸𝓹𝓵𝓮 𝓵𝓲𝓴𝓮 𝓽𝓸 𝓽𝓱𝓲𝓷𝓴. 𝓣𝓱𝓮𝓻𝓮’𝓼 𝓪 𝓭𝓪𝓻𝓴𝓷𝓮𝓼𝓼 𝓲𝓷 𝓲𝓽 𝓼𝓸𝓶𝓮𝓽𝓲𝓶𝓮𝓼. 𝓚𝓪𝓲𝓷𝓮 𝓪𝓷𝓭 𝓘 𝓰𝓸 𝓱𝓪𝓷𝓭 𝓲𝓷 𝓱𝓪𝓷𝓭. 𝓘 𝓶𝓪𝓭𝓮 𝓱𝓲𝓶 𝔀𝓱𝓸 𝓱𝓮 𝓲𝓼. 𝓘 𝓴𝓷𝓮𝔀 𝔀𝓱𝓪𝓽 𝓽𝓱𝓪𝓽 𝓪𝓻𝓻𝓪𝔂 𝓶𝓮𝓪𝓷𝓽 𝔀𝓱𝓮𝓷 𝓘 𝓼𝓪𝓿𝓮𝓭 𝓱𝓲𝓶. 𝓘𝓯 𝓱𝓮’𝓼 𝓪 𝓶𝓸𝓷𝓼𝓽𝓮𝓻, 𝓽𝓱𝓮𝓷 𝓘’𝓶 𝓱𝓲𝓼 𝓬𝓻𝓮𝓪𝓽𝓸𝓻.”

𝓚𝓪𝓲𝓷𝓮 𝓕𝓮𝓻𝓻𝓸𝓷, 𝓴𝓷𝓸𝔀𝓷 𝓽𝓸 𝓽𝓱𝓮 𝔀𝓸𝓻𝓵𝓭 𝓪𝓼 𝓽𝓱𝓮 𝓗𝓲𝓰𝓱 𝓡𝓮𝓮𝓿𝓮, 𝓲𝓼 𝓽𝓱𝓮 𝓶𝓸𝓼𝓽 𝓲𝓷𝓯𝓪𝓶𝓸𝓾𝓼 𝓶𝓪𝓼𝓼 𝓶𝓾𝓻𝓭𝓮𝓻𝓮𝓻 𝓲𝓷 𝓱𝓲𝓼𝓽𝓸𝓻𝔂.

𝓢𝓱𝓮 𝔀𝓪𝓼 𝓪 𝓷𝓸𝓷-𝓪𝓬𝓽𝓲𝓿𝓮 𝓶𝓮𝓶𝓫𝓮𝓻 𝓸𝓯 𝓽𝓱𝓮 𝓞𝓻𝓭𝓮𝓻 𝓸𝓯 𝓽𝓱𝓮 𝓔𝓽𝓮𝓻𝓷𝓪𝓵 𝓕𝓵𝓪𝓶𝓮 𝓪𝓷𝓭 𝓭𝓲𝓭 𝓷𝓸𝓽 𝓯𝓲𝓰𝓱𝓽.

.·:*¨ ¨*:·.

IT'S TIME!!
I'm ready to be destroyed.. No. I'm not.. 🥀

[Kaila.Books · Rating 5 out of 5]

I couldn’t write a review worthy of this book ♾️

[Em · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF: This has the most egregious grammatical errors I have ever seen in a Del Ray, Random House published book. The prose structure is shockingly poor.

I can't finish this book. It's just far too difficult to get over the terrible, terrible grammar. In the first three chapters, there's maybe one actual sentence every ten lines or so. The misplaced modifiers are grotesque. This author has throats thinking. She has feet talking. Misplaced modifiers ruin writing. I cannot understand why this book wasn't edited and cleaned up. Writing is a professional art form. It's honestly offensive to me when hack jobs like this are published and hyped up, yet clearly the agent, the editor, and the author have made zero attempt to actually revise very basic errors most sixth graders could correct.

As the novel progresses, the grammar begins to stabilize a bit more. Unfortunately, this is largely due to the use of short, choppy sentences which "tell" a great deal instead of "showing." And the short repetition of simple sentences put me straight to sleep.

This rating is nothing to do with the premise or the story itself as I really couldn't even glean that thread through the mixed up, coagulation of words jumbled together with a period at the end. This rating is for the worst attempt at grammar and prose structure I have ever seen from a true publisher. If this had been independently published, then I might refrain from chiming in with a rating. But a book by Del Ray has had every advantage with multiple readers. What on earth were they thinking?

Is grammar necessary? I'm very aware that some people reading this review will be thinking to themselves, "but some sentence fragments are stylistic." True. But, stylistic grammar errors are always obviously intentional. An example of a book which varies sentence structure to near perfection and employs organic prose structure to show emotion instead of telling it is They Bloom At Night by Trang Thanh Tran. Tran is an author who has clearly mastered grammar, and so they know when and how to deliberately break the rules of grammar for emphasis without sacrificing meaning.

I'm certain that SenLinYu has talent, and they obviously have a plethora of ideas. Alchemised is over a thousand pages long, and no one can write that much without having lots to say. I just think their agent, editor and publisher failed them.

[Emily May · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have a lot of thoughts about this, the first being: for goodness sake, get an editor in here. Nothing needs to be this long. The second thought being: damn it, though, this was pretty good.

I didn't know until I was well into the story that Alchemised is a reworking of a very popular Dramione fanfic (Manacled) and I don't particularly care. It didn't read anything like Harry Potter and, aside from hair descriptions, Helena and Ferron don't remind me of Hermione or Draco in any way. No, Alchemised is a necromancer fantasy with excellent world-building and characters made deeply complex by the realities of war.

It is primarily a love story, of sorts, but I understand why the publishers have tried to distance it from the romantasy genre. It feels tonally very different from a lot of mainstream romantasy, definitely much darker than any of the stuff I’ve read or sampled, with depictions of rape, graphic torture, trauma, suicidal ideation, eugenics and cannibalism.

That being said, there can be no doubt that the book centres the main relationship. There is a plot outside of it about war and alchemy and necromancy, and there are compelling twists and turns, but the main conflict of the novel still feels firmly between Helena and Ferron.

Genre quibbles aside, by far my favourite aspect of the book is the clever use of a nonlinear narrative. We begin in the present of the story where Helena awakes to discover the Eternal Flame have lost the war and she is now a prisoner of the Undying. But, worse still, she is missing years of memories. As the Undying try to dig through her brain and uncover what she is hiding, she herself wonders why someone would have hidden part of her mind. What were they so desperate to hide?

I've seldom known a part 2 so drastically change my view of part 1. The discovery of Helena's hidden memories makes some things make more sense, while completely shocking on others. I thought this framing was nothing short of brilliant. It made me want to go back and read part 1 again with my new insight.

But let's get to the romance, because it will make or break it for readers. I'd recommend this for those who enjoy darker romances, because the truth is that the relationship is messed up, heartbreaking and, for a long time, unhealthy. I myself am wary of trauma romance, but I think this is one of few cases where the context makes it understandable. Both Helena and Ferron are victims of war, and I think the author depicts how deep the trauma of war penetrates. Not just for the obvious victims enslaved on the losing side, but also for those carrying out horrific orders out of fear.

A note on rape in this book— There are two scenes where Ferron is forced to rape Helena as part of a eugenics program. It is very disturbing. But I agree wholeheartedly with what Helena states later in the story: they were both raped. Had he not complied, she would have been raped by someone else and he would have been tortured and probably killed.

It is a well-documented horror story of wartime: male prisoners being forced to rape other prisoners. It is widely-understood in these cases that they are both victims of sexual violence.

Read this if you want to read a dark tale about war, necromancers and fucked up people. Do not read this if you're looking for a healthy depiction of romance. In the end, this is a story about two irrevocably damaged people who've seen and committed atrocities. I won't sit here and try to convince you that either one is good or just misunderstood. They are what they are. And war made them that way.

[Mbhabibti · Rating 5 out of 5]

I will never get over the way they destroyed themselves in their devotion to each other.

Alchemised is an emotional vacuum, leaving you hollowed out by the end. Finishing this tome of pain and suffering takes something from the reader like it took everything from its characters. How does one begin to review a story such as this? How can it be placed on an esoteric 5-star scale? This tale which has haunted me for years as a profound part of my literary psyche; the lens through which I've judged all other subsequent fiction.

Let me carve out a piece of myself for critical analysis instead, it would be easier to find the words.

SenLinYu has put the "grim" in grimdark fantasy. Amidst a plot composed of a never-ending barrage of war crimes, it's unsurprising that the content is off-putting for many readers. You're meant to feel uncomfortable and disgusted. War has never been clean and linear and black and white. This is demonstrated brilliantly in Part I with an unreliable narrator, twisting your perception until every horrifying choice unravels with devastating clarity.

The author does not shy away from disturbing topics, but they are portrayed with proper gravity where nothing is romanticized. Yes, there's a love story, but it is born out of two people desperately clinging to each other as the obligations they are enslaved by slowly strip them of everything: their choices, their humanity, their health... To call this a romance is so reductive it borders on insulting.

We're going beyond something as simplistic as genre classification when confronted with the invisible and thankless costs of war: the labor, the lives, the grey areas. Whether the motivation is love, religion, or power.... what are you willing to sacrifice at the altar of your cause?

Dozens of fictional books that center around war have passed through my hands. Perhaps hundreds. Yet none have captured the brutal, all-consuming nuances of conflict the way Alchemised does.

And despite the excitement of seeing this story brought into the light, the discourse surrounding it has been extremely misleading.

I won't begrudge anyone who leaves negative feedback because they found the worldbuilding too arduous or the gore too rampant. However, potential readers should be aware that there are many disingenuous 1-star ratings muddying the waters.

Not because they read the book and didn't like it, but because of their preconceived hatred for the ship/pairing in the original fanfiction. This is a bad-faith argument and an unfortunate side effect of dragging the fandom world from the dark corners of the internet into traditional publishing.

The whole conversation is an ironic parallel to one of the overarching themes in the book. People think they know the characters based on the narratives they've been told, while having no idea what really happened.

Lest we forget, history is written by the victors.

So, where do you go from here? You don't go anywhere. This story sits with you forever. A weight on your chest. A lump in your throat.

Congratulations, you are now trauma-bonded to a book. Welcome to the club.

[emma · Rating 1 out of 5]

read this in the same way nellie bly admitted herself to the asylum

(for a substack post)
(review to come)

[Madison Kait · Rating 5 out of 5]

it’s been dayssss since i finished this & i still more than once daily burst into tears … 6 stars isn’t enough 🥀

[Laura Greenhalgh · Rating 5 out of 5]

6 stars 🌟♾️ god tier read. I am absolutely destroyed. Dark, tragic, brutal and painfully beautiful, this book consumed me entirely and I will never move on ❤️‍🩹🥀🪦

[Uswah · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF

I’m not saying this book was bad or anything 😭 I think the actual problem here is me. I just couldn’t bring myself to keep reading 😢 I started this book four days ago, and I was still only on page 77… CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT??? I usually read 77 pages in a day but this one took me four whole days 😭 So clearly, it just didn’t grab my attention the way I hoped it would.

I don’t think this book is for me. So I’m not going to say “don’t read it” or “go read it” because honestly, I didn’t get far enough to really know the book. But if you’re reading it or planning to, I truly hope you enjoy it or even love it 🫂

That’s all I’ve got, haha. Love y’all 🫶🖤🤎

————————————————
⋆˙⟡🕯️.𖥔 ݁ ˖ pre-read ⋆˙⟡🕯️.𖥔 ݁ ˖

Let’s blame it on the FOMO 😔😔

[words stay · Rating 1 out of 5]

Disclaimer; I have not read the fan fic version, I am not and has never been a fan of the ship. I read this as a original work and treated it as such. MAJOR SPOILERS AND RANT AHEAD

Um Um … WTF???

Not only is this badly written, with over exposition, but it’s a clunky torture porn. The world building is disconnected and all over the place. None of the million side characters are interesting. The attempt to create a magic system based on alchemy does not work, it seems like the author read Brandon Sanderson, binge watched Fullmetal Alchemist and just ran with it. Kind of shoving everything here; alchemy, transmutation, healing, resonance, necromancy, reanimation - there is zero structure to the magic system. And it’s not nearly as profound as the book wants you to believe.

My biggest gripe however is the usage of violence against women, which is not only romanticised but used as a plot device to fan the flames of the so called romance??? How are we okay with a relationship which includes not one but multiple rapes???? And no it doesn’t matter if they were lovers previously, during the scenes the FMC did not have her memories, and they did not consent??

The pregnancy plot line was so unnecessary. I’m sorry but using that plot device in a fan fic romantasy is just not it. It’s glorification of abuse, and misuse of war. And the fact that this was inspired by a fan fic means the author had a great opportunity to right the wrongs and fix the story for the better?

In current times, when actual women are suffering violence in a very publicised war, this left a bad taste. Very insensitive, and well unnecessary.

The story was mediocre at best. The ending with its sappy epilogue and conclusion belonged to a different book altogether, feeling more YA than the dark tones used initially in the book. Also, the book had no business being this long. Remove the repetitive prose, and Helena’s long ass monologues over explaining the plot and the world building - easily you could have gotten a 600 page volume max.

I’m not in a business of comparing draminie fics but Rose in Chains was much better. Simpler world building, fun writing and a romance which involved consent.

This was easily the worst book I’ve read this year, and I am baffled by the hype on booktook where many readers are crying over this garbage.

[Miranda · Rating 5 out of 5]

A review? Sure. Get ready to ugly sob. ♾️/5⭐️

[Anna · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF @ 58% because finishing feels more like a punishment, and I don’t care about ANY. OF. IT.

If you know how fanfics work (serialised instalments, trope-driven pacing, familiar characters reconfigured), you know that their rhythms are different from those of a novel. SenLinYu doesn’t change the format for the traditionally published version. That would be extra work… Whatever rewriting they did on the fanfic is just as derivative, trite, and mind-numbingly repetitive as you’d expect it to be.

This simulacrum of a simulacrum makes me mad. It’s like laughing in the face of writers who actually take risks. It lacks the creative vitality that makes authors who do write retellings acknowledge their source and transform it with a new voice, energy, or perspective. I can see why this story thrived in its AO3 context, but that doesn’t translate into a satisfying novel for me. As a reader, I feel gaslighted.

And the publisher? Proudly cashing in on fanfic popularity and nostalgia while calling it “original” fiction:

[Erika Braga · Rating 5 out of 5]

Here I am again to change my rate to 5⭐️ now…. 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
I can’t leave it alone since the book hasn’t left my mind since I finished. I rate books based on how it makes me feel mostly. I know I only truly loved the last 40% but still those 40% was enough to make it unforgettable and it is literally living rent free in my mind ever since.



Ok I am actually changing the rate of this book to 4.5⭐️ instead of 4 ⭐️ only. And it’s because I can’t forget the last 40% of the book….. it’s ingrained deep in my mind 🖤


This book took YEARS out of my life……..

I’m not going to sit here and write a review pretending to be a proficient deep fantasy reader because I am not. I actually only decided to listen to this book because I was curious about the hype around it and I didn’t want to be left out 😂 …..
In all honesty I had to listen because reading was completely out of the possibility for me, I was sleeping after reading a single page, this was way too deep in fantasy for me, but listening was another experience all together, so maybe if you want to read it but also can’t , try to listen.
I am going to say here some things I disliked first and then I’ll end on a high note saying what I liked, not liked… LOVED !
So I first couldn’t get grabbed by the story, I thought the entire first part (the book is divide in 3 parts), the entire first part for me was too unnecessary long, I think we all get the gist of what it was. I was SO BORED that even listening was making me want to sleep…. Also to ME specifically as non fantasy reader it was too intricate but I am sure that for readers that are used to the deep fantasy it will be normal.
When the second part started I thought I was going to immediately loved, but it actually took a few chapters for me to be very invested in the story and I can say for a fact that I started to REALLY like it when I was 60% in it and LOVED the last 20% so those 40% are the reason this book is a 4⭐️ for me, if was only based on the first 60% I would rated 2⭐️. But again don’t follow my opinion because I am a deep dark romance reader so to me everything was too slow and not my kind of dark. But this is ME, I am sure it’s not the case for most people. I wanted MORE of their romance, I wanted more of the angst and need and I only got that in the last 40%, I was actually tired of listening only about the damn war, and I guess this is again on me because I feel like romantasy I can do it since it’s full of everything I want but only fantasy is not , I really liked how the author correlates everything with religion and politics that I loved, if you read paying attention you will see how in tune with the actuality in the world this book is, all the fantasy was really telling us everything that is now going on in the world you just have to pay attention. Regardless, when I finally got to the last 40% I was blown away, everything to me became technicolor, everything was interesting and I was on the edge of my seat the whole time, I was even mad I had to sleep because all I wanted was to finish the book and see what was going to happen to Helena and Kane.
Their love was so impossible, so difficult, so hard to choose….. they had to keep choosing each other over and over and over and no one was allowed to know, they were so forbidden that my heart kept breaking for Kane with all the decisions he had to make it, with all the atrocities he had to commit and everything was only for Hellena, she was the only thing he ever had, his life was an ocean of darkness and pain until her…. 😩
Then we have our amazing brave Helena, the one nobody gave credit, the one everyone overlooked, the brilliant mind that was “only” a healer to everyone. No one saw her bravery, her courage, her sacrifices, her pain, her agony in trying to save everyone, she was a diamond but everyone just saw the unpolished rock … until Kane….. they had to keep saving each other all the time and the weight was getting extremely heavy on their shoulders. 😩😭 the choice to love and save each other was SO HEARTBREAKING 💔
Omg I swear this book would’ve been in my God Tier if was all like the last 40% but alas here we are. That is the max I can give you without any spoilers. Unlike most people I did not cry at all until the very last phrase, that phrase is what made me LOSE MY FUCKING MIND crying, it’s what shattered me because of the unfairness, she did NOT deserve to only be a footnote : “SHE WAS A NON ACTIVE MEMBER OF THE ORDER OF THE ETERNAL FLAME AND DID NOT FIGHT” 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

for the record, I didn’t find him so repugnant. I’m so used to villains that make your skin crawl that he was fine to me. Not lovely in the beginning but not the worst either

♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️��️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️
“Don’t Want to Choose, I always have to choose and I never get to choose you. I’m so tired of not getting to choose you.”
“You are not choosing, you promised me anything I wanted. I want you to stop trying to break yourself trying to save me. Go, live, tell our daughter I saved you both. That is what I want. “
♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️
“Helena, look at you. You broke yourself into pieces over and over because of me. And you don’t seem to understand that it kills me . Living it’s not worth to me if you are the one that keeps paying the price for it. Let me fix what I can”
♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️
“ I would rather die trying to save you then living knowing that was a chance and I didn’t take it”
♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️
“We have to stop hurting ourselves for each other. Both of us, we are not going to last if that’s the only way we know how to love”
♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️
“You are like a rose in a graveyard!”

“You are not replaceable!”
♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️

[Clace]

Maybe later, when I feel like it, otherwise, I'll start hating it.
__
I can NOT read dramoje fanfics at all but I've heard this is different? And that it's dark fantasy with a romance subplot 🤭 sign me up plss 😋 I have a feeling this will eat. So, let's see if it's worth the hype 🙂‍↕️

[⚔Irunía⚔]

hopefully all the editing and amendments made to avoid copyright issues and create a 100% original work won't fuck up the unrivalled masterpiece that is MANACLED. ngl the traditionally published part has me worried and excited at the same time. i kinda like the original title better. and i relished the handmaid's tale aspect of it.

tender 👑 toxic 👑 all-consuming 👑 SOUNDS ABOUT RIGHT tho

[Emma Halbrook · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don’t even know what to say

[Ayman · Rating 5 out of 5]

this book lowkey made me wanna schedule my own my lobotomy…

“love isn’t as pretty or pure as people like to think. there’s a darkness in it sometimes. kaine and i go hand in hand. i made him who he is. I knew what that array meant when I saved him. If he’s a monster, then I’m his creator.” the gun to my temple…

i haven’t been this emotionally devastated and crazed since i came across that one quote from wuthering heights.

having read manacled before, reading this felt like seeing an ex i can’t lie. it’s faster paced (thank goodness.) it’s only predictable simply because i read manacled before but it stands on its own, i believe….kinda..i digress.

ho what do you know about love? if you don’t know about my soldiers, helena and kaine?! nothing has felt more devastating than reading them fighting for their happy ending. the trials and tribulations that war puts them through; how it changes them, it is all enclosed in these two characters. the book was so good, i personally need to go to the authors house and slap them.

For me it was “unlike most of Bennet’s subjects, Ferron’s participation was voluntary” 😭😭😭 it almost cuts deeper that “she was a non-active member and did not fight”

this book was poetic prose steeped in melancholy, yearning & tragic love. a story that lingers after the last page.❤️‍🩹

“Do I know you?” she asked as her eyes slid closed. “I suppose you do.” and suddenly the knife is at my wrist…

“you made me feel like the parts of me that aren’t useful still deserve to exist. like i’m not just all the things i can do” to be loved is to be known without words dammit

this entire book felt like a brick got SHOVED down my throat and i was shot 27 times only to be resurrected and shot again 27 times and then i lost my vision 😭

[Zoë · Rating 2 out of 5]

I went into this without having read the original fanfic, and that makes all the difference. If you’re coming in clean, here’s what you need to know:

Plot (2/5)
The premise is strong, but the execution is bloated. At nearly 950 pages, the story drowns itself in filler and repetitive setups. The middle 500 pages could have been cut in half without losing anything.

Worldbuilding / Setting (3/5)
Dense, but confusing. Names, places, and history are dropped with the assumption that you already know them. Without that scaffolding, it’s disorienting — especially with no map. You’ll know where characters are, but rarely feel grounded in why it matters.

Characters (1.5/5)
The side cast is flat, often little more than names. The female lead is reactive and defined by what others do to her, not her own choices. The male lead is compelling as a morally gray archetype, but one character can’t carry a 950-page book.

Pacing (2/5)
Painfully uneven. Long stretches of unnecessary exposition and backstory on people who don’t even matter grind momentum to a halt. Action and reveals are crammed into the final 200 pages, leaving the bulk of the book feeling like a slog.

Writing (4/5)
The prose itself is solid — clear and competent. Structurally, though, it needed a much tighter edit to truly stand as its own book rather than leaning on a fanfic’s bones.

Emotional Impact (2/5)
This is marketed as devastatingly dark, but in truth it only feels that way for about 75 pages. Yes, there are a few jaw-dropping “what the fuck” moments, and yes, some trigger warnings apply. But overall it reads more as human, harsh, and realistic than unrelentingly dark. Without pre-loaded emotional attachment to these characters, the impact feels muted.

Enjoyment (2/5)
By the end, I was glad I read it once but will never recommend it. The length, lack of grounding, and absence of earned emotional connection made it a chore more than an experience.

Final verdict:
The writing isn’t bad. The book is bad. There’s a difference. If you read the original, you may map your feelings onto this and love it. If you didn’t, prepare for a confusing, bloated, emotionally flat slog. For me, it was a survival read, not a five-star obsession.

[Youssra (semi ia) · Rating 5 out of 5]

5 stars are not enough.

🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

She was a non-active member and did not fight.

THE MOST GUT-WRENCHING LINE IN ALL OF FICTIONNNNNN😭😭😭😭

How do you review a book that took you on the most gut wrenching journey? How do you review a book that chewed you up and spit you out and you just say Thank You, Can I have some more?



Before going into this review, I want to address a few things about this book:
1. Some readers are boiling the book down to tropes and making snap judgments based on that. Does this book have some tropes? Yes it does, but the tropes DO NOT give you any clear picture of the plot or the book. They help you know what to expect.. like yes they are enemies that become lovers, but it isn't that simple.

2. I'm all for reading what you enjoy and staying away from what you don't, but deciding to not the read the book because it isn't smutty enough? pls😭 Like.. you do you.. but don't deter other potential readers by saying this book is not spicy enough?? The book's purpose is not smut 🙄

3. Do you have to read Manacled before this book? Absolutely not. I will say that readers who enjoyed Manacled will definitely enjoy this book if not more. This is a chunky book because it is a fantasy standalone...there will be a lot of worldbuilding completely independent from Harry Potter so, it is to be expected to have a substantial amount of worldbuilding for the epic journey in this book.

4. I've seen some discourse about the book's plot being the same as Manacled... umm??? Well yeah?? First of all, why mess with perfection? Second of all, was the author supposed to write a whole new book? The author changed the names, the whole premise of magic changed to alchemy and some plot points regarding some characters changed, but the whole premise is the same because well.. that's what made the book a success?? smh this comment actually stupefied me I swear😵‍💫


Ok on to the review😅

I mean... of course I loved it! ARE YOU KIDDING??? This book was a journey of pain, love, pain, angst, some more pain, little bit of joy and PAIN❤️‍🩹

Having read and absolutely LOVED Manacled, I already knew I would love this book. I knew the pain going in to it, I knew all the twists coming, I knew the impending heartbreak and guess what? It actually hit WAY HARDER this time around. I was crying, hyperventilating, and lamenting my life choices but I would do it all over again and probably will😭 This book was over 1k pages (36 hrs on audio) and I wanted it longer😭 I did not want to let them go; I wanted to exist with them and just stay with them and watch them live a happy mundane life in the end😭

The way this story was written with the different timelines just makes the reading experience 100x better but ultimately more painful. I would really really recommend rereading part 1 after finishing part 2 because it will just DEVESTATE YOU! Trust me I am a stranger on the internet promising you lots of pain from a book. 😅

The character growth of Helena and Kaine was amazing. They both grew and changed with and for each other ❤️‍🩹 Kaine was this tortured soul with a tragic past which led to his "morally gray" behavior. I will defend Kaine till the day I die! to be loved by Kaine is to be loved truly and fully forever and ever❤️‍🩹❤️‍🩹❤️‍🩹 Helena deserves everything 😭 My girl I want to protect her with my life💔

Helena and Kaine's love story is one for the ages. These two broken souls finding comfort and love with each other was a beautiful journey to witness. I LOVE THEM SM IT HURTS AHHH I MISS THEM😭😭😭 The things they went through to get back to each other💔💔 ugh my heaaarrrttttttttt💔💔💔

Some readers may find the pacing to be slow here, but for me it was just perfect. This could be due to the fact that this was like a reread for me, but I also remember being equally obsessed and enthralled during Manacled 🤷‍♀️ Reading is subjective and all that yk😅

Anyways, this book will haunt me FOREVER. I will never ever stop thinking about this epic love story and will most definitely burst into tears randomly throughout my life because I will remember something from the book.🤧 I welcome it though because as I said before, I LOVE THEM SMMMM🤧🤧🤧


If you've read this far, this is for you

[itsjessamess · Rating 5 out of 5]

I‘m utterly broken

[Lucie V. · Rating 5 out of 5]

✅️✅️ Layered characters
✅️✅️ Dark and angsty
✅️ Complex world-building and magic system (alchemy and necromancy)
✅️ War and spying
✅️ Twists and betrayals
✅️ So many feelings
✅️ Forced proximity
✅️ Captor/Captive dynamic
✅️ Very slow burn enemies to lovers
✅️ Doomed and slightly toxic romance
✅️ Memory loss (and I am usually not a fan of this trope)
❗️❗️Trigger warnings: death of loved ones (adults and children), necromancy, gore, suicidal thoughts, rape, mentions of cannibalism, torture, eye injuries, amputation, amnesia, human experimentation


Infinite stars.
This is a horrible and haunting masterpiece.


This story will rip your heart out and continue to haunt you day and night for months after you're done with it, and you're going to love it and thank the author for the emotional trauma.


I tried to put my thoughts into words, but I am still struggling after a few days. While this story has the skeleton of manacled, with the same main plot, different world-building and magic system make it a whole new experience. It still hurt even though I knew what to expect, and I am happy that it had such a deep, emotional impact, despite the fact that I was not shocked by what happened like I was when I first read Manacled.

From the very first chapter, we are thrown into the complex world-building of Alchemised. There are no info-dumps, which I appreciated. Still, it also made the first few chapters a little harder to read and understand, because they are also full of alchemy-related vocabulary that I didn’t know before reading this book. Once we are past these first chapters, though, we get used to the vocabulary and the magic system and are quickly immersed in this dark and gruesome world. The descriptions are vivid, and we can feel the gloom and despair seeping from every place Helena visits.

Quickly, here are a few words that might help you understand better what is happening at first:
-Alchemist: a person with power over something else, most likely metal. Alchemists are divided into sub-groups depending on their affinities.
-Resonance: how they call the Alchemist’s powers
-Necromancer: a person with power over the dead
-Vivimancer: person with power over the living (tissues, organs, etc.)
-Animancer: a person with power over thoughts and emotions

His shoulders slumped.
“If you die, Helena, I’m done. I won’t continue this. I’m tired.”

This is a very dark story. Early on, we can see how cruel Morrough's people are, and there seems to be no limit to their depravity. The setting, the actions, the mood... Everything is full of dread and horror, and the necromancy added yet another layer of horror to the story. There are moments filled with such heavy despair and hopelessness, I had to take breaks while reading to get my mind off the book and focus on something lighter, because the angst and darkness were getting to me.

Luc had always had a talent for making Helena feel like she was special rather than painfully out of place. She’d wanted to prove him right – that she was something, that she’d be worth believing in.

Helena is such an inspiring yet tragic main character. Seeing what she went through during and after the war was heartbreaking, but at the same time, her resilience and selflessness are so impressive. Her drive to push through and vanquish any obstacle she faced, mixed with her vulnerability and loneliness, made her such a strong and impactful main character. I could feel what she was going through, and felt like crying or raging when she was sad or angry. I love it when an author manages to make us that invested and connected to the main character.

Crowther’s eyebrows furrowed as he studied her.
“I’ve spent a year working on the logistics of replacing you… I must admit, you are the most exceptional asset the Eternal Flame possesses. And I am sorry for that.”

Helena lost everything and everyone, and she is still willing to give all of herself for the cause she believes in. Amid all this grief and despair, Helena managed to steal a few moments of peace, but she couldn't even share these little bits of happiness and love she had because it was all a secret. Throughout this story, we saw Helena become more and more isolated, as she was either forced to push people away or was being pushed aside and made to feel unimportant and irrelevant, when she was the biggest asset they had.

He was always cruelest when he was vulnerable

Kaine is complex and intense. He hides any feeling or vulnerability behind a shield of cruelty and coldness, but we come to see how intensely he can love. To the point of obsession, really. He is a compelling and very layered "villain", and he is an engaging love interest, but at the same time, how he becomes obsessed with Helena and the way he acts because of it is unhealthy. She is his salvation and his doom at the same time.

This story shows the impacts of the war with no glossing over its ugliness and the impossible choices it brings. It depicts the emotional and psychological toll the war has on Helena and Kaine so well; it truly is a masterpiece. The sacrifices and loss they both experience and the way it is described gave me second-hand trauma, but it is what makes this book so good. It sinks its claws into you, sucks you in for this roller coaster of emotions, and spits you out at the end, and while you are left trying to figure out how to survive this book, you are also thinking it's one of the best reading experiences you've ever had.

He wasn’t kind; he simply wasn’t cruel. He wasn’t as monstrous as he could be. And for Helena’s fracturing mind, an absence of cruelty was sufficient solace. For her starved heart, it was enough.

The first part makes us hate Kaine Ferron and even fear a Stockholm Syndrome romance, but it is so much more complicated than that. I do not want to spoil the book, but all I can say is keep on reading. It is not a Stockholm Syndrome trope. It is deeper, uglier, but also more beautiful and meaningful than that, but you have to push through to see how unique and highly complex Helena and Kaine’s relationship is.

” We have to stop hurting ourselves for each other,” she finally said. “Both of us. We’re not going to last if this is the only way we know how to love.”

Helena and Kaine's romance is not easy or cute. It is a very slow-burn enemies-to-lovers, but even when they finally accept and act on their feelings, it remains very complicated. I am not an expert, but I do think that while their love is inspiring in its intensity and how unwavering it is, it's also toxic because of this intensity and how far they are both willing to go to save each other. They keep putting themselves in danger, lying and hurting each other in their attempt to make sure the other one can escape the war and its aftermath alive.

” I live among idealists, but all I see are bodies. I’d like the opinion of someone who doesn’t believe that optimism somehow improves the odds.”

The idea of pragmatism vs. idealism is central to the plot, especially in the second part. Helena wants to share the beliefs of her friends and the Eternal Flame, but working in the hospital, all she sees are wounds and deaths, whether the battle was a victory or not. She is also realistic enough to realise that simply believing that if they endure, their gods will help them win in the end, because they are the good guys, will not win them a war. Especially since they are outnumbered and lack proper resources to fight the enemy and heal their wounded. She suggests realistic solutions to help the Eternal Flame, but those solutions are not deemed “pure” enough to be acknowledged. Even worse, it means Helena is being pushed aside and treated as a pariah at times because her pragmatism is viewed as a lack of faith in their God. It was so frustrating to see her try again and again to help the Eternal Flame, only to be cast aside and made to feel unworthy of their cause, when it was clear that she was one of the only ones seeing things clearly for what they were.

The ending is a punch in the guts. I can't say that it is a happy ending; it's simply a "it's not as bad as it could have been" ending. It is bittersweet and left me with a feeling of injustice for Helena and all she sacrificed. I will not say more because I don't want to spoil it, but it had such a deep impact on me when I read Manacled. I stared at a wall for 10 minutes after I was done. I knew what to expect this time, but it still left me with this feeling of emptiness and unfairness, and I definitely need to read something lighter now, because this book broke my heart.

On a side note, the playlist SenLinYu shared on Spotify is a must while reading this book. It creates an immersive, dark, and gloomy mood that fits perfectly with the story and the doomed romance.

”Be careful,’ she whispered. “Don’t die.”

Follow me on Instagram 🙂

[Karyn⁠ ۶۟ৎ · Rating 5 out of 5]

6 stars 🥀 🪦 🌖 🧠 🧟‍♂️ 👁️ ❤️‍🩹

My favorite book. Ever.

❝ Call me, and I will come. ❞
❝ Ferron always comes for me. ❞
❝ You’re mine. I’ll always come for you. ❞
He always did.
❝ You came—I guess you always do. ❞

I was born in the right generation because I got to read Alchemised. Honestly, if I lived in the Victorian era, I would’ve built a time machine to 2025 and read this book.

╰┈➤ This book FINISHED ME.

This book is definitely not a romantasy. It’s a dark fantasy with a romance subplot, but the romance scenes? Worth everything. It might look intimidating with its 1k pages, but trust me… it’s so worth it.

I did have to use a glossary for the book terms until I was like 800 pages in, so if you’re not used to complex magic and heavy world-building, then this probably isn’t for you.

There are scenes that will leave you in sheer horror, but also in complete intrigue, like “oh no… gasp… I’m gonna put down this book for 10 minutes.”

∘₊✧─────✧₊∘ . ݁₊ ⊹ . ݁˖ . ݁༉‧₊˚.

This book has officially become my new personality. I genuinely cannot hold a normal conversation without talking about it, so at this point I just talk less and keep my mouth shut.
And problem is: NO ONE UNDERSTANDS ME.

╰┈➤ˎˊ˗ The parallels between the parts? Actually insane.

➤ I read Part 1 → Part 2 → back to Part 1 → then Part 3, and I didn’t regret a single second. It was the best book journey of my life.

If there’s one thing I love about reading, it’s the parallels.
✎𓂃 I’ve always adored finding parallels like little puzzles, and this book fed that obsession perfectly. ⸜(｡˃ ᵕ ˂ )⸝♡

I literally have a full 20-page document of parallels for my own safekeeping. If one day I start forgetting the plot, it’s fine… because I also devoted hours into a 85-page recap document.

I am THAT serious and THAT in love with this book. I never want to forget a single word. I want it permanently engraved into my brain, from the prologue to the epilogue.

. ݁₊ ⊹ . ݁˖ . ݁༉‧₊˚. ∘₊✧─────✧₊∘

I can’t even properly describe the story. If you ask me what it’s about, all I can say is: it’s emotionally devastating, and reading Alchemised means sacrificing a piece of yourself and accepting that you’ll never be the same or read books the same way ever again. .˚⊹. ࣪𓉸 ࣪⊹˚.

I have to say, this book really lives up to the hype. I don’t agree with people saying it’s “unnecessarily long.” Honestly, I’d settle for another thousand pages, because if you know me, you know I’d do anything for a slow burn.

[Kathy · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF

Disappointed but not surprised she kept the rape plot. I mean what can I expect from someone who got the idea from the handmaids tale. there were so many ways she could've avoided this, magic exists in this world but not ivf, or insemination. its absolutely disgusting to have your main male character do something like this (even unwillingly) to his supposed love interest. oh, but rape is part of war and the story's about the horrors of war. yea with more reason she shouldn't have written the LOVE INTEREST DOING THAT TO HER. i have never in my life heard such insane justifications for rape.