Alchemised

by SenLinYu

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.

Genres: Fantasy, Romance, Romantasy, Dark Romance, Fantasy Romance, Fiction, Adult

1040 pages, Hardcover

Expected publication September 23, 2025

About the author

SenLinYu grew up in the Pacific Northwest and studied classical liberal arts and culture. They started writing in the Notes app of their phone during their baby’s nap time. Their collected online works have garnered over twenty million individual downloads and have been translated into twenty-three languages. They live in Portland with their family. ALCHEMISED is their first novel.

Reviews

[rory gilmore]

i do not apologise for who i will be when this book comes out

[Stella]

THE Dramione fanfic being traditionally published??? Prepare to be sick of me.

[Angie]

THE COVER 😭 She’s stunning!

Release date: September 30, 2025!!!!!!

AND be sure to read the blurb!!!!

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Taking this moment to hold space for Manacled since it’s officially removed from ao3 🫶

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I NEED THIS STORY LIKE I NEED AIR 😫

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2025 is the year for Dramione fans! I can’t believe we are getting original stories from the authors of Manacled, The Auction, and Draco Malfoy and the Mortifying Ordeal of Being in Love!!!!

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I would give up a kidney to read this RN!

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2025 cannot come fast enough!!!!!! 👏

[⚔Irunía⚔]

hopefully all the editing and amendments made to avoid copyright issues and create a 100% original work won't fuck up the unrivalled masterpiece that is MANACLED. ngl the traditionally published part has me worried and excited at the same time. i kinda like the original title better. and i relished the handmaid's tale aspect of it.

tender 👑 toxic 👑 all-consuming 👑 SOUNDS ABOUT RIGHT tho

[Lucie V.]

UPDATE #2: She kept the High Reeve title in her book. 🥲
This is, without a doubt, my most anticipated release of 2025, but also the book that scares me the most because I have such high expectations. 😅


UPDATE:IT'S AVAILABLE FOR PREORDER ON AMAZON 😭😭😭

And there is a cover!! 😍😭

September 30th, I am ready for you. 😍😍😍




Omg.
Is this a dream?
Manacled 2.0
I need this.

I am SO HYPED for this book, and I will not apologize for being obsessed with it before it's even released.

[✨Julie✨]

OMG! This is NOT a drill‼️ We have a cover AND a release date!! This just officially became my most anticipated read of the year!!! 🤗

[Mbhabibti]

It's officially release month 😍

The anticipation I have for this book is unmatched. The amount of time I spend thinking about this story? Also unmatched.
____________________________

Read Manacled in 2023 and it permanently changed the trajectory of my reading habits. Reread chronologically in August 2024 and it was pain and suffering x2. Cannot wait to read this reworking (but they'll always be Draco & Hermione to me 🫶)
____________________________

I will never get over the way they destroyed themselves in their devotion to each other.

[vee!]

reviving my account by stating that I can’t wait to hold this book in my hand

[MarcyLikesToCry · Rating 1 out of 5]

I have literally no idea how the fuck they gonna turn a badly written rapekinked ooc dramione fanfic which plot HEAVILY takes from The Handmaids Tale and Harry Potter into a book.


(Lmao, they also hired a pro-russia artist for book cover. Yeah, it’s gonna be shit. Sorry not sorry)

[Clarice]

Update 1/17/2024

Cover and plot reveal. So I guess Sen dropped the whole handmaid’s tale aspect of the story. Based off of the book description. I mean that was a large part of Manacled 🙃. Kind of hoping that was to improve the book/plot adaptation and not to make the book more marketable. I’m reserving judgement until the book comes out, but tbh kind of disappointed if this is true.


Update 11/13/2024

The latest news letter has me a bit nervous lol 😅 (but hopeful).

I’m really hoping Del Rey doesn’t drop the ball in terms of telling Sen to cut too much from her 1100 page manuscript 🙃

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Hands down the most anticipated read of my enter life. I’ve read Manacled 4 times in the last 3 years. I hope this new, non fanfic version lives up to my love of the original. I have no doubt Sen will impress and blow me away with this book. Very, very excited for their first book in the publishing space.

One of my favorite parts of Manacled was the alchemy, so for this new version to be called Achlemised is very appropriate and hopefully indicative that the new version will retain the best parts of the original.

Note: The author mentioned Manacled (dramione fanfic version) will remain on Archive of Our Own (AO3) until the end of 2024, and will be taken down in 2025.

[Melanie (meltotheany)]

counting the days until sep 30th i fear

♡ Manacled

[Chloé · Rating 5 out of 5]

Infinite stars because this is the most incredible, devastating, beautiful book I’ve ever had the privilege of reading. This story will forever live in my soul.

*I was extremely lucky to receive an early copy of this book and will post full thoughts on release day.

[emmareads]

Less than 2 weeks. BE STILL, MY HEART.
This cover alone is enough to convince me to sell my soul. It's difficult to be patiently waiting for a book that I've been eagerly anticipating for nearly a year.

Kind of impossible not to picture Hermione and Draco's faces, but oh wells. Just give me the book and I will inhale every word like my life depends on it.

[yuvi]

uhm. hello?
can't wait.🤭
sept. 23rd srsly can't come soon enough.

[Lacey (laceybooklovers)]

i am unwell

[elle ☾]

THE COVER

[Sreegita · Rating 1 out of 5]

how beautiful to see a fic where draco r@pes hermione is getting trad published meanwhile everyday actually talented bipoc and qpoc authors are struggling to get even a deal
loveeeee to see r@pe fantasy books dominating the romance space!!!

it's been years since i read manacled but making romantic versions of handmaid's tale is such an unbelievable; years from now we'll look at this trend of romanticizing r@pe in the name of dark romance, how we look back at coho books now. LOVEEEE how the author gave a magical reason for hermione (a member from an oppressed community) getting r@ped by someone who is from the oppressor community
a woman forgiving her r@pist and being in a romantic relationship with him!!! peak romance!!!!!

[⊹ ⁺ ₊ ✧ she's book obsessed ✧ ₊ ⁺ ⊹]

✧⋄⋆ pre-release notes ⋆⋄✧
⤷ 18/01/25 ┊The cover is here and it is gorgeous 🛐
⤷ FINALLY IT’S ON GOODREADS SO I CAN WRITE THIS: You WILL see me going feral once this book is out. A reimagined Manacled? PLEASE TAKE MY MONEY🧎‍♀️

[sashenka 🖤 (hard book slump)]

Just found out the artist that did the cover uses AI: “AI technology allows me to push my boundaries on my creative practice” so I really hope the author didn't know about that (and still hoping the cover will change)

[isa · Rating 1 out of 5]

not even one star. this is plagiarism. joanne has lawyers and she’s not afraid to use them, margaret probably does as well. i do truly hope you all enjoy this rape slop that only harms under privileged women around the world.

[bruna]

🚨 buckle up bitches 🚨 senlinyu is writing the best book of all time !!!

[Cas (Fia)]

I can’t wait to cry my eyes out again

[thea.]

My september 23th is booked🙂‍↕️

[.ೃ࿐ forest *ೃ༄ · Rating 1 out of 5]

don’t even get me started. no, i haven’t read this. i won’t read it either. dramione is cringe as hell and poor hermione is being used as a self-insert for your draco fetish fanfiction. you know what? i HATE you if you like Manacled. you’re telling me you like a Handmaids Tale ripoff that was romanticized? you’re disgusting and should be ashamed of yourself. i am against burning books, but this one i’ll imagine burning just to satiate my rage.

update: to all the blind Dramione fangirls coming into my comments saying “it’s not romantic”: yes it is. look at the fucking goodreads tags. look at the marketing. go anywhere and look at its genres. ROMANtasy. enemies to LOVERS. dark ROMANCE. y’all are acting like i just pulled this out my ass. unfortunately, i didn’t. author writes Dramione slash not HP general. takes like 2 seconds to read the tags & google the author 🥀

[Mel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ja was soll ich sagen, würde gerne tausend Sterne geben. Wird nie wieder ein besser Buch geben. Lasst mich alle in Ruhe und es war sooo gut auf Deutsch. Please bestellt es vor, bei Thalia gibt es das sogar signiert und vertraut mir bitte einfach!.!!:!:! 😭🖤

[Youssra (back to work-semi ia)]

HELLO? The COVER? The BLURB? THE EVERYTHING 😭😭😭

[Tiffany]

I cannot wait for this one.

[Julia · Rating 5 out of 5]

SENLINYU WHAT HAVE YOU DONE!?!?!? WHAT HAVE YOU DONEEEEE. Wow. Wow. Wow. I finished this and all I want to do is CRY. CRY, SCREAM, then SOB.

First, thank you so much to the publisher for the ARC. I have so much to say about this book soooo we're going to have a spoiler-free section followed by a spoiler section.

SPOILER-FREE
Helena Marino is a healer in the Resistance against the High Necromancer and his armies of necrothralls (reanimated corpses). We follow her through the war, finding out just how far she'll go for the people and beliefs she cares about.

First off, this book is ROUGH and DARK. There's a long list of content warnings and they are no joke. We're talking violence, death, r*pe, body horror, torture and so much more. But it's all couched within the most incredible world-building. Sen has created a new society and tale with lore, traditions, depth, and details that make reading this book a visceral, full-body experience.

Seriously. I had multiple moments where I had to put the book down and un-immerse myself because it was too much. I haven't had to do this since I read the source material from which Alchemised is drawn.

For those of you who have loved Sen's prior writings, I can promise that this book delivers. Never have I had the peculiar experience of reading one of my favorite books for the first time a second time. Yet that is what it felt like. The mountains and the valleys of the story are familiar, but the specific twists and turns of the trail are fresh and exciting. Places where I'd previously felt the story was a bit confusing or a bit meandering are cut, sharpened, and polished until they gleam.

At over 1000 pages, I thought perhaps someone along the editing line had been too indulgent. But nope. This sounds almost oxymoronic but it's true: this 1000+ page monster is a crisp, tight, gripping read. All gold, no filler. As a result, this book is a masterclass in applying the Chekhov's gun principle. Nearly every single detail comes back into play, often in the most brilliant and unexpected ways. Such is Sen's genius. I could read this book three more times and I'm sure I'll still be stumbling over hidden meanings I missed the first time around.

I also found the thematic elements of this book to come through even stronger. What is the true price of war? What does it mean to give your entire self to a cause? How far can a single person be whittled away until they no longer exist? Who are we when we cross every line we've ever drawn?

Sen put her original text into a crucible and forged a masterpiece. I am so excited for it to go out into the world.

AHEAD THERE BE SPOILERS
All right, I can't help myself but discuss some aspects in detail. While I cannot fathom the difficulty that Sen faced in making cuts and edits, all I can say is that this new version SHINES. Yet much of the original stays, to excellent effect.

For example, Sen kept the three-part non-linear structure. While knowing ahead of time how the nonlinearity will go, I was still left with the same questions I'd had upon first read: How did we get here? What happened to these characters that led us to these tragic moments?

We also have many of the same broad story beats: Helena's imprisonment, Helena's memory loss, Kaine Ferron as High Reeve, pregnancy being the final key to unlocking the memories in Part 1. Part 2 follows Helena as a healer, as Kaine's handler, and as he slowly begins to obsess over her. "You're like a rose in a graveyard." The catwalk of death. The destruction of the Resistance. And Helena's final push of strength, bombing the prison and destroying enemy upon enemy until she makes one last mistake. Part 3 is no less tense, but we see similarities in how Helena tries to save Kaine and Kaine tries to save Helena, until the moment when there's one chance for them both to save each other and try out a life of peace.

Does it end on that same, horrible, devastating final sentence? That I cannot spoiler for you.

But beyond the similarities, it's where Sen has edited that makes this book glow:

I'd wondered forever how tradpub would handle the sheer amount of r*pe in the original story. I mean, it was five times a month for six months. Instead, Sen ups the tension in the first part by not making that the key element of Helena's imprisonment. You know it's a possibility, that it might come, but for much of the first part, it's *just* mental torture. By the time it becomes narratively possible, she's already gone through so much. And this just makes it worse. But it's significantly reduced in scope and amount of page time, which I think ultimately serves the story better.

Luc Holdfast. Oh, Luc. Helena's best friend and the Principate -- the leader of the Resistance who is waiting for a miracle to come so he can destroy the Head Necromancer. The change from blind faith in the power of "good" magic to the blind faith of religion was a masterstroke in making the poor wartime decisions come from a place where the reader can understand and empathize. This makes Luc as a character so much more well-rounded, likeable, and tragically flawed instead of anger-inducing. A few key plot changes near the end of his character arc succeed in both 1) tricking readers who are familiar with the story and 2) make his story so much more tragic instead of inevitable. I treasure him with my whole heart.

The magic system in this book is fascinating. I'd assumed alchemy related only to metals, but there are people who can also control living bodies, dead bodies, minds, and fire. Honestly, I will probably need to read it again to fully understand it, but the world-building is beautifully complex. And Sen leans on all of it to enrich and broaden the story.

I don't know what else to say. This book has my whole heart. I can't wait to read it again, though I might need a period of time to recuperate before I can dive back in.

Get excited for the rollercoaster.

[Sally]

SHUT TF UP, ARE FREAKING KIDDING ME, TRADITIONALLY PUBLISHED? BISH WHAT, WHAT THE ACTUAL FRUCK, IM GENERALLY SCREAMING CRYING THROWING TF UP, KILL ME, STAB ME WITH A DAGGER IN MY HEART BECAUSE I DONT BELIEVE THIS IS REAL, U MEAN THE BEST FREAKING BOOK EVER IS GOING TO BE IN MOTHERFREAKING BOOKSTORES FOR EVERYONE TO FREAKING READ, TRADITIONALLY PUBLISHED?!??!?!! 2025 MAY BE THE BEST YEAR IF MY LIFE ( NO I AM NOT BEING DRAMATIC ) I CANNOT BELIEVE I GET TO READ THIS FREAKING BOOK, NOT ONLY IS IT BEING PUBLISHED, BUT ITS GOING TO BE A HARDCOVER, PLEASE, I CANT CONTAIN MY EXCITEMENT, YES I JUST SCREAMED IN HAPPINESS AND MY MOTHER ASKED WHAT THE MATTER WAS, AND YES I TOLD HER THAT THE BOOK THAT I LEGIT HAVE A SHRINE FOR IS BEING TRADITIONALLY PUBLISHED, I CANT BREATHE, I GENERALLY HAVE NEVER BEEN LIKE HAPPIER EVER, U MAY THINK THIS REACTION IS DRAMATIC, BUT IF U HAVE READ IT ( AND ARE A NORMAL HUMAN BEING ) U WILL AGREE WITH MY REACTION, BECAUSE THIS IS THE BEST THING TO HAPPEN TO ANY DRAMIONIE OBSESSER, LOVER, ADDICTED-TO THEM-ER??? IDK WHAT IM SAYING TO BE ABSOLTELY HONEST IM JUST WAY TOO EXCITED, AND I WANT 2024 TO FLY PAST BECAUSE I NEED TO SEE THIS COVER AND HOLD IT IN MY GOSH DANG HANDS, AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHh

[talia ♡]

manacled getting outside of the fandom bubble was one of the worst things to happen to me like this is FAMILY business! stay out of it!

absolutely overjoyed for senlinyu's success though!