Alchemised was worth it

Alchemised tore out my heart, stomped on it, put it back, and did it all over again. This tragic love story is nothing like you thought it would be and that is everything.

Read my 4-star review.

Helena is discovered as a forgotten prisoner, awake in stasis. Considered an insignificant healer of the Resistance, the question was why had someone gone to such lengths to do transmutation to her brain and hide her memories. The war is over and the corrupt guild families and necromancers are in charge, led by the evil Morrough. To uncover what her mind is hiding, she is sent to the High Reeve and his crumbling estate. As he tries to retrieve her hidden memories, she tries to uncover his secrets and save what is left of herself, no matter what. Is she trying to save a lot more than she thinks, maybe everything?

With an intimate 3rd person POV curating the protagonist's situation so vividly, you feel you can touch it; this book had me enthralled from the prologue. This is a very dark world, in nature and how it is perceived. Its viciousness constantly shocking. With a gothic underbelly and lyrical brushstrokes through the descriptions, the prose is thrumming with power, creeping and intense, bearing ominosity you can taste. We have a magic system that has to do with death and life, using it or stopping it, and alchemy as the title suggests, but not as you would expect it to be.

Helena's confusion due to her memory loss and her inner turmoil are depicted admirably as if we are experiencing it with her. It's a psychological battle, amid her discoveries and musings, plus her dealings with Ferron and all the corruption surrounding them. The narrative is permeated with melancholy and the brutal & violating manner of her situation as we discover what is going on. A most clever and engaging way to convey the worldbuilding and magic system. The truth is you must concentrate for there is much to learn, or you will be lost.

Kaine Ferron can be terrifying, just by standing there, aloof. With two words he can convey a hundred meanings or nothing, but is always bringing you to attention, even if you don't wish to. And he is unfathomably dangerous. He begins by being insultingly caustic and cruel to her, but Helena is a lot stronger than she thinks. She is fighting back any way she can, against seemingly insurmountable odds. Sarcasm runs amok between them, often smirk-worthy. Their torturous in more ways than one antagonism is electric. The mind games you can say are literal.

I love how the author took her time to tell this story — the right time. Confrontation by confrontation, reveal by reveal, its gradual, clever buildup is dynamic, the evolution of the relationship and plot beautifully crafted. There is so much more than the anticipated prisoner and her warden, falling for each other premise. You never know what is coming next, and without loud fanfare, though vibrantly portrayed, we are always surprised. Especially when the memories come... I appreciate that the author served them to us in flashback mode, a whole book part, moreover that atomic bomb of a reveal. I love it when a book pulls the rug from under you and this one is done spectacularly.

As much as I loved this book, I cannot pretend that a much better editor was needed. There were parts where the infodumping just got to be too much, sometimes things you didn't really need for the story, others should have been spaced out better. Many of the explanations for the magic system were very confusing. Also, Morrough, I'm sorry, sounds like a butler, not the evil master he represents. The name was too weak in my opinion.

As memories are the treasure here, the goal who gets to keep them, it has us pondering on their nature. Deemed as Harry Potter fan fiction (if Voldemort won the war) x Handmaid's Tale, it is very much its own thing, even though I do envision the High Reeve as a mature Draco mixed with Jamie Campbell Bower. Here we examine oppression, the toxicity of patriarchy, the crave for power and the face of evil. The pitfalls of fanaticism in any form. We question the essence of the soul. The consequences of war, the toll on human decency, no matter what side. How we deal or do not deal with pain.

This novel feels like it has been written by an old soul, capturing afflictions of the human condition with raw energy. Mortal enemies, in a gut-wrenching predicament and so many emotions they do not know what to do with, this is a story of grief for what could have been, a tragically beautiful love story.