After reading and loving the fanfiction Manacled I obviously had to read the book based on that fanfiction. Since Manacled is a dramoine fanfiction, the story had to be reworked for publication. Was that a success? Let’s find out!
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.
Like I said, Alchemised is reworked from the fanfiction Manacled. Manacled was a huge piece of work and the rework resulted in a BIG book with around a 1000 pages. I went the audiobook route for this one and while I would love to add one of those floppy paperbacks to my collection, I am happy I went with the audiobook. It made it easier to get through such a big book and I was fully invested.
I already knew the main story so I wasn’t really surprised by most of the twists, but I did once again appreciate them a lot. The fanfiction was based on Harry Potter and could lean heavily on that world building. For this rework a whole new world had to be created and the characters that were introduced were all new. Where the fanfiction could drop a name and everyone would recognise it and know the backstory, here it all still needed to be introduced and wouldn’t get an immediate emotional reaction. I liked the world building for Alchemised and in my opinion it was all well thought out to make everything fit.
The story was already one I loved and I liked most of the reworks to make it an original story. There was one thing I missed though, and that was the origami with the paper cranes. It was such a visual representation of Manacled and I kept hoping Helena would start folding paper cranes haha.
I think it’s important to note that this is a pretty dark fantasy story and everyone should be aware of that before going in. For me it was all written pretty well (although I can see the flaws), but this story won’t be for everyone. I was rooting for Helena throughout the book but I also kept comparing her to Hermione accidentally. For me it was hard to separate Alchemised and Manacled, but in the end I think I managed to enjoy Alchemised for what it was and not for what it was based upon.
Have you read Alchemised? And have you read Manacled? How do you feel about the rework of the story? And are you able to separate the two works? I would love to hear your thoughts on this down below!
