Alchemised

We dive straight into Helena’s world—dark and utterly uncompromising. She wakes up with no memories, completely alone, in a strange environment—so far, so intriguing. But what follows really overwhelmed me. Helena is not only held captive, but also tortured and completely at Kaine Ferron’s mercy. His house? More nightmare than home, complete with a guarantee of panic attacks. And as if that weren’t enough, she also has his wife against her, which in one scene nearly costs her her eyesight.

Then there are the “thought experiments” performed on her to extract information about her past and the rebellion of the Eternal Flame. Reading about someone being brutally tortured is already difficult enough, but especially so when the prisoner is as helpless and emotionally shattered as Helena. While reading, my only thought was that she needs a big hug and an extremely good therapist. What truly made me uncomfortable was the moment it becomes clear that Helena is meant to be forced to conceive a child with Kaine—under threat of further torment and group-rape. That was the point where I was on the verge of closing the book and never opening it again. Without an appropriate trigger warning (ironically, in the English version it’s placed all the way at the very end), it hit me completely out of nowhere. So, note to self: always check the trigger warnings first, even if it means flipping to the very back and risking spoilers.

Nevertheless, I have to give the author credit for not depicting many scenes in unnecessarily explicit detail. Especially during the attempts to impregnate Helena against her will, I was very grateful for that. It didn’t make the subject any less heavy, though. So please, everyone—do yourselves a favor and take care of yourselves. Just because the internet is currently hyping a particular book doesn’t mean it’s worth reading if it makes you feel unwell. It’s more than valid to stop reading—or not even start—because of certain triggers.

After my naive hope that things would improve following such a low point, I started the second part quite optimistically. But there’s no sign of comfort here either. We jump into Helena’s past, which is just as oppressive and sorrowful as the present—and this is where the book unfortunately lost me completely.

Some chapters drag on endlessly, the characters are cruel and not memorable in the slightest. At times, I genuinely had to struggle to stay awake (never a good sign). We get to know Helena as a talented healer and meet Lucien Holdfast, the last heir and final hope of the Eternal Flame—supposedly an important person in Helena’s life, but… I just didn’t feel it. Their relationship remains entirely superficial. It’s repeatedly stated that Luc is like a best friend to Helena. But for someone she would supposedly give her life for, we’re given surprisingly little substance to their bond. Their conversations seem to go in circles—“Come with me.” / “I can’t.”—and that’s about it. And unfortunately, this isn’t an isolated issue. Many characters remain flat, making it difficult to form any emotional attachment as a reader. Accordingly, my grief—or shock—was limited when characters started dying one by one. For a book of this length, I would have hoped for deeper character relationships to make the intense battle scenes more gripping. When Luc eventually falls victim to the war (it was clear from the start that the resistance would lose), I felt just as detached.

The only relationship that truly gets significant attention is the one between Kaine and Helena… and let’s just say: rape as a setup for the FMC to carry his child is not exactly a convincing introduction for a male main character. While the flashbacks offer more insight into their relationship before the events to come, Kaine—at least for me—had no chance of redeeming himself. Don’t get me wrong, Kaine is certainly an attractive man, but I can’t connect with a fictional character I know is capable of something like that. Whether he acted of his own free will or not doesn’t make much difference to me. There are boundaries that cannot be excused—and this crossed them. As a result, I viewed Kaine Ferron with distrust throughout the entire book.

Toward the end, things became even more difficult for me. The pregnancy trope simply isn’t my thing—and when it takes up what feels like a quarter of the book, I completely lose interest. I kept waiting for that one big twist that would blow me away. Spoiler: it never came. While I did appreciate reading that the Supreme Necromancer is once again declared war upon—and that this war isn’t won solely by the protagonists, unlike in many other books—the story here felt rushed and underdeveloped.

I know the book originally started as a Dramione fanfiction—and I can easily imagine that the character dynamics worked better in that context, since readers are already familiar with them, have faces in mind, and are used to the magic system. But when turning it into a standalone novel, I would have wished for more depth in the characters.

In conclusion I would say:

I often felt tempted to just pick up another book—and that says it all. For me, Alchemised didn’t come close to living up to the hype. I found the MMC more than questionable, I missed compelling side characters, and the chemistry between the characters just wasn’t there. If I could turn back time, I would tell my past self to read the fanfiction instead and leave the book on the shelf. Well—at least now I’m even more excited for my next read!