#20 in Romance
Alchemised
- 976
- Pages
- about 18 h
- Reading time
- NYT bestseller · 16 weeks on the list, peaked at #1
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About the book
Alchemised is the debut fantasy novel of American author SenLinYu. The book was published in September 2025 by Del Rey Books in the United States and Penguin imprint Michael Joseph in the United Kingdom, New Zealand and Australia. Described as both dark fantasy, horror and gothic romance, and sometimes erroneously classified as dark romance, the standalone novel follows the life of a former alchemist, Helena Marino, as she recovers her memories of a civil war. It reached number one on the New York Times best-seller list in the week after its release.
Where the score comes from
The sources average 8.3 across 342 ratings — not yet many, so the reader vote carries 69% of the weight and the rest pulls toward the Romance average of 7.7. That is how 8.2 comes out.
| Source | Average | Ratings | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Open Library | 6.3 | 6 | 2% |
| Hardcover | 8.4 | 336 | 98% |
Reader voices
The most-liked reviews on Hardcover (credited to their authors).
“11/10 Stars. This book blindsided me. I haven't yet sat with my thoughts on this long enough to express coherent opinions, actually. So this is a word-vomit type of review. I just had to write this down now before I lost my grip on my…”
“Writing a two-star review for a book that almost gets it right is always more exhausting than reviewing one that's just plain bad. There is a specific kind of heartbreak in seeing the “texture” of a story you want to love fall apart. On paper…”
Frequently asked
How long is Alchemised?
It has 976 pages — longer than 93% of the ranked books in Romance.
In this book
Themes this book shares with others — each leads to the best books on it.
If you liked this
Same shelf — Romance — with scores between 8.2 and 8.3, closest to this book.
