Reviews tagging 'Suicidal thoughts'

Immortal Longings by Chloe Gong

22 reviews

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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abby_can_read's review against another edition

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adventurous dark tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

📖
This was quite the book. I don't really know how to explain my feelings. I think it was interesting. I liked the magic system. The worldbuilding and the lore were interest. I struggled to like the main characters -- Calla, Anton, and August -- and I'm wasn't the best fan of the romance between Calla and Anton. 

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thesnarkside's review against another edition

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dark reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • 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


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risaleel's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5


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lujisa's review against another edition

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dark mysterious fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0


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wet_towlette's review against another edition

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  • 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

2.75

Chloe gong really can’t help herself and just has to write the same book over and over again 😭 there’s always a main plot of political unrest and a subplot of culty sciencey murder mystery type shit. And a very tropey romance (but I’m not really complaining about that). It was okay but nothing about it stood out in the way that her some her ya books do 

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sydapel's review against another edition

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adventurous dark tense slow-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? It's complicated

3.5

I'm a little surprised with how much I liked this, to be honest. I feel that Chloe Gong is a really young writer, and a lot of the choices she made in the These Violent Delights series reflected that, especially when it came to connecting the characters with their environment. In creating more of her own world of San-Er, it's much easier to see it come alive in all it's capitalist hellscape. Even though most of the book is a set up for a series, there are some really impactful characters and plot points here, especially with the potential to explore themes of greed, revenge and identity. Overall, I wish her writing was more cohesive (found myself skipping past large chunks of descriptions and inner monologue in order to get to the action), but I'm looking forward to the next one! 

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mattiedancer's review against another edition

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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

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caitlin033's review against another edition

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dark emotional fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0


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