Alchemised
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • OVER ONE MILLION COPIES SOLD • In this riveting dark fantasy debut, a woman with missing memories fights to survive a war-torn world of necromancy and alchemy—and the man tasked with unearthing the deepest secrets of her past.
This stunning hardcover edition features a deluxe jacket with gold foil on the front and a full-color illustration on the reverse, gorgeous designed endpapers, a gold foil case stamp, and, from acclaimed artist Avendell, a black-and-white interior illustration.
A SHE READS BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR
“What is it you think you’re protecting in that brain of yours? The war is over. Holdfast is dead. The Eternal Flame extinguished. There’s no one left for you to save.”
Once a promising alchemist, Helena Marino is now a prisoner—of war and of her own mind. Her Resistance friends and allies have been brutally murdered, her abilities suppressed, and the world she knew destroyed.
In the aftermath of a long war, Paladia’s new ruling class of corrupt guild families and depraved necromancers, whose vile undead creatures helped bring about their victory, holds Helena captive.
According to Resistance records, she was a healer of little importance within their ranks. But Helena has inexplicable memory loss of the months leading up to her capture, making her enemies wonder: Is she truly as insignificant as she appears, or are her lost memories hiding some vital piece of the Resistance’s final gambit?
To uncover the memories buried deep within her mind, Helena is sent to the High Reeve, one of the most powerful and ruthless necromancers in this new world. Trapped on his crumbling estate, Helena’s fight—to protect her lost history and to preserve the last remaining shreds of her former self—is just beginning. For her prison and captor have secrets of their own . . . secrets Helena must unearth, whatever the cost.
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✨ Summarized by Bookclubs AI
Readers say *Alchemised* by SenLinYu is a dense, ambitious dark fantasy blending magical realism and horror. Reviewers agree it features intricate wor...
I am so glad I finally read this! I do wish I read the original fan fic and I might still get around to it to compare but I was very into this. I know it’s dark but I was really into it. I can see the Harry Potter nods but it was so unique that it was its own story for me. I don’t think I realized how much I would enjoy this sort of read but I was so attached and could not put it down. I loved the structure of the book and although a bit slow to start, part two picked up and the plot really came together for me. Definitely be prepped for what type of book this is and know that there’s a lot of gore, violence and death, so if you are good with that, this is an incredibl3 read that I’d absolutely recommend.
Alchemised is ambitious, brutal, and meticulously constructed. It is so dense that I spent a surprising amount of this massive book wondering how much more detail I could take. SenLinYu clearly can build an intricate fantasy world. The extensive descriptions, complicated magic, political history, and length of exposition often made my reading experience feel tedious instead of enjoyable.
I went into Alchemised without reading Manacled, the Harry Potter fanfiction that inspired it. You do not need knowledge of Harry Potter to understand Helena and Kaine’s world. The novel has its own characters, mythology, and magical systems. I did notice moments that felt like Easter eggs from its fanfiction roots. It has been some time since I read Harry Potter, so the references felt distracting rather than rewarding.
Helena awakens after the Resistance has fallen with enormous gaps in her memory. The ruling necromancers believe she knows more than she remembers. Kaine Ferron is tasked with uncovering what is hidden inside her mind. Their history emerges piece by piece as the book moves through captivity, war, memory, resistance, and the terrible things people will do in the pursuit of power. The story's structure gives you answers gradually. The story's length made the plot's revelations incredibly slow to arrive.
The darkest portions were difficult to read. Helena experiences graphic torture, sexual violence, forced pregnancy, and medical experimentation. The clinical detail surrounding her treatment reminded me of documented atrocities committed during World War II. Particularly, human experimentation under Nazi Germany and Japan’s Unit 731. The parallels to real life history made Helena's captivity more horrifying. SenLinYu dids not soften the brutality of villaneous Morrough winning the war.
Helena became a baddie once the resistance took center stage. She fights against Morrough while pregnant with a fierceness that I desperately wanted after spending so much time watching her suffer. Kaine gained complexity and my empathy as the truth behind his actions and magical constraints emerged. His backstory removes the frightening figure Helena initially encounters and reveals the devastating cost he has paid while surviving under Morrough's control.
The romance was never the central anchor to this story. Helena and Kaine share an enormous amount of history, suffering, and sacrifice. Instead of sacrificing itself to romance, the plot focuses on the rebellion and their individual survival. The scenes inside Helena and Kaine's memories carried plenty of sadness. They end up falling for each other because of their deeper connection. Both of them emerge as different people compared to who they were at the beginning of the story. After so much suffering, I was ready to see Helena and Kaine reach something resembling peace.
The final part was more enjoyable than the opening half. I felt the prose said some meaningful things about what parents will endure for their children. Enid leaves the novel with an intriguing question about who gets remembered by history. She learns that women can change the course of a war and still find their contributions reduced to a footnote. Will feminism and rewriting history lead SenLinYu into a sequel?
SenLinYu can write. Alchemised is imaginative, intricate, and packed with ideas about memory, bodily autonomy, war, propaganda, sacrifice, and the erasure of women's contributions. I struggled with the length of the story. My attention wandered often. Several stretches had me debating whether I wanted to continue. Pick up Alchemised if you adore enormous dark fantasies with elaborate magical systems and painstaking detail.
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