This book is my first encounter with the talent of Chloe Gong, and I can say that it won't be the last time I reach for this author's prose. I really appreciate the unrestrained imagination that allowed the author to create such a fundamentally diverse world. We've seen something similar before - like the Takeshi Kovacs series: body swapping, etc., but in this novel, everything has a completely different flavor. It's not just about the subgenre, but more about the philosophy itself. In Ms. Gong's book, everything seems more flexible, with a nuance that's hard to grasp at first, but over time, its full scale resonates.

I have no intention of spoiling or summarizing the plot, as I dislike doing that. Each reader should decide for themselves whether the publisher's description and the cover (which I really like, being a professional graphic designer myself) are enough to immerse themselves in the world created by Chloe Gong.

The book, like any debut, has its flaws, of course. The author's style is still evolving and taking shape, but it already has that special something that makes it hard to put the story down.

The action scenes, descriptions, plot, magic, romance, and Asian vibe made me read it in almost one go.

I personally recommend it to anyone who wants to try something a bit different, but with an edge.

While my overall enjoyment led me to award this book with 4 stars, I do recognize that it certainly has some issues and won't appeal to everyone.

What made me enjoy it so much was the magic and the atmosphere. The magic allows a gifted person to jump into the body of another. It was very simple in concept, yet it eventually became more complex. It added quite a bit of tense atmosphere as we follow Calla walking through the city, knowing anyone could be an enemy. And the city itself made for a great setting. It is this monster of a city with an overflowing population that made people squeeze in more living space wherever possible, joining buildings and blocking out the sunlight. The people are hungry and poor to such an extent they try to get hurt or killed by the game competitors to receive compensation.

The story itself was good enough. It certainly had some surprising moments, but also the game was more of a background that allowed for characters to collide.

The three main characters were morally grey and strongly goal-oriented and ruthless, which made it fun to follow their actions, but I also didn't get very attached to them.

The romance line wasn't very convincing or interesting. It's supposed to be a big part of the book and it just wasn't. I don't care for romance much, so I was fine with not getting it. The relationship might have not been really fleshed out, but it still worked well enough for the plot.

I think this book would appeal to people who enjoy world-building and ruthless characters. I wouldn't recommend it to those who are looking for a good romance story.

I received an ARC for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

"They trained her for war. And she rose up to wage it on them."

I really enjoyed this book. I won't lie it took me quite a while to get into it and I almost DNF'd it but I pushed on and by chapter 12 I was invested. I'd say that's where it starts picking up...

The book started off with quite a slow pacing and I was quite confused at the beginning, however it definitely picked up by about 30% and the pacing definitely sped up.

This book had a very strong Hunger Games vibe to it, however i liked that the games did not occur in one arena and rather that the players ran freely around the city of San Er.

I really liked Calla as the FMC, I found her to be quite a strong likeable character. I enjoyed her relationship with Anton, however I did find the romance element a little weird and it felt like it was kind of just thrown in.

The ending is what sealed the 4 star rating of this book for me. I did not see it coming until the second last chapter where I had some theories.

Overall I'm glad I pushed through because I really enjoyed the book and I'm very excited to find out what happens next.

Thank you Netgalley, Hodder and Stoughton and Chloe Gong for an e-arc of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This book has more minuses than pluses and that's not something I like to say.

First of all, I'm a huge fan of Chloe Gong and I was incredibly excited for her latest release. Her style in the adult fantasy genre? Sign me up!
Now, I'm not saying this book was bad, but it definitely didn't meet my expectations. The worldbuilding was a mess and however common info dumps may be for new fantasy books, this one felt too heavy. Expanding on the world was not balanced with the movement of the plot, the character-driven plot-lines and the relationship development. Maybe it felt like that because the characters didn't strike me as anything too special or out of the ordinary, enough, to capture my attention and keep it on the book.
You may notice that it's been a long time since I've had the ARC and the date of me posting the review. I tried giving the book a secon chance and it still felt incredibly heavy with unnecessary info dumps. While I'm used to Chloe Gong giving a slower paced introduction, this felt like a lullaby that you'd use on your baby to fall asleep.
The game was an interesting part because it crazily reminded me of The Hunger Games, both as in vibes but also as in plot purpose. And it definitely didn't do what it wanted. It was incredibly bland and needed some spark to make the game part spectacular and memorable. It wasn't either of those.
The body jumping was a weird concept and it definitely needed either a good concious rewrite or a scrapping of the idea because it brought forward and simultaniously ignored so many things! Complete disregard of consent, using other people's bodies for intimate acts (that qualifies as sexual assault but I don't see any attention brought to it) and even jumping into children's bodies. I... am speechless.

This book needs a rewrite, another editor and less side influence from other authors and their mediocre work.

Thank you to Netgalley and Hodder & Stoughton for the e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.


first of all, this is really late as i've been busy with work lately, but oh well, better late than never right?


when chloe first announced this book back in 2021, i was immediately excited because "inspired by the kowloon walled city & wong kar wai aesthetic" were both big YESSS for me.


if you've watched the 2016 HIT tvb drama 'a fist within four walls', an action/martial arts drama also based in the kowloon walled city (please watch it!!! it is SO GOOD so action packed and full of multi-dimensional characters & phenomenal acting), that drama was what i imagined in my head when i was reading about San-Er. the setting of San-Er was immediately clear as a picture in my head and in that aspect, the author did do a good job painting a setting that was easy to imagine.


there's something about chloe gong's writing that is just so riveting - it's not necessarily the most skillful writing, but it pulls you in and grips you at once, and refuses to let you look away.


however, the story still bears some of the flaws that readers have begun to learn to expect from chloe's writing, like the lack of well crafted world building (especially in an urban fantasy setting where everything has to be built in a way that is believable and feels real to the audience), and solid character backstories and motivations.


calla's backstory, in particular, felt very shallow and it was very difficult as a reader to believe that was the sole motivation for her to murder the royal family, much less that murdering the king was the only 'solution' she could think of to bring a stop to king kasa's regime. if more effort had been put into building a more solid and whole backstory for calla, then her sheer determination to spill blood would have been more believable and even easier to root for.


that was my biggest problem with this book, that everything felt too convenient and tropey as if merely constructed to push certain tropes instead of building a proper, well rounded story, which should have been the focus.


this setting, and sypnosis, if given the time and thought, could have been a well crafted story in the likes of Jade City, an example of an urban fantasy actually executed perfectly (though not to compare the two because they are completely different stories and settings despite sharing similar sub-genres and themes)


still, i had a good time reading this book and am looking forward to the sequel despite my criticisms. hoping to see chloe grow as an author and take the time to improve on her craft and give us a better written sequel (i've noticed her second books tend to be better than the first probably because she does not need to do much world building, where most of her flaws come from, and can just dive into the story). 3.25 stars from me!

I really enjoyed this book! The world building was well done and the magic/ body jumping was very intriguing! It took me a little longer to read than her other novels but I still really liked this story!

I really need book 2 right now because this book was amazing and the cliffhanger left me speechless.
The tension between Calla and Anton can be literally cut with a knife and I love how they get to be from enemies to allies to something more 😏.
The idea of the book is similar to The Hunger Games, but you actually have to choose to enter the games and be selected (and you can also decide to retire, gladly you don’t really have to die 😅), but when Calla and Anton decide to enter they are both sure they are gonna win and the other is both an obstacle and an opportunity to reach the king and kill him.
I kept imagining this book as a movie and it would be such a mess (but also epic) because people can jump into new bodies whenever they want and they just keep the eyes (imagine how many actors). But Calla is absolutely determined not to jump due to her past. She is a very strong heroine I have been immediately able to empathize with, but the character that really got to me is Anton. He is fierce, he is loyal and he is also the bad guy and I found him absolutely irresistible!

I was really excited when I heard that Chloe Gong was going to release her first adult novel. I really liekd the Secret Shanghai duology, and Foul Lady Fortune was one of my favourite books last year.
And at the beginning I was sure I was going to love this one! I got this wonderfull feeling that you only get when you start an amazing book. But then. The book just didn't deliver. I can't even really pin down what it was. The premise of the plot is really interesting and the setting is absolutely amazing. But somehow it still managed to be utterly unengaging and I didn't manage to find a connection to the characters at all. Such a shame.
I give this one 3.5/5
PS: I read Last Violent Call right after this and liked it a lot more

I’m honestly so gutted this didn’t work for me, Iv been waiting for a book that sparks my interest from Chloe Gong and a hunger games feel had me so excited but this was just so slow paced and lacking in energy that I became bored very quickly, making it hard to engage with the characters and the plot.
World building was ok, I loved the city vibe and the whole concept of jumping is really cool. The writing style is sophisticated and at times beautiful but it just didn’t make up for the lack of feeling in the story.
If you’re looking for a strong competition plot I wouldn’t say you’ve found it here but if you’re after morally grey characters you’ll have your fill of them in this story, not one character is sickly sweet they all have flaws and are strong willed.
As always, many thanks for providing me with an arc, sorry it wasn’t love this time round.

I didn’t really want to rate this book because all I can say is that unfortunately this did not work for me and took me weeks to try and get into.

For a book about deadly games there wasn’t much action really at all. Also how did I just find out this was supposed to be influenced by the story of Antony and cleopatra because I didn’t feel that at all. Chloe’s a talented writer but unfortunately this story was not for me.

**I was provided with an ARC through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review**

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

IMMORTAL LONGINGS is a sci-fi set in a fun location about characters pursuing their desires but not always being honest about them.

I really enjoyed the setting of this book, a dense urban jungle of high rises crowded together to block out the sunlight. It's inspired by the walled city of Kowloon and gives the book a sci-fi/cyberpunk setting. It's also an absolute maze, which makes the deadly games claustrophobic and isolating at once because someone could be anywhere, ready to pounce.

The ability for people to jump between bodies makes the claustrophobia more intense, because it's hard to know if someone is who they appear to be - of if their body has been hijacked. One set of mysterious antagonists seem to be breaking the expected rules of what can be done, with hints that the protagonists may push their abilities in those directions in later books to catch up with their enemies.

This book is very loosely based on the Shakespeare play Anthony and Cleopatra, more akin to how FOUL LADY FORTUNE was so loosely based it was hard to spot it (here at least the names are more or less obvious!) The inspiration does, seemingly, mostly come through the names, which is pretty fun for the side/minor characters as the names hint at the bigger roles they have to play, or the chaos they may be about to cause.

What the book does bring from the play is the destructive relationships and pretty much every character's desire to achieve their goals, no matter the cost. But how many are lying to themselves about what their goals really serve?

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an arc of this title in exchange for this honest review.

This book was probably my biggest disappointment of the year. I was incredibly excited for this ever sine i first heard of it, but it just didnt deliver for me.

Immortal Longings is a tale of violence. Not only of the violence caused by the deadly hunt that the characters are part of, but the violence of the empire. It's part of the fabric of this world, and Chloe Gong does a perfect job of capturing this violence. She has succeeded in crafting a cruel yet interesting world and in showing how her characters exist within this landscape.

The world-building is good. Very vivid. But I have some issues with the pacing and I felt uninterested in the story though the premise is good but somehow in the middle I got bored.

Thanks you Netgalley and hodder for the e-Arc in exchange for my honest opinion and veiws.

This book was intriguing and fantastic I love the Cleopatra and Anthony vibes. I was absorbed into the story and characters and couldn't put it down; the world building was at a good pace and so was the action.
Chloe Gong knows how to create interesting and complex characters that are likable and fun; Princess Calla is a fierce warrior, her chemistry with Anton was just as fiery.
A solid read if you like the Hunger Games with a Shakespearean twist and vibes.

3.5 stars

Okay, so. Definitely not my favourite Chloe Gong book that she has ever released, BUT I still love her and adore her and will read anything she writes, and Immortal Longings definitely has not changed my mind on that.

I have absolutely ZERO knowledge of the Shakespeare play of Antony and Cleopatra; I don't think it's necessary to have prior knowledge, but I think it would have helped me. From reading the author's note however, it seems that this isn't exactly a retelling but more of an examination of the original Antony and Cleopatra's obsession with each other. I just think that if I had known even a little bit more of the original play then I might not have felt as confused as I did at the beginning of this book.

One other thing that I found confusing was the body jumping. In this book, bodies are essentially just "vessels" - what body you're in doesn't really matter, it's about whose soul or qi is occupying it. I think this is a really cool concept, but I just felt quite confused by it all. Like, how does anyone know who they're talking to? How does anyone form friendships or relationships? I almost just wanted Chloe Gong to sit me down and explain it to me like I'm five.

Aside from all of that, however, I did enjoy this book, and I don't think it's deserving of the 1 star reviews it's been getting. I loved how every single character in here is morally grey - there is not one person in this book who could be technically classed as morally good, and I loved that. Calla was ruthless, cunning and I loved her as a main character, she's incredibly complex and there is so much to unpack with her. Anton is mysterious and charming and I'm so intrigued by his character and what is to come from him. Their fraught alliance had me on the edge of my seat - they were the definition of "are they going to kiss or kill each other" and I ate it up!

I also found that the setting of these heaving, claustrophobic twin cities was really atmospheric, and the perfect setting for this story. I loved getting to know San-Er and it's secrets, and I think there is so much potential with this location.

As I said, this isn't my favourite Chloe Gong book, not by a long shot, and there is potentially the argument that she should stay in YA where she shines, but I do love her and I do think this story and this world has a lot of potential, and I hope that as the trilogy goes on she will find her feet in adult fantasy a bit more!

I enjoyed this one but I wasn't as enthralled as I wanted to be. I think the pacing was too slow for my liking and i couldn't fully engage with the characters. The world-building was slightly lacking and the plot twists were predictable.
I did find the political aspects intriguing. I really only liked the FMC and the premise was promising, but the execution was lacking. The Hunger Games comp wasn't accurate and I'm not sure i'll give this author another chance.

I finished reading Immortal Longings by Chloe Gong, which I will present as The Hunger Games meets Kate Dylan's Mindwalker and/or Shakespeare. This novel was on my list of most anticipated reads of 2023, yet I admit I was a bit disappointed by it. As always from Miss Gong, the writing was very sophisticated and beautiful, but the book's content felt a bit sloppy, dragging in many instances, and not particularly gripping. I am fully aware this is the first opus in (maybe) a duology or a trilogy; there will be many points to develop in the plot in further books I'm sure, and I ask to be surprised with those books, honestly. I just don't think I will be anticipating them as much as I did with this first book, and so far, apart from those plot points, I struggle to see how the storyline will develop. Will it still be inspired by Anthony and Cleopatra? Will it be other Shakespearean plays? Also, I thought the characters were interesting during some chapters, and their backstories were well-built, but when it came to their personalities and relations, it lacked chemistry in my opinion. To me, Anton and Calla didn't match that much and their proximity felt too pushed to be appreciated. Thus, what I will remember of Immortal Longings will be the beautiful descriptions and very unique atmosphere of the story. I will give a chance to the second book and see if Chloe Gong succeeds in convincing me of this new saga.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for this eARC of Immortal Longings.
This is an amazing and captivating start of a new series by one of my favourite authors. The writing is very descriptive and pulls you right into the story. The characters feel relatable in their actions and I loved the bonds that were forming between Calla and Anton. And the whole story is full of twists, turns, secrets and betrayals. After reading the ending I can say that I'm hyped for the sequel. After his cliffhanger, I need answers.