Title: Alchemised
Author: SenLinYu
Genre: Dark Fantasy
Year of publication: 2025
BLURB
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.
Well… this book was HUGE. But I loved every single word, sentence, paragraph, and chapter.
Admittedly, it took me about two weeks to finish, so I won’t bore you with a full plot recap. Instead, here’s what I took away from it:
• Very dark, but with moments of beauty
• A determined, strong, and fiercely loyal heroine
• A deeply broken, scarred leading man who loves his people intensely—almost to the point of obsession
• A brutal, tragic, and horrific war.
It was heartbreaking and devastating, yet I genuinely really enjoyed this read.
That said, I do think it could’ve been trimmed down a little (please… no more wandering around the gardens or the house!) but still a solid 4.5 stars from me.
Sound like something you’d like?
CJRTB Books 