Quick Synopsis

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.

Publisher’s Synopsis

“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.

Book Review

Let me start out by saying that I knew nothing about Alchemised, other than it was being talked about, when I requested it. I did not know that it was originally online fanfiction based on a certain series written by an anti-trans author. But when I learned about this, I decided to go ahead and give it a read, irregardless. I have not read all the HP books but I did not see any resemblance to what I know about them. In fact, there were more similarities to The Handmaid’s Tale than any other novel.

Alchemised is a romantic fantasy novel in which the protagonist, Helena, awakes after being semi-awake in a stasis tank post-war. She remembers nothing about her life before and is a prisoner to the regime she fought against. Not believing that she was a lowly healer, Helena is sent to the High Reeve, a ruthless necromancer, to have her memories resurrected.

This is one of the longest novels I have ever read, at over 1,000 pages. I do think it would have been just as good if it was shorter. Particularly in the beginning, there was too much boring mythos and minute details. This initial slog may be because SenLin Yu originally posted the text on AO3, and this traditionally published version needed to be distinguished from the original publication and its inspiration. Either way, I could see some people deciding that the first chunk is not worth getting through.

If you asked me to describe Alchemised in two words, I would say it is quietly devestating. For a book that is sold as a romance, the novel is very heavy, with most of it occurring during an active civil war. Heartbreaking events are the norm, rather than warm fuzzies. Characters are repeatedly forced to make life-or-death decisions as well as sacrifices. Personally, I do not love books that I feel emotionally manipulate readers, but I do not think that Alchemised crossed into that territory.

Although I enjoyed the novel overall, there were a number of issues that continued to vex me after I finished it. If you cannot tell by the title, Alchemised uses misspelled words as stylization. This is far from my favorite thing as every time I see an error or misspelling, I am taken out of the story. While that is a relatively minor issue, I had difficulty looking past the fact that the book is set around 1788ish and there are things that exist in the narrative that are twentieth century inventions. Essentially, Yu took what she wanted from our world and what was convenient to the plot and stuck it in Paladin with no explanation. I found it to be an odd (and somewhat lazy) choice.

However, my biggest quibble is that Alchemised‘s major plot points were rarely detailed enough for me to fully understand the events or their meaning. I continually felt as though I was missing something that was supposed to be assumed or obvious but was not. Similarly, I am still unsure whether one of the central relationships was platonic or romantic, and that seems like something I should know and is essential to fully comprehending the magnitude of events. I think this is likely a vestige of the book’s fanfic origins. Because the story started based on another, the world-building was already a given. But as this book became something more, the world and its magical system were not explicitly described. I think both Alchemised and SenLin Yu have promise but I cannot help but feel like it could have been a truly glorious novel with some additional editing and rewriting.

Overall, Alchemised is an entertaining, albeit sad novel, that may have bitten off a bit more than it can chew. The characters are compelling as are the events that sculpt them, but there is a piece that missing and crucial to making it a great novel. I recommend it, especially if you are a fan of the genre and don’t mind a long haul.