Reviews tagging 'Cursing'

Immortal Longings by Chloe Gong

8 reviews

brooksie03051's review against another edition

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dark

Plot- or character-driven? A mix

2.75

Immortal Longings (Flesh and False Gods #1) released July 18, 2023

By Chloe Gong also known for These Violent Delights and Foul Lady Fortune duologies

The Kingdom of Talin hosts a game each year in its capital twin cities, San-Er, where the palace will award a single winner riches beyond their wildest dreams. The games are open to all citizens and hundreds join the lottery in hopes of winning as the majority of the half million citizens in the kingdom are extremely poor and struggle to get basic necessities such as food and housing for themselves and their families. Many are homeless as the small kingdom is overpopulated with little chance to have a decent life. Unless of course they are one of the 88 chosen and win the annual game. If a player is confident and has the ability, they can "jump" between bodies (taking over another person's body with your conscience which is against the law), and the competitors who excel at this ability can jump across San-Er and fight to the death to win the coveted prize. It was like the Hunger Games but in a cramped dilapidated city surrounded by regular people going about their lives and not thrown in the woods with only the other players to pick off one by one. However, one player in this year's game isn't doing it for the prize money and is known for refusing to ever jump. Will that hinder their chances of winning?

For the good of the kingdom... For the good of the kingdom.

Apparently, this is a retelling of Antony and Cleopatra which I am not familiar with because I was never interested in anything regarding that story so I went into this book blind. This is also the first book I've read by Chloe Gong, so I am not familiar with her writing. This was OwlCrate's first Adult BOTM Special edition pick for July, and the read-along pick in "The Nest" for September (a bookish app run by OwlCrate for all book enthusiasts, not just OwlCrate subscribers).

I have read a few books that would have numerous character POVs such as GOT, but I feel that this book was a bit too short to flip between several characters and some were just too brief to even mention on their own. Needless to say, I was not a fan of that.

Let the POV jumping begin...

August Shenzhi: The adopted son of King Kasa who is in line for the throne and wants the title sooner rather than later.
Princess Calla Tuoleimi: In hiding from the palace for the last 5 years and rumored to be dead. She murdered her parents and if the king finds out she is still alive, she will be killed.
Anton Makusa: an exiled aristocrat formally friends with Prince August who is desperate for money to keep his childhood love Otta alive as she's been in a coma at the hospital since the exile 5 years ago. Bills are piling up and if he doesn't get money soon, the hospital will stop caring for her and she could die. His intention is to win the game so he can continue her care and is known to be the best jumper in the kingdom.
Pampi Magnes: Works at the palace and is one of the people monitoring the killing game.

Calla and Anton are the best contestants in the game and decide to hold a truce to form an alliance to better their chances of being the last ones standing. August is also tipping the scales toward Calla to her surprise in order for her to help him get what he wants. As they work together, they begin to look at one another as more than just competition and wonder if they will be able to complete the game as intended. A few characters mention something strange/concerning going on in regard to the jumping, but it doesn't seem like there was an answer to it. Although I did lose focus a lot while reading this and may have missed it. If not, I assume it will be explained in the sequel which I am undecided if I will be reading because this was a rough read for me. I had a hard time getting into the storyline and although in the read-along I'm participating in, we only read a few chapters per day and give thoughts on how it's going, I struggled with motivation to pick up the book and read the few assigned chapters each day. Due to my reluctance, I fell a few days behind because I just didn't want to read it and I considered a DNF but I sucked it up since it was a pick for the read-along and hoped it would get more interesting.

It picked up more towards the end and there was a cliffhanger but I just didn't get that feeling you typically have with a big cliffhanger wishing you could read the next book right away. There were a few characters thrown in there briefly, which one I completely forgot about until I went back to look at something, and seems they may be a big key to the strange things going on so to me that shouldn't have been a forgettable character. I decided to listen to the audiobook to play catch up and get through and finish it a day early so I could move on to something else I may enjoy more. The idea of how the game is played and the abilities people have is interesting. The backstory (although brief) of Calla was as well. It was just missing something for me and I was left feeling a bit, meh. It had potential and I hope that the sequel is better with a bit more backstory to the characters and how that world works to help fill in the voids and make up for what this one was missing. I gave this a 3 star rating, but unfortunately due to my reluctance to read the second book, it actually dropped down to about 2.5- 2.75 which you cannot rate on this platform. Typically if I rate a book at a 3 or above it means I feel it is worth reading any sequel it may have. Not sure it will happen.

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madscientistcat's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

I enjoyed the writing but I wasn’t a huge fan of the way the plot progressed sometimes, though it did make me ask a lot of questions of the world and the characters which I might appreciate even more than a clear plot.

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jlyles_177's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

Content Warnings

kdailyreads's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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thecourtofreading's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

not sure how i feel about this. i love and adore chloe gong, and whilst this book was really good, i felt that sometimes it fell a bit lax. the setting, the characters (especially calla) and the description was marvellous -- i really felt like i was there in the city with the characters -- but i had expected a bit more tension, a little bit more of a high-stakes game. all of the issues with other players were solved relatively quickly and without a lot of effort from calla and anton, and everything seemed to go slightly smoothly for them. the magic system was really interesting though, with certain characters being able to jump bodies; there was interview with chloe in the back of my copy that said in the next instalments she's going to explore that further which i'm excited to read about. generally, i have no other issues apart from the fact that i didn't really feel a sense of danger, a sense of being on the edge of my seat reading this, but it was definitely entertaining nonetheless.

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jules_reads_books's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

i fucking loved this
full review to come

Content Warnings

caseythereader's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Thanks to Saga Press for the free copy of this book.

- IMMORTAL LONGINGS is a retelling of Antony and Cleopatra, set in a world of poverty and despair where no one can be trusted because people can swap bodies at will.
- This book is very much an adult Hunger Games. The body-jumping element was a bit confusing at first, but Gong is quite detailed about the mechanics of it, so you're soon enough blazing through San-Er with the protagonists as they slash and burn their way to the top.
- I thought it got a little repetitive in the middle (there were a LOT of people to murder), but there are a couple of twists in the second half that literally made me gasp out loud. I'll definitely be reading the next installment.

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sophirv19's review

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adventurous challenging medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

Short review: aaaahhhhhhhh!!!

Longer review: I've never read Chloe Gong before even with the These Violent Delights duology being on my tbr for the longest time but my LORD was this the introduction I wanted.

Immortal Longings follows a scrimmage within a whole city. Imagine The Hunger Games but across the entire span of London, or Shanghai, or New York, plus they're telling the other players where their competitors are. I was a huge fan of the early 2010's era of dystopia that included The Hunger Games and Divergent but this was just so much better in every single way.

I loved Calla in the way that people love the likes of Loki and Deadpool. They're very much not the good guys but you just have a soft spot for them. Calla was well and truly the anti-hero and I loved her for it.

Chloe Gong, please give me book 2 immediately thank you!

Thanks to Netgalley, Hodder and Stoughton, and especially Chloe Gong for writing this ARC.

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