Alchemised

1030 pages was just not enoughhh

My Rating: ★★★★☆Okay, so before we get into Alchemised by SenLinYu, I feel like we need to acknowledge something.This was my THIRD attempt at reading this book.Third.Apparently Alchemised and I needed to go through our own enemies-to-lovers arc before I could finally appreciate it.And you know what?I'm really fucking glad I gave it another chance.Because I can absolutely see why this story became so popular when it was originally released.There is A LOT happening in this book. Alchemy, necromancy, war, politics, trauma, memories, morally questionable decisions, approximately seventeen thousand moving pieces...Okay, slight exaggeration on that last one.But somehow, it WORKS.This isn't a book I'd recommend picking up when you're looking for something light and easy to disappear into for a few hours. Alchemised wants your attention. There are details you need to remember, connections that slowly begin making sense and moments where something clicks into place and suddenly you're reconsidering things you thought you understood hundreds of pages earlier.And I think that's ultimately what made pushing through those opening chapters worth it for me.Because those first few chapters?They nearly defeated me.Twice.I'm very much someone who can be won or lost within the beginning of a book, and Alchemised takes its time. There is a LOT to absorb before you really understand the world you're being thrown into, and personally, I struggled to connect with it initially.Then something clicked.And suddenly I understood why everyone had been screaming about this book.Also, can we discuss the SIZE of this thing?!I originally downloaded the audiobook without paying much attention and discovered a THIRTY-FIVE-HOUR audiobook sitting in my library.Thirty-five.HOURS.I genuinely looked at it like, “Surely fucking not.”Then I discovered the physical book is 1,024 pages and suddenly thirty-five hours seemed completely reasonable.Still mildly terrifying.But reasonable.What really impressed me, though, was how something this enormous managed to justify its size. There are so many layers to unravel that cutting huge portions away would fundamentally change the experience. This is the kind of story where you're meant to sit with the confusion for a while. You're meant to question things. You're meant to slowly piece everything together alongside the characters.And when those pieces DO start coming together?That's where Alchemised got me.It is dark...and I mean genuinely DARK, not "he growled at her and owns a motorcycle" dark. There are incredibly heavy themes throughout this book, and the trigger warning list deserves to be taken seriously.This is absolutely one where you should check those warnings before committing yourself to 1,024 pages of emotional suffering.But if you love enormous, intricate fantasy novels that demand a little patience from you before rewarding it, Alchemised is absolutely worth experiencing.Especially if you're someone who loves complex world-building, morally complicated characters, stories shaped by war and trauma, mysteries that slowly unravel, and books where seemingly small details eventually become much more important than you realised.And if you've already tried Alchemised once and couldn't get into it?Apparently I'm living proof that sometimes DNF doesn't mean NEVER.Sometimes it means, “Come back when your brain is prepared for 1,024 pages of necromancy and emotional damage.”It took three attempts, thirty-five hours of audiobook staring me threateningly in the face, and a little determination...But Alchemised finally got me.

Un libro excelente