Alchemised is one of those books that’s hard to categorize. It’s haunting, immersive, and deeply emotional — but it’s also dense, heavy, and, at times, painfully slow. I can completely understand why this story has such a strong following, but for me, it fell somewhere in the middle. There were moments that felt breathtakingly raw, and others that felt so drawn out I had to put the book down to breathe.

SenLinYu’s prose is stunning. The writing has a lyrical quality that gives even the bleakest scenes a kind of fragile beauty. The world she’s built is suffocating in all the right ways — it feels lived-in, grim, and broken, like a cracked mirror of our own world. The themes of power, submission, survival, and guilt echo throughout the story, reminding me of The Handmaid’s Tale in tone and emotional intensity. But while The Handmaid’s Tale left me horrified yet clear on its purpose, Alchemised sometimes seemed to lose itself in its own complexity.

Helena is the heart of this story, and I did find myself drawn to her. She’s not the typical “strong female lead” we often see; instead, her strength is quiet and painful. Watching her navigate the horrors of her world — the choices she’s forced to make, the control she never truly has — was difficult but powerful. That said, the book’s length and narrative choices often worked against the emotional weight of her arc. At over 900 pages, the story drags in places that should have hit hard, and key moments lose their impact beneath too many layers of repetition or worldbuilding that never fully pays off.

The magic system — built around alchemy, necromancy, and resurrection — is fascinating but sometimes frustratingly vague. I wanted more structure, more clarity, and more balance between the lore and the emotional story. Instead, it often felt like the world swallowed the characters whole, leaving me adrift in beautiful but confusing prose. The author clearly knows how to evoke atmosphere — I could almost feel the chill, smell the ash, and hear the whispers in the dark — but the story occasionally became so caught up in its own world that it lost narrative direction.

Despite my frustrations, I can’t deny that Alchemised left an impression. It’s a book about trauma, sacrifice, and the gray areas of morality — one that forces you to sit with discomfort rather than offering neat resolutions. There’s something admirable about that. It’s a story that demands patience and emotional stamina, and while I didn’t love every part of the journey, I respect what SenLinYu was trying to do.

In the end, Alchemised is both a triumph and a test — an ambitious, deeply felt novel that’s as exhausting as it is mesmerizing. If you enjoy dark, character-driven fantasy that isn’t afraid to linger in pain and complexity, it might completely captivate you. For me, though, it was a little too much of everything — too long, too heavy, too meandering — but undeniably crafted with passion and purpose.