Alchemised

De: SenLinYu

Narrado por: Saskia Maarleveld

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.

©2025 SenLinYu (P)2025 Random House Audio

I had to know what happened next

The world building was really good, the characters were dynamic. I definitely recommend reading the content warnings before listening to the book.

Wow

SPOILERS
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just finished the audiobook, I really feel like i listened to the life of Helen . I wouldn’t mind a sequel novella of their daughter going to school. And gosh! The ending tore me up, I kept wondering when I was going to cry because I kept seeing people crying. I can’t believe how Helen was listed as a non combatant, that broke me a little inside. Having family with PTSD from the military I could see that they struggled after the war, especially because of the torture they endured. But what a AWESOME book. I’m so excited that this will be a movie and they better not screw it up.

Epic dark gothic fantasy with toxic enemies-to-lovers and phenomenal world building

This 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.

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

Heart wrenching

This is an EPIC war time dark fantasy novel with an incredible, extremely mapped out, complex magic system. It’s almost mind numbing how much intricate the world building is in this book with everything from sciences, magics, theologies and religions explained in depth. Deep dives into PTSD and the violent mental and physical abuses that caused them and the way the characters healed or couldn’t from all the trauma they received during and post war times. That being said there is a romantic SUB PLOT, and it’s is beautiful and extremely stressful and times. (Had me nail biting and tearing up)
I loved this book and it was well worth the listen!

This is my Roman Empire.

This is my Roman Empire. Senlinyu give us a masterclass in writing morally grey characters. Beautifully written. Masterfully crafted. Performed flawlessly. Emotionally resonant. A true work of art. The characters and story will stick with you forever. 5 stars. Highly recommend.

Loved the narrator’s voice changes and inflections.

Loved the plot and world building and the master level of storytelling. Beautifully written and an incredible piece of literature.

A masterpiece!!

No words. I have no words. This is an absolute masterpiece😭 SenLinYu created something that stood on it’s own entirely while also using elements of my favorite fanfiction story to inspire the concept. I enjoyed the necromancy and alchemy as the magic system, the chimaeras, the undead & the way immortality was used by the villain to seduce his followers. This is a DARK fantasy with a love story at it’s core and was actually so much darker that it’s fanfic counterpart and I believe better worldbuilding and depth because of the freedom Sen has in creating something of her own. Some non-spoilery themes: forbidden love during war, a villain who tortures and kills and destroys to no end, a possessive MMC who would burn the world for her, a headstrong and intelligent FMC, friendships and how war rages on despite it all, feeling alone and finding solace in another, and the strength it takes to push on even when you’re so so tired. I am forever in awe of Sen’s dark, powerful, beautiful writing. I already want to reread and highlight the hell out of it!
Absolutely loved the narration as well, so much talent!

So good!

Such an amazing read. No need to read anything prior. I just wish it was narrated Duet.

Hauntingly beautiful!

I read manacled so I had an idea of the story. I didn't expect it to pull me in quite so fully. It's the most beautifully written books I've ever listened to/read. I listened to the audio book this first go around and intend on reading it from the physical book next. I could not put it down. I haven't been so IN a story/book like this in years. the narrator was masterful with her voices and accents of all the different characters. I don't know what else to say. this story will change you. masterfully done!

Absolutely phenomenal

I really am speechless. It’s rare to get to read a book you love for the first time again and with Alchemised I was able to. I was able to jump back into their world and experience it for the first time again and it was incredible. Now that it’s over I legit feel empty. Just a warning, make sure you read the trigger warnings. While there is “romance” it’s definitely not a Romantasy or dark romance. I highly recommend you read or listen to this book. 27/10