Alchemised

Line

Amazing, heart wrenching, dark, beautiful and intense!

"(Bought this as a Kindle book, so the physical book is irrelevant in this review.) What an amazing, heart wrenching, dark, beautiful and intense story! The plot twists and story telling is superb (Of course I had to read part 1 again after having finished part 2!). You can't help but love the main characters, and bite your nails for them. Outstanding writing! (and although I have read Harry Potter, I was able to put that aside when reading this. It stands so well on its own feet!) Spoiler alert: - - - - . And YES, they got a happy ending. Thank god, otherwise I would have given the book just one star. ["

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April 4, 2026 Verified Purchase

Kristine E

Not for the faint of heart

"Okay. I've got some major thoughts on this - so, if you're game....here we go. First of all, I almost didn't even read this book. The first time I actually heard about this book was that it was a Harry Potter fanfic where Draco r@pes Hermione. Seriously? First of all, HP was a long time ago for me and second of all....why? So, it was a no for me. Then, all of a sudden, I started hearing a lot of buzz around the book. That it was getting traditionally published. The name was changing from Manacled (the name of the fanfic) to Alchemised and surprisingly, the reviews were not bad. And then there were A LOT of good reviews. So, I was perplexed. What to do???? First of all - it is probably not a good idea to start a book that is over 1000 pages in the middle of the very busy Christmas season (My bad - but that is neither here nor there.) Okay, honestly, my thoughts in the beginning were all over the place. Truly, and of course, this is just my opinion, but the book did itself a HUGE disservice the way it is formatted in terms of time periods. The book starts in the "present" timeline for Part One and we spend quite a bit of time there. THEN we move to Part 2 - which takes us back in time to actually explain HOW we got to where we are now. I started this and had ABSOLUTELY no clue what the heck was going on. It was confusing, and the world building was non existent. It felt like I was dropped into the middle of a story that had started ahead of me. THIS is where I think having the knowledge that there was an entire world that had been already built (the Harry Potter universe) actually came in handy for me. Granted, as I mentioned before, HP was a long time ago for me, but I remembered the basics and I felt like I could kind of catch my breath by inserting the HP world in my head. Things like where our FMC was being held - understanding that it was Hogwarts when it was called Headquarters, actually helped me to get some kind of grip on things (there are statements about decorations being taken off and wall art missing). But still. It was a huge mess in my head and the characters did not do much to help me feel invested. The MMC - Kaine Ferron - was just awful. Completely awful without giving us a background on the "why" behind his behavior. And then don't get me started on the whole alchemy stuff. And resonance? And there was a war, but now there were regenerated bodies everywhere??? I was lost. Where the story actually gained its footing was during Part two - which was 4 1/2 years in the past. It is where we actually follow along and discover the events that happened prior to the time period that we were dumped in to. I think it was probably 1/2 to 3/4 of the way through Part Two when I stopped reading/listening, and went back and actually reread the entire section of Part One. Because NOW I could now understand and see the WHY behind the actions and reactions that had taken place in the beginning. Now I had some context - particularly regarding one particular character. The sad thing is that I almost never gave this book that chance. The beginning was so disjointed and so confusing, not to mention extremely graphic with some really terrible events that I seriously thought about DNF'ing. A LOT. Like many, many times. But I decided to keep going just a bit longer. In the end, I am so glad that I did. I read this really long review about how this book was garbage and that the entire book romanticized r@pe. That one review almost stopped me from reading it. In the end though, my opinion of this book went through a kaleidoscope of emotions that at any given time in the book differed depending on WHERE I was in the book. Did a r@pe occur? Yes. Was it awful? Yes. It isn't until you get to Part Two of the book that you realize that that those events were awful for both parties. I'm not justifying anything, I'm just explaining my feelings. The sad thing is that these events were not even the worst things in this book. Not even close. This book is dark. The author warns us in the very beginning. It is not a book to go into lightly. BUT, it is a journey that is compelling, and at time excruciating. We meet the two main characters - Helena Marino and Kaine Ferron -who are on opposite sides in a war. They meet knowing that they are both using each other. They both KNOW that they do not have a future. But as in life, things never really go as planned. The last things that I'll say is that by the end of the book, I WAS invested. Invested in the book, in the characters, and in whether or not there was any possible future for them? How they could possibly come back from the events that brought them to that point? Apparently, this is a debut novel. If so, that is impressive. Could it have been shorter? Yep. Probably quite a bit shorter. But, with that being said, in the end I could not put the book down. I alternated between reading and listening and I had to make myself stop reading to actually switch to audio to go and do real life things (remember, busy Christmas season....). The audio was performed by Saskia Maarleveld who consistently does a great job with narration. My advice, if you choose to start this book is to make it past Part One. In my opinion, the book would have made much better sense if it had been formatted that way (Switching Part Two and making it Part One) and the pacing would have done a better job of building upon itself, but what do I know? But I will say this.....the fact that I finished a 1000+ page book in a day and a half says something. ["

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December 13, 2025 Verified Purchase

Shivaani Mahabir

A most awaited controversial dark fantasy novel that does not wholly disappoint

"There is so much to say about this book. I’m not sure how to structure this review but I’ll give it my best try. When I read Manacled, it was obviously based on an existing world and we knew the major characters’ backstories. The villain was already explained and was terrifying. Entering that book was like returning home for an adult version of the stories that made you excited as a child. It was heart wrenching and so dark - the love story was painful at times and the most striking part was the sacrifices that the main characters made to get their happy ending. For Alchemised, we now are taxed with entering a universe that requires new world building, new rules, shadows of old characters we may or may not know intimately and this both works for and against the novel itself. On one hand, the only way that the High Reeve could really instill fear and a sense of true enemies to lovers, would be if we knew more about his life. The novel is written in such a way that we jump into his introduction and don’t quite know enough to hate him. The story can trick you into being doubtful about his motives, much earlier than anything in Manacled did, since we don’t fear him or truly appreciate what a 16 year old ripping someone’s heart out would do to his reputation, in a world where there is no before - there is only the reality of war and death that we become so familiar with, that it blurs the impact of Ferron’s ruthlessness and cruelty. With Manacled, we knew the happy times and the pre war era so well. We could appreciate how dark and worn down the characters became much better, in my opinion. The reason I belabor this point, is to say that without the shadowing of Manacled, I don’t know that we would become so invested in this couple and their happy ending, which is the entire point of their famous enemies to lovers fan fiction movement. Taking that away for a moment, the pacing and intricacy of the plot and the sheer intelligence of the main female lead, were all mind blowing, as in Manacled. This book makes me saddened since the author possesses so much creativity and injected so much complexity into this plot, however she will surely never be able to stand distinct from the original universe since it began as fan fiction on the laurels of someone else. How I wish she could have changed more about the premise - school, academic rivalry - it could all have been better distanced to give her more credit. Her intricate plot design would have withstood distancing from the key areas of ‘plagiarism’ so I wished the author would have changed more. The debate is rife with readers about the use of another person’s intellectual property to make one’s own art- I’ll say that this author could have done more to exempt herself from this sticky situation. If you don’t get into the ethics of it, then this book comes down to writing style, pacing, plot, character and world building - all of which are never perfect in any one novel, but altogether come close to being done quite well in this novel. I’m hopeful we can get a follow up story with the second generation, however, I’m afraid of how dark it would need to be to be consistent. Tired of bad things happening to these beloved characters. Now I’ve rambled enough and hopefully made a few points in there. I highly recommend reading Manacled first and then coming back to this in a few months since the comparison is worth the time. Thanks for reading! ["

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October 7, 2025 Verified Purchase

Vals

Devastating in ways that I wasn't expecting

"Honestly, I'm speechless. For many reasons. First, the magic system and world-building are complex and sometimes the descriptions and explanation regarding each of them felt redundant, but then I was actually grateful for them, because I needed the reminders if I wanted to make it through the 1000+ pages with an understanding of what was happening and how. This said, I loved every part of it. Should I really get into the characters? I mean, for such a long book with such a dense, dark and complicated story to work the characters must have layers, complexity, depth and their arc has to make sense, not just happen. Well, for me SenLinYu achieved to do this and more: her prose sucks you in a vacuum where you can feel what the characters feel, thus having them stuck with you. This book is nothing like what I expected based on the comments on both this and Manacled, which I haven't read. While I always thought they would be two complete different stories except for some minor similarities, I've based my expectations on the huge focus put on the romance aspect of it, which from the widespread comments appears to be devastating in a specific way — like a tsunami. So, I kept waiting for the romance to punch me in the gut, but it didn't happen. What happened, though, is far worse: Kaine and Helena's love story slowly gnawed at my soul, while carefully putting all it's weight on heart one painful encounter at a time. Their feelings lingered with me every time a wasn't reading, and by the end I shared with them the dread of something coming, because it was too good to be true. Last, but definitely one of the things I enjoyed and admired more, the prose. SenLinYu writes beautifully and consciously, knowing when to give in to more lyrical prose and when to be more straightforward. Moreover, I agree with those who appraise the juxtaposition in her writing: she describes gore, trauma, pain and torture with such lyrical prose that is painfully beautiful. Her writing drenches the pages in the sensations she tries to make her reader feel: like Helena and Kaine, I spent most of this book with the dread of anything bad possibly happening at any time, and I shared her suspicions and paranoia when things seemed fine. I felt their despair and, in the end, I cried when I didn't expect to, because all was well, but they went through so much and yet, he'd be only remembered as the worst of the enemies and she, well... she did not fight. So, I was expected to have my soul shattered and my heart ripped out with more than one punch, which made me totally unaware of how deep this story was affecting me. In the end, it did devaste me, but in a way from which I don't think I'll ever recover. ["

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September 28, 2025 Verified Purchase