Reviews

Immortal Longings by Chloe Gong

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slstrong's review against another edition

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adventurous dark tense medium-paced

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

4.0

books_baking_barks's review against another edition

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4.0

Did you like the Hunger Games? Did you wish that they got to the games part a lot quicker? Did you have a dystopian era with the Red Queen, Shatter Me, Divergent? Then I may have your next read!

Immortal Longings is a retelling of Anthony and Cleopatra by Shakespeare, but I have never read that play and am unfamiliar with the plot so I had no idea what was coming up in this book. I will say it took me longer to get into this universe than usual, but I did appreciate that the world building was done quickly. I think it may have been more effective if we just stuck with one POV, but I understand the need for multiple in regard to the plot. The last 25% of the book got me good, and I’m excited for the release of the sequel this September!

I enjoyed the chapters from Calla’s POV better than Anton or August. Her plot was the most interesting, and I found the twist in her story to truly be surprising. Anton is the cocky powerful jumper, and his devotion for Otta didn’t seem to fit in with the rest of his character. I wish he was on the path for vengeance and revolution like Calla instead of just in it for the money, but he does get redemption in the end. August was very similar to Dorian in the first two Thrones of Glass books - I foresee him playing a more important role in later books, but found his chapters to be filler between the action of the games.

I would recommend this for those looking for a more adult twist on the YA dystopian novel trope, or for those who love a good Shakespeare retelling.

books_tea_and_fantasy's review against another edition

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2.0

2 ⭐️

Characters: 3
Atmosphere: 3
Writing: 5
Plot: 4
Intrigue: 2
Logic: 1
Enjoyment: 2

Didn't care about the characters and the 'game' made no sense whatsoever.
The lack of worldbuilding shows this book has an editing issue.

❌ DNF at 27% (p. 109)
❌ Series DNF
❌ Unhaul

amariexciryatan's review against another edition

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2.0

Meh. I’ve always had a fascination by the Kowloon Walled City, which this world is heavily inspired by. So for the first 60-70 pages I was pretty invested..
But after a while I just got bored.. the story and characters all stayed quite superficial and everything got very repetitive. The story didn’t really get going and there were to many switches between characters, dialogue, world building and back again while hammering on the same information over and over again. It didn’t leave any room at all to settle into the story.

2 stars for the concept, but I won’t be reading the second book.