Alchemised
By SenLinYu
TheStory
After years being part of the Eternal Flame, Helena has been captured by the Undying. The war has been over for years, but Helena has no memory of the end of the war or the several years leading up to it. She is the last member of the Eternal Flame that is still alive and the Undying want to know what she knows.
The only problem - Helena’s memories are blocked in her mind.
According to records, she was a healer with no active involvement in the war and she did not fight. But her inability to remember the last several years has her captors wondering what she is hiding in her mind.
Helena is sent to the High Reeve - second in power only to the High Necromancer himself - in order to have her memories recovered. But this is just the beginning for Helena and everyone has secrets that they are willing to die for.
TheReview
Let’s get right into it…
Part I is the portion of the story in which Helena has been captured and has no memory of the last years of the war or the years since the war ended. Here, we also get the introduction to the world and how it works.
And holy moly. There is SO MUCH world building here. I was honestly lost a bit with the amount of information. There is a whole magic system and political system unlike anything I’ve ever read before. Since we start off right in the thick of things, it’s a lot of information dumped all at once.
The details that didn’t make sense, I had to mark to go back to once they were explained better. But yikes. It’s a loooooooot of stuff. So, I continued on, assuming it would all be explained better as time went on. Which it was, but still some stuff was lost on me. It would probably require a reread to fully understand.
And basically the whole of Part I is Helena’s capture.
Part II goes back in time to when the war was still being fought. It covers everything Helena went through with the Eternal Flame and also her personal struggles and relationships.
There are so many characters that round out the story but really, the main vitally important characters are Helena and Kaine. There are a lot of side characters but, apart from Helena and Kaine, only a few are really essential to get to know.
Part III is back in the present precisely where we left off when Helena in Part I. While the entire book is devastatingly beautiful, Part III moves along the storyline the fastest. All the important bits come together and everything starts shifting.
Now, let’s talk about the history of Alchemised (because I rarely know the origin story behind novels).
Alchemised is based off of Manacled (also by SenLinYu), which is a Fan Fiction that they wrote based on Harry Potter. So Alchemised is derived from Manacled and Manacled is based on a different version of Harry Potter.
Supposedly if you read Manacled first, Alchemised is easier to follow, although I have been told that the two are VERY different from one another, but the storyline flows along similar lines. I’ve also been advised that reading Alchemised is more enjoyable if you haven’t read Manacled first. So, that’s how I read it.
Alchemised was a heart breaking story about love and loss, war and sacrifice, crossing boundaries you thought you set for yourself, and choosing forgiveness for yourself and whomever you can bring yourself to. All this while also dealing with trauma, PTSD, and the consequences of choices you never thought you’d make. Our characters have to overcome their deepest fears and the evil done to them as well as the evil they committed themselves.
It is not a happy love story but a raw, emotional, mind-mending series of events that are gut-wrenchingly authentic.
Take your time and savor every moment of reading this life-changing account of war, trauma, loss, and life after suffering.
TheRating
Storyline: 5/5
Characters: 5/5
World Building: 4/5
Writing: 5/5
Overall: 📘📘📘📘📘
Spice: 🌶️