It's the gothic fantasy that Booktok rushed to buy. Retailers like QBD, Booktopia and Penguin opened up online pre-order pages to meet the demand. This book even attracted a seven-figure deal to acquire the movie rights before it was even published.
It's called Alchemised, a story about a woman with missing memories; the last member of a crumbled resistance fighting against a dark order. A darkly poetic tale of loss and hope, it's the first published book by SenLinYu and was finally released for public sale on 23 September 2025.
For the unacquainted, Alchemised is a perplexing success story. How exactly did the previously unpublished works of a first-time author find such hype before anyone had tangibly held a copy in their hands? A book with its own origin story, Alchemised is actually an adapted version of a famed internet story called Manacled. And Manacled has more than 140,000 reviews on GoodReads.
Are Alchemised and Manacled the same story? And what it is about?
It's hard to say whether Alchemised and Manacled are the same story. Although, technically one is based on the other.
SenLinYu spent more than a year painstakingly crafting the Alchemised universe. They researched and drew on inspiration from literary fiction, mysticism and symbology in the course of their work. Undeniably, Alchemised has been adapted from Manacled, but in a new world, with new motivations, and characters that are wholly their own.
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But why adapt Manacled at all if it was already such a success? The adaptation was of course necessary because Manacled is actually a fan fiction set in the Harry Potter universe. A reimagining of what would have happened if good had not triumphed over bad; if our favourite characters were forced to find hope in a world controlled by nothing but darkness.
The new adaptation, Alchemised, follows the story of a once-promising alchemist named Helena who is kept prisoner by a man known as the High Reeve. She's the last member of the resistance who fought against the necromancers that now rule over Paladia. While she struggles with the memories lost in her fractured mind, Helena must find a way to cope, even as the High Reeve tries to break her.
It's a story that made waves through TikTok. It brought fans around the world to tears. It inspired people to print and bind their own copies. It roused creators to draw and paint artworks. And now, it is transformed into a story that stands on its own. A work that is SenLinYu-owned, and able to be formally published and sold.
When is the Alchemised movie coming?
We won't be seeing the film adaption of Alchemised anytime soon. It was only just recently (in September 2025) that Legendary Entertainment – the production house behind Dune, Inception and Interstellar – acquired the movie rights to the book. The Hollywood Reporter called the deal "one of the biggest in history for a new book".
As with all successful film productions, there is time needed to plan, write, and cast before the creators can even think about picking up a camera to film. It is quite likely we will be waiting for two years or more before a film comes to fruition.
In a statement to The Hollywood Reporter, author SenLinYu said: “I’m honoured by Legendary’s incredible enthusiasm for the project and can’t wait to see the world of Paladia come to life.”
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