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A review by aliciasrealm
Immortal Longings by Chloe Gong
4.0
While I really enjoyed this book, it's certainly not the best in class as far as dystopian battle royale stories.
I loved the world building, which addressed many social, legal, and political implications of body jumping (though it strangely overlooked the morality of doing so) and explored the impact of the games, with the rational for the contest landing somewhere between Squid Game and The Hunger Games. However, the world building is primarily through exposition and TONS of info dumping (and all in third person present tense). Normally this might turn me off, but I was strangely invested in this world and the characters.
Immortal Longings distinguishes itself from books with a similar theme by showing us the world through the eyes of the privileged rather than the people who suffer under the rule of the powerful. However, the choice to cast royalty and aristocrats as the protagonists deteriorates an already clumsy commentary on class struggle despite the overall theme that there's no such thing as a good king. The messaging overall was pretty shallow.
The easiest character to sympathize with was Anton, whose motivations were clear from the beginning. I also loved his personality! Still, with the fact that he's so hung up on his first love, the whole "romance" arc between Calla and him didn't work at all for me. There was no chemistry (seriously, what obsession? I'm lost on that claim lol) and they felt more like friends than lovers.
It's a little disappointing in the battle royale aspect, which felt relegated to the background in favor of info dumping and the "kill the king" scheme. However, I loved the ending and am looking forward to reading the next book. I also loved the cat named Mao Mao
I loved the world building, which addressed many social, legal, and political implications of body jumping (though it strangely overlooked the morality of doing so) and explored the impact of the games, with the rational for the contest landing somewhere between Squid Game and The Hunger Games. However, the world building is primarily through exposition and TONS of info dumping (and all in third person present tense). Normally this might turn me off, but I was strangely invested in this world and the characters.
Immortal Longings distinguishes itself from books with a similar theme by showing us the world through the eyes of the privileged rather than the people who suffer under the rule of the powerful. However, the choice to cast royalty and aristocrats as the protagonists deteriorates an already clumsy commentary on class struggle despite the overall theme that there's no such thing as a good king. The messaging overall was pretty shallow.
The easiest character to sympathize with was Anton, whose motivations were clear from the beginning. I also loved his personality! Still, with the fact that he's so hung up on his first love, the whole "romance" arc between Calla and him didn't work at all for me. There was no chemistry (seriously, what obsession? I'm lost on that claim lol) and they felt more like friends than lovers.
It's a little disappointing in the battle royale aspect, which felt relegated to the background in favor of info dumping and the "kill the king" scheme. However, I loved the ending and am looking forward to reading the next book. I also loved the cat named Mao Mao