mattiedancer's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
Writing: 5⭐️/5
I love Chloe Gong’s writing. I think she has immaculate control over her language. I love her descriptions, even when they’re dark or gory. In this novel, her writing really brought the world to life. I felt like I could see the city, see the participants running about, could smell the food and the stink in the alley. I enjoyed reading this novel thoroughly.
Characters: 4.75⭐️/5
Now again, I’m a big Chloe Gong fan, so maybe there’s a bit of bias here, but Gong writes characters incredibly well. Specifically, she writes morally grey characters with pure ease, crafting their motives, their situations, and their desires into the story with ease. I would’ve loved a touch more from our side characters – as well as to not have our background characters feel so background – but these are small gripes.
Plot: 4.5⭐️/5
Alright, Antony and Cleopatra retelling. How does Chloe Gong just reimagine Shakespearean tales in the most interesting way possible? I don’t know, but I do love. The longing, the love, the competition, the forced trust, the game: all of it is so brilliantly written, you can’t help but love it. My only gripe is with the ending, with her twist which leaves us wondering how are two main characters will move forward in love (because they will, right?). I felt like it didn’t need to happen in the way that it happened, strictly for the sense that I knew exactly what had happened to Anton, and I don’t know why that wasn’t a plan Calla and him created, instead of it being a betrayal. I understand that it echoes the betrayal Antony goes through at Cleopatra’s hands, but it felt forced the way it happened – and a little obvious. All in all though, this is a small complaint for a brilliant plot.
Who Should Read This Book?
- Fans of Chloe Gong
- Fans of Shakespeare and fantasy novels
- Fans of enemies to lovers
- Fans of Hunger Games, but want it magic
Content Warnings?
- Death, murder, blood, injury, injury detail, gore, child death, sexual content, death of parent, cursing, suicidal thoughts, toxic relationship
Post-Reading Rating: 5⭐️/5
Hi, Chloe. Um, I need the next one pretty, pretty please.
Final Rating: 4.75⭐️/5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Murder, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, War, Fire/Fire injury, Emotional abuse, Confinement, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Gore, Cursing, Grief, Gaslighting, Genocide, Body horror, Sexual content, Toxic friendship, Vomit, and Toxic relationship
axel_p's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
I can't wait for the sequel. I couldn't keep up with all these plot twist.
Content Warnings
Minor: Violence, War, Sexual content, Trafficking, Death of parent, Child abuse, Classism, Colonisation, Blood, Confinement, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Suicidal thoughts, Body horror, and Xenophobia
azrah786's review against another edition
3.5
[This review can also be found on my BLOG]
**I was provided with an ARC through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review**
CW: violence, blood, gore, injury, murder, death, child death, death of parent, genocide, war, colonisation, classism, kidnapping, suicidal ideation, medical content, terminal illness, grief, sexual content
--
Another Anthony and Cleopatra reimaging, another let down.. Not to say that I didn’t enjoy aspects of this book but this now happens to be the second time I’ve been disappointed at the outcome of a retelling around these figures despite the fact that the dynamic they evoke interest me SO MUCH.
Now I’ll admit I’m not as familiar with Shakespeare’s Anthony and Cleopatra as I am with Romeo and Juliet so maybe that is what put me at a bit of a disadvantage. However, I do think that Chloe Gong may have been a bit too ambitious with how much was actually thrown into this first book more than anything else if we set aside the fact that I wasn’t able to appreciate all the nuances to the original play it was inspired by.
Down to the bare bones it is a story surrounding a handful of individuals wanting to overthrow a king, each for their own reasons and there is a tournament to the death involved in which two of the main protagonists are participants. I think where things got a bit flimsy surrounded this tournament as though all the action and tension was written quite well the games themselves sort of felt a little disconnected from the rest of the story for me.
The setting of San-Er gave glimpses of Ancient Rome but I believe it is inspired by the Kowloon Walled City (Hong Kong). However, I couldn’t help but compare it to the Shanghai of These Violent Delights and how the city there shone as its own character.
I felt in Immortal Longings the story didn’t really capture the feel of the setting maybe until halfway through and again I feel like this came down to how Gong was also trying to bring this dystopian Hunger Games vibe in for the games on top of everything else. Don’t get me wrong Gong’s writing and descriptions of the atmosphere were great I just feel like they didn’t link up to the narrative straight away so it all felt like a separate thing.
What I was most looking forward to in the book was the reluctant alliance dynamic. It is one trope that I really enjoy reading about and the one that formed between Calla and Anton was great, full of the right amount of banter and camaraderie (if it can be called that) that comes about when two opposing forces have to team up. Where their relationship fell short I believe is with the romance side of things or at least the fact that it came around too quickly.
In fact this can be said to be the case for a couple of things in the book for instance coming back to how much was going on, for an adult fantasy it was too short. Certain scenes and developments could have been given more room to breathe in the narrative with a couple more pages. I think why the romance didn’t immediately work for me was because Anton’s motive for winning the games was to save “his ex” but then romance rapidly ensued with Calla and we didn’t really get enough time showing them working together to justify it.
More than the games I was intrigued by the wider politics that were happening in the background and the mystery that it brought about. But the best part of the book was without a doubt the power/magic system. This whole idea of people having the means to jump out of their body and take over someone else’s was so compelling and made for some great twists in the book. I caught onto a few of them but they were honestly written in so well I was still impressed. Also the whole idea of autonomy and morality and identity that comes in was really interesting especially when you have characters constantly jumping around and others who refuse to do so.
So despite not loving this one as much as I had hoped, it has still left some fascinating questions behind which have me super keen to get my hands on book two as well as that killer ending! It was one twist I saw coming but am super excited to see develop.
I plan on trying to get my hands on Shakespeare’s work if I can before book 2 releases and then give this one a reread so I can catch all the call backs that I am sure are there because that was one big highlight I had with These Violent Delights!
Final Rating – 3.5/5 Stars
**I was provided with an ARC through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review**
CW: violence, blood, gore, injury, murder, death, child death, death of parent, genocide, war, colonisation, classism, kidnapping, suicidal ideation, medical content, terminal illness, grief, sexual content
--
Another Anthony and Cleopatra reimaging, another let down.. Not to say that I didn’t enjoy aspects of this book but this now happens to be the second time I’ve been disappointed at the outcome of a retelling around these figures despite the fact that the dynamic they evoke interest me SO MUCH.
Now I’ll admit I’m not as familiar with Shakespeare’s Anthony and Cleopatra as I am with Romeo and Juliet so maybe that is what put me at a bit of a disadvantage. However, I do think that Chloe Gong may have been a bit too ambitious with how much was actually thrown into this first book more than anything else if we set aside the fact that I wasn’t able to appreciate all the nuances to the original play it was inspired by.
Down to the bare bones it is a story surrounding a handful of individuals wanting to overthrow a king, each for their own reasons and there is a tournament to the death involved in which two of the main protagonists are participants. I think where things got a bit flimsy surrounded this tournament as though all the action and tension was written quite well the games themselves sort of felt a little disconnected from the rest of the story for me.
The setting of San-Er gave glimpses of Ancient Rome but I believe it is inspired by the Kowloon Walled City (Hong Kong). However, I couldn’t help but compare it to the Shanghai of These Violent Delights and how the city there shone as its own character.
I felt in Immortal Longings the story didn’t really capture the feel of the setting maybe until halfway through and again I feel like this came down to how Gong was also trying to bring this dystopian Hunger Games vibe in for the games on top of everything else. Don’t get me wrong Gong’s writing and descriptions of the atmosphere were great I just feel like they didn’t link up to the narrative straight away so it all felt like a separate thing.
What I was most looking forward to in the book was the reluctant alliance dynamic. It is one trope that I really enjoy reading about and the one that formed between Calla and Anton was great, full of the right amount of banter and camaraderie (if it can be called that) that comes about when two opposing forces have to team up. Where their relationship fell short I believe is with the romance side of things or at least the fact that it came around too quickly.
In fact this can be said to be the case for a couple of things in the book for instance coming back to how much was going on, for an adult fantasy it was too short. Certain scenes and developments could have been given more room to breathe in the narrative with a couple more pages. I think why the romance didn’t immediately work for me was because Anton’s motive for winning the games was to save “his ex” but then romance rapidly ensued with Calla and we didn’t really get enough time showing them working together to justify it.
More than the games I was intrigued by the wider politics that were happening in the background and the mystery that it brought about. But the best part of the book was without a doubt the power/magic system. This whole idea of people having the means to jump out of their body and take over someone else’s was so compelling and made for some great twists in the book. I caught onto a few of them but they were honestly written in so well I was still impressed. Also the whole idea of autonomy and morality and identity that comes in was really interesting especially when you have characters constantly jumping around and others who refuse to do so.
So despite not loving this one as much as I had hoped, it has still left some fascinating questions behind which have me super keen to get my hands on book two as well as that killer ending! It was one twist I saw coming but am super excited to see develop.
I plan on trying to get my hands on Shakespeare’s work if I can before book 2 releases and then give this one a reread so I can catch all the call backs that I am sure are there because that was one big highlight I had with These Violent Delights!
Final Rating – 3.5/5 Stars
Content Warnings
Graphic: Kidnapping, Classism, Sexual content, Grief, Blood, Violence, Death, Child death, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, and Murder
Moderate: Colonisation, Suicidal thoughts, Medical content, Genocide, War, and Terminal illness
justagrlandherdog's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
I really enjoyed this book. The body jumping was very interesting to me. Calla and Anton weren't the most fleshed out characters written but I cared for them anyways. I can see where everyone pulls the hunger games comparisons but a few chapters in, I stopped seeing similarities. The twists! I did not see any one of them coming and tend to at least see a few. But nope not a single one. Maybe if you have better knowledge of the play maybe you will but I’ve only seen a movie version like once. I’m excited for the next one! Ready to see how that cliffhanger plays out!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death of parent, Classism, Death, Violence, and Murder
Moderate: Sexual content and Suicidal thoughts
stagemanaginger's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
If not for the last page of the book, I probably wouldn’t read the sequel and would have rated it lower. But the last page got me. If you can even call this an Antony and Cleopatra retelling, it’s definitely very loose and takes a lot of liberties with the story.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Death of parent, Murder, and Violence
Moderate: Classism, War, Colonisation, and Sexual content
ltc's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
tense
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
2.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Blood, and Murder
Moderate: Death of parent
Minor: Child death and Sexual content
lisashelves's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Murder, and Violence
Moderate: Death of parent
Minor: Suicidal thoughts
jlyles_177's review against another edition
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
Graphic: Death, Death of parent, Medical content, Murder, Blood, Cursing, Gore, and Violence
taryn_g's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
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
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Death, Murder, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Child death, Gore, Death of parent, Genocide, and Colonisation
Minor: Medical content, Confinement, Sexual content, Terminal illness, and Suicidal thoughts
jilljemmett's review against another edition
fast-paced
5.0
Every year, the kingdom of Talin hosts a game in the capital city of San-Er which chooses eighty-eight people to fight to the death to win incredible riches. Princess Calla Tuoleimi has been in hiding for the past five years, since she murdered her parents at the palace. She enters the games because the winner gets to meet King Kasa, who she plans to kill. Anton Makusa is an exiled diplomat who also enters the games. The love of his life has been in a coma since their failed attempt to escape the palace, and he wants to win the money to pay off the debt he has incurred by keeping her alive. Calla and Anton form an unexpected alliance in the games, but in the end there can only be one winner who survives.
This book is one of my favourites of the year! It is a loose retelling of Antony and Cleopatra. There was a fantastic setting with magical jumping between bodies, so not everyone is who they appear to be. I loved the way that this magic created so many twists in the story. I guessed one of the reveals partway through the story, but the ending blew me away. I can’t wait to read the next book!!
Immortal Longings is a fantastic fantasy!
Thank you Simon and Schuster Canada for sending me a copy of this book!
Content warnings: murder, death of parents, death of siblings
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder
Moderate: Death of parent