Alchemised Review
Alchemised was released towards the end of last year. It is a dark fantasy featuring necromancers, alchemy and war. The book started its life as Manacled, a Harry Potter and The Handmaid’s Tale fanfiction. In that iteration it had been downloaded more that 20 million times. To say it was trending would be an understatement. Written by Senlinyu, it went under a transmutation – much like in the book – to become Alchemised, removing the intellectual property associated with Harry Potter.
I was desperate to get my hands on a copy and asked the publisher for an ARC (Advanced Reader Copy). But when it arrived, I couldn’t quite bring myself to start it. Partly because the book is 1024 pages long. Jump to a few weeks ago, when I had lunch with Jayde and we decided to do a buddy read. This was the motivation I needed to pick it up. I’ve tried to outline my thoughts in a non-spoiler way for you.
What’s it about?
In a world ruled by necromancers, a woman with missing memories threatens the dark order that keeps her captive - and the man sent to break her. Gothic in tone, epic in scope - this debut is destined to become a modern classic. Once a promising alchemist, Helena Marino is now a prisoner – of war and of her own fractured mind. The Resistance is crushed, her allies dead, her abilities suppressed.
The world she knew is gone. Paladia’s corrupt guild families and their necromancer overlords, aided by vile undead creatures now rule - and hold Helena captive. Resistance records claim she was a healer of little importance.
Yet, Helena’s inexplicable memory loss makes her enemies wonder: Is she truly insignificant, or do her missing memories conceal the Resistance’s final secret? To uncover the truth, Helena is delivered into the hands of the High Reeve – Paladia’s most feared and merciless necromancer. Trapped on his crumbling estate, she must fight to protect what remains of herself and unearth the secrets buried in her mind, her prison, and her captor . . . whatever the cost.
Robyn’s Review.
This is a story that drags you through a dark and gritty war-torn world, messes with your emotions and you’re thankful for it. This book consumed my life. I woke up thinking about it; I prioritized reading it over life chores and had anxiety in anticipation of the ending.
The first few chapters intrigued me, although I did find it difficult to follow some of the terminology. We start of just as confused as Helena is, as she wakes up after she and the resistance have lost the war. Once Helena is moved to the High Reeve’s house, I was more invested. The mystery of Helena’s memories being missing, the slow drip feed of information we get about how the world works, and the relationship between Helena and her captor made me keep reading.
The book is divided into three parts, and I had seen lots of people saying that you should read parts 1&2, then go back and re-read part 1 before moving onto part 3. I can see why people suggest this, and I was sorely tempted. But at 1024 pages, I couldn’t justify the time it’d take and delaying me finding out the ending.
For me, part 2 is where this book really shined and luckily it was the biggest section. This is where you get to really know the characters. To the backdrop of a vicious war, we learn just what Helena and Kaine are willing to do to win this war. There were some brutal and horrific scenes juxtaposed with some beautifully tender moments. My heart was constantly pounding from the rollercoaster of emotions that this part evoked in me.
In some parts of the book community, people will award six stars out of five – this represents a book touched your soul and viscerally changing you as person, it’s a rare but high accolade. For most of this book, I was sure I was going to award it six stars. Something that I’ve never done before.
However, I feel like I had begun to expect a certain ending – one that we did not get. I was mentally and emotionally preparing myself for it and it just never came. The ending wasn’t bad, and right up until the last page, the book is making an important point, it just wasn’t what I was expecting.
As someone who was a fan of Harry Potter and a huge admirer of Margaret Atwood, I was looking out for the similarities between Alchemised and these titles. I was surprised to see so much of The Handmaid’s Tale still present, but as The Handmaid’s Tale doesn’t contain anything that hasn’t happened within history, it makes sense that in such a dark book there would be elements. If you don’t know Harry Potter, I think you’d find it difficult to identify any similarities, but I did pick up on a few.
Would I recommend it?
Absolutely! But it’s not for everyone. I would strongly recommend reading the content warning for anyone who is worried about what they might be reading. SenLinYu has does an incredible job at taking characters and making them completely her own, characters that you’re invested in, but this can make it difficult when they’re going through traumatic events. The slow dissolution that one character goes through is completely heartbreaking.
