Alchemised
Editorial review
In the aftermath of a concluded war, the landscape of Paladia has undergone a chilling metamorphosis. Helena Marino, an alchemist once tied to a fallen resistance, finds herself navigating a society where the old rules have been replaced by the dark influence of necromancy and shifting political allegiances. The setting is one of heavy atmosphere, where the remnants of conflict continue to dictate the lives of those left in its wake.
Helena’s journey is complicated by a fractured sense of self, as missing memories render her both a target and a tool for those in power. Her forced proximity to the High Reeve places her at the center of a web of secrets, where the distinction between survival and identity begins to blur. The narrative explores the tension between the magic she understands and the buried histories that threaten to resurface, forcing her to confront a past that may not be as she remembers it.
This gothic fantasy leans heavily into the interplay between alchemy and the macabre, using the protagonist's search for truth to drive the exploration of a world built on systemic violence. As the layers of Paladia’s new order are peeled back, the story examines how much of a person remains when their history has been deliberately obscured by those who control the present.
Book summary
The war is over, but Helena Marino has not escaped its consequences. Once trained in alchemy and connected to a defeated resistance, she now finds herself imprisoned in a transformed Paladia, where necromancy, political power, and old loyalties shape the new order. Helena's missing memories make her valuable to the people who control her. Sent into the orbit of the feared High Reeve, she is forced to confront fragments of a past she cannot fully trust while navigating a world built on violence, secrets, and dangerous forms of magic. As buried history begins to surface, questions of identity, survival, power, and attachment become impossible to separate. Alchemised is a dark gothic fantasy about memory, war, alchemy, necromancy, and the cost of discovering what has been deliberately hidden.