““You’re like a rose in a graveyard,” he said, and his lips twisted into a bitter smile. “I wonder what you could have turned into without the war.””
Never before have I felt so conflicted about a book that I absolutely loved reading. I mean, Alchemised might not be without its flaws and imperfections, but there’s simply no denying that it’s an incredibly ambitious and impactful work of dark horror fantasy that explores the darkest depths of humanity, the immeasurable price of war, and the immense complexity of the human mind in the most brutally honest ways, and I really appreciate it for that.
Let’s just start this off by saying that I did read and love Manacled, which made me both extremely nervous and excited to pick up Alchemised. Personally, I think it’s impressive to see how SenLinYu took the bones of their fanfic and then used their rich imagination to rework it into a completely fresh and new story with its own unique world, politics, characters, atmosphere (gothic horror vibes for days!), and fascinating alchemy and necromancy-based magic systems. Yet while there is no trace of the HP franchise left in this book, I also have to admit that Alchemised didn’t work as well on its own as I had hoped it would, and I think it still shows that this original story had its roots in something else.
See, to me, Alchemised felt like reading a finale to a series; a series that doesn’t exist. Whereas Manacled had me in an absolute chokehold from the very first page, I found myself struggling to get grounded in this story for the majority of Part 1 (and even partly into Part 2), not because of Helena’s amnesia and unreliable narration, but because I could not find a reason to care about the endless exposition dumps of worldbuilding when there was zero emotional buy-in to the conflicts and new characters of this (supposedly) separate story. It’s almost like SenLinYu forgot that there is no 7 books’ worth of history, character & relationship development, and emotional investment for the reader like there was with Manacled, and it took me a painfully long time to get hooked into the story of Alchemised without using my love of the HP franchise/Manacled as a crutch.
However, those quibbles didn’t stop me from devouring this 1000+ page book like nobody’s business, even to the point that I binged the entire last half in just 2 days. And I am going to sound like a walking contradiction here after my entire spiel about Alchemised not standing strong on its own, but I honestly think you’d be doing this book an immense disservice by labelling (or even going so far as disregarding) it as ‘just a reworked Dramione fanfic’, because this is so so so much more than that.
For those not aware (hi, are you enjoying living under your rock?), Alchemised tells the story of Helena Marino, a once promising Alchemist and now the last remaining member of the Resistance who has become a prisoner of war after the dark side has won. Except, it soon becomes clear that her mind might be the most dangerous prison of all, and it’s up to the High Reeve, one of the most powerful necromancers with thousands of deaths to his name, to uncover the secrets of her past that are hidden within her lost memories; secrets that are intertwined with his own mysteries, and which could tear them both asunder if unearthed.
If you hear that and think: “OOOH, dark enemies to lovers fantasy romance!”, you better think again. I mean, there’s no denying that the intoxicating dynamic between Helena and Kaine Ferron is the beating heart of Alchemised, but their journey is not romantic or sexy or smutty in the slightest. Yes, there’s lots of tension between the two, but it’s not romantic or sexual tension for the majority of the story. Instead, what develops is a deeply toxic and tragic relationship born of trauma and pain which showcases how love and obsession can intertwine when broken people are desperate for any spark of human connection in a world where hope is slipping away day by day, and that is exactly why it touched me so deeply.
And even though I still stand by my opinion that there is a severe lack of backstory for these characters, I also think that their journey across the few years we spend with them through these pages makes them stand out as some of the most psychologically complex and tragically human characters that you will find in the fantasy genre. Some of their experiences are nauseatingly harrowing and some of their actions are beyond questionable (bordering on unforgivable?) at times, but to me none of the dark, twisted content ever felt romanticized or included for the sake of shock-value and only helped bring home the core themes of this story.
It’s not just the unflinching exploration of the disturbing atrocities of war that makes Alchemised such a hard-hitting story, but also the exploration of the cyclical nature of history, what actions distinguish a hero from a villain, the way that religion and faith can be twisted and weaponised, the irreversible toll that war takes on the body and the mind, the complicated immigrant experience and the discrimination and micro-aggressions they face every day, the role of women and their lack of bodily autonomy in a patriarchal society, the underappreciated importance of healthcare in times of war and how nurses are slowly dying inside while they save the lives of others, the meaning of life in a world where the dead don’t stay dead, how surviving is not the same as truly living, and most of all, the bravery of the heroes of war who are erased or forgotten because they were fighting behind the scenes instead of on the front lines. And that might sound like a lot, but at no point do any of these messages ever feel preachy or on the nose because SenLinYu does a masterful job of weaving them into the lives of these characters in the most organic and authentic way, and that only makes them resonate more deeply.
So the pacing might not be ideal and the world building might be clunky and the side cast might fall painfully flat, but ultimately I have nothing but respect for SenLinYu’s ambitious vision for this story and I think they mostly accomplished what they set out to do. And while Helena’s clinical and slightly detached third person narration (which may or may not be intentional to showcase her trauma or her desensitisation to the most gruesome horrors as a healer, I don’t know) made it harder for me to emotionally connect, this story somehow still just hurt oh so good and left me feeling exhausted in the most cathartic way possible.
Especially from the halfway point onwards, Alchemised had that addictive ‘just one more chapter’ quality that had me turning the pages like my life depended on it, and I could not look away as Helena and Kaine’s journey unravelled in the most tragic yet beautifully bittersweet ways. And maybe the final few chapters felt a bit rushed (especially compared to the extreme slow-burn pacing of the rest of the novel) and somewhat took away from the impact of the ending for me, but I also can’t deny that I was left feeling utterly satisfied when I turned the final page. Oh and that last line? That will haunt me forever more.
Ultimately, I can’t help but feel like Alchemised is a good book that could have been a great one if only it had either been trimmed down or used its 1000+ pages more efficiently, but I nevertheless think it is very much worth the read (ideally without having read Manacled). Just make sure to take the TWs seriously and protect your own mental health, because this story is absolutely not for the faint of heart and I can totally see why it will be a controversial that is just too much for some people. But say what you want, SenLinYu sure knows how to write one hell of a story, and this promising debut has me beyond excited to see what the future holds in store for their undoubtedly fruitful author journey.
