Alchemised
In this riveting dark fantasy debut, a woman with missing memories fights to survive a war-torn world of necromancy and alchemy—and the man tasked with unearthing the deepest secrets of her past.
“What is it you think you’re protecting in that brain of yours? The war is over. Holdfast is dead. The Eternal Flame extinguished. There’s no one left for you to save.”
Once a promising alchemist, Helena Marino is now a prisoner—of war and of her own mind. Her Resistance friends and allies have been brutally murdered, her abilities suppressed, and the world she knew destroyed.
In the aftermath of a long war, Paladia’s new ruling class of corrupt guild families and depraved necromancers, whose vile undead creatures helped bring about their victory, holds Helena captive.
According to Resistance records, she was a healer of little importance within their ranks. But Helena has inexplicable memory loss of the months leading up to her capture, making her enemies wonder: Is she truly as insignificant as she appears, or are her lost memories hiding some vital piece of the Resistance’s final gambit?
To uncover the memories buried deep within her mind, Helena is sent to the High Reeve, one of the most powerful and ruthless necromancers in this new world. Trapped on his crumbling estate, Helena’s fight—to protect her lost history and to preserve the last remaining shreds of her former self—is just beginning. For her prison and captor have secrets of their own . . . secrets Helena must unearth, whatever the cost.
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In this riveting dark fantasy debut, a woman with missing memories fights to survive a war-torn world of necromancy and alchemy—and the man tasked with unearthing the deepest secrets of her past.
“What is it you think you’re protecting in that brain of yours? The war is over. Holdfast is dead. The Eternal Flame extinguished. There’s no one left for you to save.”
Once a promising alchemist, Helena Marino is now a prisoner—of war and of her own mind. Her Resistance friends and allies have been brutally murdered, her abilities suppressed, and the world she knew destroyed.
In the aftermath of a long war, Paladia’s new ruling class of corrupt guild families and depraved necromancers, whose vile undead creatures helped bring about their victory, holds Helena captive.
According to Resistance records, she was a healer of little importance within their ranks. But Helena has inexplicable memory loss of the months leading up to her capture, making her enemies wonder: Is she truly as insignificant as she appears, or are her lost memories hiding some vital piece of the Resistance’s final gambit?
To uncover the memories buried deep within her mind, Helena is sent to the High Reeve, one of the most powerful and ruthless necromancers in this new world. Trapped on his crumbling estate, Helena’s fight—to protect her lost history and to preserve the last remaining shreds of her former self—is just beginning. For her prison and captor have secrets of their own . . . secrets Helena must unearth, whatever the cost.
Jenna –
Devastatingly beautiful
You know those books that completely wreck and ruin you?? So you half beg, half warn your friends like let this ruin you too? This is that book. This is a god tier book for me. I’m afraid nothing else will ever touch it.This is not a book you simply read. It is a book you endure and hopefully survive on the other side. It seeps into your chest, settles there, and then quietly wrecks your heart. This is not inherently a love story. It’s a story about what war takes from people and what it leaves behind when it’s done. Yes, there is love here. Deep, consuming, ruinous love. But there is also loss, brutality, survival, and the quiet devastation of learning how to keep living after everything familiar has been burned away. There is no romanticizing war. It’s shown it in all its cruelty: the choices it forces, the people it breaks, and the way it reshapes those who must endure it.There’s almost a surgical kind of precision in the writing that cuts you to the bone. This story is steeped in longing, grief, sacrifice, and love that is both devastating and inevitable. The kind of love that alters you. The kind that costs you everything.Kaine and Helena?? Nothing about them is simple. Every small moment feels earned through pain and the unspoken understanding that war punishes any softness. Their connection is haunting. Not because it’s perfect, but because it survives when so much else doesn’t.This book sits in that raw space between loving someone and losing yourself, between hope and the cold certainty that life will keep demanding more. It asks what it actually means to love when survival is all that matters. What does it cost to choose each other, over and over, in a world that just keeps asking for more blood and more sacrifice?Alchemised feels like carrying quiet grief inside you. It wrecks you, it’s devastating, this book stays with you. You’ll think about it days, weeks, months after you finish. I will never emotionally recover from this—and honestly? I don’t want to. 🖤🥀
J. Le –
“Calculating, Cunning, Devoted, Determined, Ruthless, Unfailing, Unhesitating, and Unyielding.”
AlchemisedThis is a must read, keep you on your toes, keep you up late at night and have you in tears. It’s a well crafted and thoughtfully written story. I did a quick reread of Manacled before this release. I love Manacled but this was equally epic. The world building is phenomenal. The necromancers, vivimancers, animancers, necrothralls, the magic systems, alchemical array…. It’s all new, intricately complex and intriguing. I love that SenLinYu maintained the toxic enemies-to-lovers (ETL) romance. It’s not simply ETL, but the main characters do bad, unspeakable things for the other. Helena Marino and Kaine Ferron are two morally grey/black characters. There is goodness in them but faced with the atrocities of war, they do what they must to survive. This is a standalone dark gothic romantic fantasy, see the authors note for triggers.The relationship with the side characters is the weakest part of this story. It needs more depth but I can let that slide for the epic love story. The difference between this work and Manacled is it’s missing 7 years of emotional connection and motivational drive. Helena’s commitment to the “good” side and its people is blind and stupid. But it does fuel the longing, angst and “choose me” feelings between Helena and Kaine.As part of the rewrite of Manacled, I feel there is an amalgamation of several distinct HP characters into new characters. This made Jan Crowther and Matron Pace both bad characters who often says contradictory things. I would have preferred a one for one replacement for the five characters these two represents (Crowther = Alistor Moody, Kingsley Shacklebolt and Severus Snape; Pace = Poppy Pomfrey and Minerva McGonagall). There is a Snape substitute, Shiseo, but he doesn’t have the role of role model and father figure. Helena lacks any parental figures in this book to tie her to the “good” side. It seems her loyalty is solely for her relationship with Luc but we don’t get to see that. It’s all assumed that they were super close friends and he is the first real friend Helena ever made.Anyhow, I still loved this story and highly recommend everyone read it. Immersive reading is ideal as there is a lot of details you can miss from simply listening. That said, I enjoyed the audiobook. Saskia Maarleveld did a very good job narrating. She employs unique voices for each character. Her pacing is even so it works well at whatever speed you want to set the audiobook to. I was listening at 1.5-1.7x.The hardcover edition includes a beautiful two sided dust cover and a gold dragon ouroboros case stamp. Only thing missing to this edition is spayed edges.TROPES/ THEMES: prisoner of war, necromancy, Stockholm Syndrome, double agent, Noncon, dubcon, SA, possessive MMC, metal work/transmutation, healer, good vs evil, morally gray, sacrifice for the greater good, unreliable narrator, noncon for MMC and MFC, magic, necromancy, experimentation
Katherine R. Pierce –
I already read the book on Kindle when it came out, finished it about 2 weeks ago, and I’ve been an emotional wreck ever since. Having read Manacled, I can say that this book is a thing of its own, and while a lot may seem similar in the beginning, it is in fact wholly different and sooo much better! And it also does a wayyyy better job in handling significant themes like religion, politics, racial discrimination, feminism, etc. than Manacled did. But one must be patient enough to work through part 1 since it was pretty dark, but I swear it’ll all be worth it in the end. Please mind the trigger warnings, it can get really, really dark. As for the paperback I just received today, I’m so glad it came with sprayed edges! I really didn’t expect the Indian pb copy to come with it, genuinely surprised! 10 stars for the book content, 10 stars for the paperback.
Sara –
This book is not for everyone. You need to be in the right moment and the right headspace to appreciate it. It’s a dark book meant for a mature audience, so if you’re not in your best spot, it might be worth waiting for the right time to read it.The book is beautiful, layered and meaningful, worth every bit of the investment of reading its 1,000+ pages.Thank you SenLinYu for writing this book.I loved it from beginning to end.Spoiler ahead……This isn’t one of those books where everything magically fixes itself with some convenient plot twist. It’s raw and real, showing war for what it actually is—no heroes and villains, just impossible choices and shades of gray everywhere. The ending is the best this book could have had: there is light at the end of all that darkness and gray, they will carry the scars of what happened, but this won’t prevent them from being happy. Equally powerful is the message that glory doesn’t matter, it doesn’t matter who knows who did what—what matters is having reached the hard-won peace that in all that darkness seemed like it would never come
Kelly Karolayne –
The book is soooo beautiful I loved, and it came in good conditions
Ana Reynolds –
I saw this book posted all over so decided to order it. From the very beginning, it will take you on a journey.
Raquel –
I am giving it 5 stars because the edition is beautiful and of excellent quality.Disclaimer: Unfortunately, the dust jacket arrived wrinkled and with a small tear, as the book was not properly secured inside the Amazon delivery box. I chose to buy it from Amazon because it was the only way to get the US edition in pre-sale, but I would recommend purchasing it from a local bookstore or a different online shop that takes more care with packaging.Since this issue is entirely on Amazon and not related to the publisher or the author, I don’t want it to affect their reviews negatively. I’ll continue to support the SenLinYu wholeheartedly, but through a different seller next time.