Book Review : Alchemised by SenLinYu

Genre: Dark Fantasy

Pages: 1,024 (Hardcover)

Spice: 🫑

⭐⭐⭐.5

Trigger Warning: This book contains scenes of rape.

Spoiler-free Review!

Summary:

After the war, Helena cannot remember a thing. Her mind has become a maze, her memories lost. As one of the last remaining members of the Eternal Flame, Helena is taken prisoner and given to the High Reeve. Second in command to the High Necromancer, Morrough. She is taken to Spirefell, where the High Reeve is tasked with unravelling the tangled web of her memories, discovering what she is hiding, and who she is protecting.

My Review:

Okay, there is a lot to unpack with this behemoth. Starting off, I was as confused as Helena was. You are thrown into the story and world as though you know what's going on. Yet you have absolutely no idea what is going on or what anyone is talking about. I do think this was the authors intention though. To have you as disoriented as the main character so you feel how she is feeling. But it just made for a rocky start. Trying to decipher what they are speaking about when they're using words that should have been in a glossary, was next to impossible. Resonance, transference, transmutation, vivimancy, animancy, liche. I felt like I was reading a science textbook. This made the first part of the book exhausting to read. It took me a long time to get through the first 100 pages.

I want to briefly touch on the non-consensual scenes. These scenes are not explicit, however, it is still described in present tense and is extremely traumatic for the characters. I do not feel like it was discussed enough later in the novel. This was something horrible that Helena endured and while it was not "shoved under the rug," I feel her trauma from it should have been touched on a bit more.

The magic system. Oof. I had to make notes. Literally. As I mentioned earlier, this novel really needed a glossary. It wasn't just a complex magic system, it was over complicated without proper explanations. It was just kind of a figure it out as you go along thing. I still don't really understand how the Undying are immortal. Something called a phylactery? I don't know. The author just kept adding more and more things that didn't make sense and it turned my brain to mush.

I think my all around biggest issue was that I had no real emotional connection to the characters. And this is where it originally being a fanfiction hurt the book a bit. In the original piece, titled Manacled, the story centers around an already well known and loved character. We know why she would feel the way she feels, do the things she does and has unyielding love for the other characters. But Alchemised centers around Helena. We don't know Helena. You can tell me she has an unwavering loyalty to someone but...why? You really aren't given much backstory on the main character at all. Certainly not enough to understand her choices. I spent 1000 pages with Helena and feel like I still don't really know her.

Our side characters are basically throw aways. I know that I was supposed to feel something for them, but again, we aren't really given anything. They are just kind of...there. The High Reeve on the other hand. Kaine Ferron is the only one I felt any emotional connection to. This is because the author actually took the time to create his character. We were given a solid backstory, explaining who he really is and why he's making these choices. I knew Kaine by the end and I was rooting for him.

I never thought a book could be both too long and not long enough. Alchemised is broken down into three parts. Part 1 takes place in the present, Part 2 in the past and Part 3 is back to the present. Parts 1 & 3 were not long enough, while Part 2 was way too long. The ending of the story felt so rushed and it took away from the emotional impact.

I truly think this book would have been excellent as a series. It would give the author a chance to create those backstories the characters so desperately needed. We could see more of Helena's relationship with Luc and understand her loyalty to him. This would also give the opportunity to show more of the romantic love between our main characters. Because I really wasn't buying them being desperately in love with each other. All I saw was a trauma bond.

The overall plot of Alchemised, was amazing and original. While traumatic, heavy and dark, it was well thought out and very good. But please don't go into this thinking it is a Romantasy, it is not. There are no fun, romantic or even light hearted moments in this book. It is distressing, brutal and an all around hard read. Is the story worth it? Yes. Absolutely.