ariel *ੈ✩‧₊˚’s Reviews > Alchemised > Status Update

This book is soooo long already, but I wish we were given more information about Helena's past, the Institute, more memories of Hel and Luc's friendship (and Hel's relationships with Luc/Lila/Soren/Seb in general). SenLinYu glosses over a lot of it and it feel really unsatisfying tbh

oh my god this book is soooo long jesus lol

I realize it looks like I'm complaining a lot (I'm really enjoying this book, I promise!!) but I wish this book had a character list. There are just so many characters, and it would be nice to know who is who. I don't even care about figuring out who they were in the fanfic; I just want to remember their names/who they're related to, lol. So many fantasy books have character lists, idk why this one didn't.

This might a SLIGHT SPOILER but: One of the biggest drawbacks of SenLinYu reworking this is that there are a lot of backstory things falling in the cracks. There's still 30% left to go but the biggest plus Manacled had was that it was formed from existing IP. There is a lot of worldbuilding, but it's heavy-handed and lacks the charm/realism that HP world has, for better or worse (fuck JKR lol)

screamingcryingthrowingup

SenLinYu is not great at writing action, or emotions of the characters. It's hard to visualize what's going on, or to even know how Helena is feeling or what she's thinking. Prob one of the biggest weaknesses of the book

“Calculating, Cunning, Devoted, Determined, Ruthless, Unfailing, Unhesitating, and Unyielding.”

Oh this is incredible. Idc what the nay-sayers say lol this story is still just a masterfully crafted.

Adding this book to my "horror" shelf. This book is no joke--very intense, very gory, very violent. I like horror, but body horror is hard to read. I am absolutely loving this book, and it's checking off every thing that I like about dark fantasy (romance? just not yet lol). This is a very slow burn, but I'm thoroughly enjoying it.

Shout out to my library 😎 (I was first in line 🏃‍♀️💨)