I’ve finished the much talked about book “alchemised” by SenLinYu, I could’ve read it faster but I had a very busy and stressful week.

Trigger warning; the living dead, gruesome details, SA, Murder.

Necromancy; The ability to revive people that have died.

Vivimancy; A type of magic that involves the manipulation of living things, including their biological and genetic makeup. They can heal people that are injured.

Animancy; The power to utilize magic involving the living, life-force and/or souls.

Necrothralls; People that have died and have been revived, they don’t have free will and are a kind of slave.

Principate; Ruler of Paladia and head of the Institute of Alchemy.

Liches; Undying who were put into another person’s revived body.

Undying; People who chose to become immortal.

This book is a thick one and has just over a thousand pages, don’t let it scare you off because it’s well worth the read. The book is like a three-book series but written into one. The book has three parts; the present – the past – continuing where the present left off.

This book is a Dark Romantasy and has been written beautifully, if written differently it could’ve been a shorter story but having read the whole book, I get why the story is how it is.

Helena has been kept in stasis after being caught by the enemy, she doesn’t know how long she’s been kept in stasis and doesn’t remember much about being captured. She knows the resistance has fallen so they’ve lost the war but doesn’t know the extend of the loss. Who was able to escape? Who we’re caught and who died?

When dr. Stroud examines Helena, she finds something unusual. Some passages of her brain are rerouted, which means some memories are locked pretty tight which is impossible and has never been seen before. The high Necromancer wants those memories, they want to know what she’s hiding so in comes Kaine, also known as ‘The high Reeve’ or Mourrough’s pet. Helena has an instant disliking to the cold and detached man in front of her. Kaine Ferron, she does remember him. He was a student at the institute of Alchemy, just like she was but she also knows him as the killer of the Principate.

Kaine has been tasked with unlocking the memories that are hidden in Helena’s brain, he can do this through Vivimancy but it isn’t easy because there are risks when it comes to the brain. To much resistance and there will be inflammation to the brain, brain fever, seizures and so on and so forth. To do his task right, he takes Helena to his estate where he can experiment on her brain.

Over the months, something seems to happen… But it has nothing to do with the task Kaine got appointed. Dr. Stroud has also started a new research program, because they need more alchemists. They capture young women with good resonance and let them be impregnated by their man so they can produce a new batch of good alchemists.

Something happens and Helena seems to start remembering, her brain has taken down all the safeguards she has put up to keep those memories hidden from the enemy.

——-

Luc, her best friend has just lost his father and has been appointed as the new Principate, something he never even wanted to be in the first place. Luc’s aunt Ilva has been appointed as his ‘understudy’ since Luc has been one hell of a soldier on the battlefield. Luc leads the first battalion which include Lila Bayard, his Paladin (the one tasked to protect Luc at all cost) and Soren Bayard (Lila’s twin) and Sebastian Bayard (the Bayard’s nephew) and some other soldiers, they are the best in what they do but the was takes a toll on everyone.

Helena has been a healer because of her Vivimancy, the hospital is so crowded all of the time. There are so many wounded coming in, so many that are on the brink of death that Helena is almost always on duty because she is the only healer and she is the best in what she does. But not long into this story she gets another assignment from Ilva and Crowther. Kaine, from the resistance has offered to be ‘The Eternal Flame’s’ spy but wants Helena in return; During but also after the war, she has to be his. Not having much choice Helena agrees.

Her time is so limited, from this point on she works so hard as a healer, an informant, that the energy just gets sucked out of her. She has no time at all to just be… To be with friends, to hang out, to do lab work. Helena soon learns that Kaine isn’t what he seems, his reason to be a spy in the first place is to avenge his mother who has been tortured to great length by Mourrough. When Mourrough isn’t happy he punishes Kaine into obedience; leaving him on the brink of death every time. Now, Kaine is an Undying which means he can’t actually die because he can regenerate so his wounds and injuries will heal, but when Mourrough is done with him, the healing processs is painfully slow. He may be undying but he does get to feel every bit of pain that has been done to his body.

Falling for the enemy was not something that was high on Helena’s list of things but it just happened, with her busy schedule, inventing something that speeds up healing someone that is Undying, everything gets so chaotic. But when everything goes to sh*t; she does something out of desperation. Something that has cost her her freedom, but saved Kaine’s live.

——-

Helena has remembered what happened, she remembers! Well, not all of it and not to great extend but she knows now, Kaine is not the enemy. He is the one that saves her live over and over again. With the war over, Mourrough still isn’t pleased. His body is decaying which means he isn’t as powerfull as he once was. He needs a replacement body but just an ordinary one won’t do. He needs a body with Animancy so he’ll be even more powerfull. When Mourrough dies, all of the Undying will die to and with them dying so will the Liches and Necrothralls. But Helena can’t lose Kaine.

Figuring out how to save Kaine’s soul, how to get it back in his body and how to keep it there is a mysterie she just has to solve. She promised to be his and he promised to go with her in the end. But he doesn’t want to go, because what good would it do? Mourrough needs to die and with that so will he. It’s the ultimate sacrifice but Helena won’t have it! With the clock ticking and the world outside of the estate growing ever darker and more dangerous she keeps researching. She will find a way even if it’s the last thing she’ll do.

This book was dark, yes, but also very powerfull and beautiful. I know this book has mixed reviews but you absolutely can’t judge this book based on those reviews. You have to read it yourself because you might actually think it’s a very good one.

I’m giving this book ⭐⭐⭐⭐.5 stars!