Reviews with content warning for Death - Immortal Longings

Reviews tagging 'Death'

Immortal Longings by Chloe Gong

87 reviews

melissaslibraryy's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.75

Miss Chloe Gong has done it again! I loved this book from beginning to end and thought she did an amazing job for her first New Adult fantasy. I love how the games in the book remind me of The Hunger Games in terms of having a single Victor win after the rest of the players are dead and be rewarded with a ton of money that makes one think will get them out of poverty, but a better life will always be slightly out of reach. I had a feeling something was gonna happen at the end so when it did, i was pleasantly surprised that it didn’t happen in a way I expected it ☺️

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_cozyreadercorner's review against another edition

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adventurous dark tense fast-paced

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

4.0

the alluring celestial gilded illustration on the black and gold book cover caught my eye and the fact that it was written by a relatively new Asian American female author made me reach for it from the bookshelf. then was immediately convinced to give it a go once I read the intriguing premise — a broadcasted annual battle royale match reminiscent of the Hunger Games (except all volunteers instead of tributes) mixed with dynastic/royal strife common in East Asian historical dramas and set in a moody, claustrophobic cyberpunk backdrop that reminded me of those portrayed in Hong Kong films. the most compelling aspect was the magical ability of body jumping. was fun trying to understand the rules to the magic system, the beliefs and traditions of qi, and the different “body-jumpers” that exist within the universe.

The story takes place in the Talin kingdom and its administrative twin cities San-Er and revolves around 3 central characters:

August Shenzhi - adoptive son of King Kasa (current ruler) who secretly wants to overthrow his incompetent, selfish father and ascend to the throne with the help of his cousin…
Calla Tuoleimi - former princess of Er who has been in hiding ever since she inexplicably massacred her parents 5 years ago and plans to win this year’s games in order to enter the palace and kill her uncle Kasa. along the way, she finds an unexpected ally in an equally formidable player…
Anton Makusa - an exiled aristocrat, powerful body jumper, and August’s former friend who enters the games for the ultimate monetary prize to pay off his crushing medical debt accrued due to his comatose lover.

Calla is the common thread among the three of them, maintaining a strategic alliance with August in exchange for his help in the games and with Anton to wipe out the other 86 players together to get to the JueDou (finale) more quickly. could feel the heightened tension in every chapter, not only due to all the inevitable violence and bloodshed of the games but also because the three of them never fully trust each other, conversing with hidden meanings and keeping their guards up at all times as if preparing to be backstabbed at any moment both literally and figuratively. then there are the details of the filthy, polluted cityscape mentioned throughout, constantly reminding how poverty-stricken and gloomy the environment is and successfully making every situation feel even more suffocating than it already is.

enjoyed how the events of the mysterious external forces wreaking havoc in the games, the subtle breakthroughs in the character arcs, and the gradual bits of info from each of the triad’s pasts were set up to expose their secrets, true motives, and their gripes/the failures of the presiding monarchy. (nothing like shared trauma/hatred bringing people together amirite?). i can also appreciate that all three of them are morally grey anti-heroes, fighting for seemingly altruistic causes but with selfish incentives, if that makes sense?

August believes he would make a better king, undoing and fixing what his father has done.
Calla wants to kill Kasa to stop societal ills but also avenge for what he allowed happen to her.
Anton takes care of his girlfriend to keep his guilt for the part he played in her downfall at bay.

although what they did was for well-intentioned purposes, their ends-justify-the-means attitude and very few/lack of remorse was still quite hard to stomach (but then again i’m here judging from a non-dystopian world lol). not sure about their ages (probably late teens/early 20s?) but the way they simply attributed all the societal dysfunction to the king and their conviction that removing him will usher in a new age without laying the groundwork/plan on how to resolve those systemic issues prior or even while plotting to depose the king really made me confused where August got the confidence that he’d be ready to take over and make a better king (albeit King Kasa was without a doubt more inept than his son). and while the overall broader connections and grand plot twists made sense, still can’t help but feel there were missing parts to the storylines about: August and Anton’s beef, August and Calla’s upbringing in the palace (to explain why they hated their parents so much and perhaps how they gained such loyalty from Galipei, Chanmi, and Yilas),

Leida’s past and relationship to August and Galipei (to understand her betrayal and why she believed August wouldn’t live up to be a better king?), Pampi’s schemes and motives (how did she learn to body jump without light? what was she going to do with the hearts), and of course how did Anton manage to jump into August’s body at the last minute before his death?

. Sigh of relief when I read that cliffhanger hinting at a sequel. so hopefully I can get more answers and a clearer picture of the relationship dynamics.

SPOILERS:

felt like Anton and Calla’s romance was a bit sudden and escalated so quickly. like why were they already prepared to die for each other in the 1v1 at the coliseum after only a mere few weeks as allies together? did their romance just fly over my head, masked by adrenaline bc of how high stakes everything else was? felt like their happy moments probably needed a bit more breathing room to simmer and settle in. 🤔
wish Eno survived! he could have pulled his chip and withdrawn just moments before his death. why did he have to have the same fate as Rue in Hunger Games!!! he was like Anton and Calla’s adopted kid )’: why did he have to be the sacrifice/plot device to “show” a bit of Calla’s humanity? ): hated August for this. 😢
biggest shocker was definitely Calla not being the real Calla and probably better than my original theory — that she was was actually adopted (which was close) and hiding the fact she can’t jump — as the reason why she refused to jump out of her body this whole time. she must be so afraid to jump out if she even overcame her fight-or-flight response when Pampi was attempting to gruesomely carve her heart out. wonder if the real Calla’s qi will fight back to reclaim her body
and the fact Calla actually used Anton’s love for her as his weakness to gain an opening and resolutely decided to fatally backstab him. the clown i was 🤡… really thought she was going to find a loophole and try to maneuver a win-win situation.
still sus about Anton bc he could’ve avoided the stalemate dilemma if he just pulled the chip and withdrawn? i’m sure Calla would have split the prize with them. but then that’d be anticlimactic... but the thing is it sort of implies he’s still hung up on his ex-gf Otta though… 🤨
most unbelievable part was Otta waking up from her coma after 7 years even though Galipei was poisoning her IV and setting her up to die. like what? did that threat finally trigger her immune response to kick in and revive her instead? lol impeccable timing. will she have amnesia? or try to steal Anton back? 🙄
applause👏 for when Anton used their code phrase to reveal himself in August’s body during the coronation. that was just icing on the cake 💨🎂

Content Warnings

ksilvio's review against another edition

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dark tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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jennipea382's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.5

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cait_reads_and_drinks's review against another edition

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adventurous dark 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

3.5

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sabrinz's review against another edition

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dark hopeful mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.25

After These Violent Delights I was intrigued by yet another Shakespear retelling.
The story and the mystery and lore of this neon-drenched world is more than fascinating, this book lost me a bit with how jumpy some of the story seemed to be. The tournamet Calla and Anton participate in is the main device to get them both closer to their respective goals and each other, but it seemed more like a story device to move things along rather than something that was really intigrated into the world.
Nevertheless, I was hooked by the world-building and glimpes of the characters we got along the way as well as some sneak peeks at things that may be relevant later on.

I am still not quite certain if I'm on board with how unhinged all the characters seem to be, but it was enjoyable to read and shake my head at them.
I will definitely read book 2 to see where this is going, esp. with that ending :)

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trips's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark tense medium-paced

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

3.5

This was overall an enjoyable read from a purely entertainment standpoint. If I think about the world and magic system for more than a few minutes though, things start to fall apart really fast.

1) world building was alright but its pushed so often into the middle of scenes it gets really awkward and its easy to forget about what is even going on (this even happens in spicier scenes, it is very weird).
2) The body hopping/magic system of this world did not get enough explanation. The explanations about body invading was overall just quite strange, they seemed like Gong forgot to expand on how it works and was like "oh yeah I forgot to explain that, I'll do it here," in the weirdest spots throughout the book. I couldn't get behind it.

I do think its important coming into this book that it is inspired by Antony and Cleopatra, but it is certainly not a retelling. Anton and Calla are obsessive about each other and their relationship is pretty messy. That is about it in terms of similarities though.

Regardless of the above critiques, it is a pretty fun, easy read with some exciting twists. The last line of the book may leave you like :O! too hahaha

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renewed_reader's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad 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

2.0

Unfortunately, this book wasn’t as good as I thought it would be. There were entertaining parts but the pacing was quite off toward the end. I also think two key characters were underdeveloped.

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charthegoose's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

I really enjoyed this book! It kept me hooked and I was excited to keep reading. I loved the world building and found the world Calla lives in to be a fascinating place. I also grew to love Calla Anton and August and I’m excited to see where their story goes next. I found that the plot would always continue in ways I wouldn’t expect which meant the plot twists were shocking and had me gasping out loud at times 😂 I’m not farmiar with the shakespear this books reimagines so I can’t comment on that area.
However I do feel some areas of the plot aren’t explained well or at all

for example Calla isn’t actually “calla” and invaded the princess at age 8. The book explains at the start how her eye colour is unique to those with royal blood. However when people body jump their eye colour follows them so why didn’t Callas eye colour change when she jumped?

I also felt some conclusions and loose ends were tied up quite quickly and seemed as if they came out of no where and weren’t explained very thoroughly. However I am aware there are 2 more books to come in the future so these may be explored there
Overall I really enjoyed this book and will be reading the next instalment. Everytime I picked this book up I was excited to keep reading :)

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bergha1998's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional 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

Wow that cliffhanger, I wasn’t prepared. I found the book’s pacing to be a bit slow at points, and I Really didn’t like August as a character. But Calla and Anton were very interesting. I’m excited to see where this series goes.

Fantasy, Magic System, Romance Subplot, 1 🔥

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