#alchemized

Helena from Alchemized

Drawn by me in Clip Studio, testing on a tablet.

SPOILERS AHEAD!! MENTIONS OF NONCON¡SEX & I DO NOT SUPPORT JK ROWLING OR HER BELIEFS

okay first off i want to say that this is totally a biased review— i read manacled before alchemised. this book originated from a fanfiction between hermione and draco— manacled, which i would rate 5.5 stars— anyways, it was really hard to seperate the book from the fanfiction. which i wanted to do, because this book has its own magic system and characters, i just think that it followed the manacled plot for 64% of the time.. so i expected some of the stuff that happened.

something that i honestly wished the author did more was the nonconsensual sex chapters.. I KNOW IT SOUNDS BAD BUT, HEAR ME OUT: in alchemised she was pregnant within 2 chapters, while in manacled she was pregnant within around 10-15 chapters, i believe. this made the reveal of their background SO complex and got such visceral emotional response out of me. in alchemised, since i felt it was glossed over in the book it didn’t make sense how relevant the author kept mentioning it in further into the book and made the "reveal" much less emotional. i understand if the author didn’t feel comfortable rewriting the scenes, but in the context of the book, it 100% would have made the emotional impact better.

i felt it was really hard to get into the book because i wasnt able to catch onto the magic system, in manacled it was based off of harry potter and that magic system, which i am already familiar with, so the author didnt have to do much story building. in alchemised, since its a whole new world essentially, the author had to do story building and it just didnt make sense. like i could not tell you the difference between liches and necrothalls... like what is the difference between vivimacy and resonance? speaking of it, resonance was mentioned so much, i am tired of that word. i wanted more diversity when describing the magic not just a broad term. i think that the author was hoping that the reader could use context clues to fill in the blanks, when regarding resonance, which is something you do in a fanfiction.. not a new world... ALSO i wish that i understood the religion portion more, it was mentioned so much with the different gods, such as Sol, but i just couldnt comprehend it. BECAUSE IT WAS NOT EXPLAINED, IT JUST KEPT GETTING MENTIONED!!!! (can you see the theme here..?)

some of the characters were just so forgettable.. like shesieo, meldo something.. and i honestly forgot kaines dad's name, whoops. i wish that the author dived more into luc and helena's friendship. because literally why was she so loyal to him.. with manacled, i understand that hermione was loyal to harry, BECAUSE I KNOW THE BACKSTORY OF THEIR FRINDSHIP. but with luc and helena, there was literally 0 backstory, and it was just a "trust, theyre friends, but in reality he doesn’t know a single thing about what she does..?" type of thing... it also pissed me off, because why are you SO loyal to someone who doesn't even know you're essentially being sold away???? also i miss the paper cranes 😭