Thank you to NetGalley and to the publisher Hodder & Stoughton for the digital ARC, it has not affected my honest review.

TW: death, body manipulation, graphic violence, blood, gore and injury, dubious consent

“Immortal Longings” is the epic adult debut of Chloe Gong, adapting the story of Shakespeare’s “Antony and Cleopatra” but in an urban fantasy setting where people can hop bodies with little consequences. Calla Tuoleimi, the long-presumed-dead princess of San-Er who massacred her parents five years ago, has been on the run for years but that is about to come to an end: every year the crowded and poverty-stricken twin cities host games for people confident in their body-hopping abilities, and this time Calla intends to use them to end the monarchy for good. Her uncle, King Kasa has been reclusive since the massacre but every year he greets the winner of the games and promises extreme riches. After meeting with her cousin, the adopted Crown Prince August Shenzhi, Calla makes a deal to go undetected in the games, win them and execute August’s father; he believes he can make things better but he can’t publicly do anything that might count as treason. At the same time, the exiled aristocrat named Anton Makusa enters the games without anyone knowing. He is the former best friend of Crown Prince August and one of the greatest body jumpers in the world. Since his violent banishment from the palace years ago, Anton’s childhood sweetheart has lain in a coma and he is rapidly sinking into chronic debt trying to keep her alive. He hopes that winning the games will bring him the money needed to save her, so a team-up between Anton, August and Calla benefits everyone. However, it soon becomes clear that there can be only one winner, and all of them want different things- even as Anton and Calla make the deadly mistake of falling in love with each other.

I’ve adored everything I’ve read by Chloe Gong so far so I was delighted to be approved for her adult debut, which is also a massively ambitious retelling of Antony and Cleopatra. This story has everything: romance, violence, tight but slow pacing, a gripping setting and compelling world-building alongside characters that completely fulfil their roles. The twin cities of San-Er are vivid from the first page, the crowded and overwhelming population feels like they’re pressing down on the reader as the games take place in public places. The concept of body jumping, especially without needing to ask permission, was fascinating in how it was written and I loved the idea of people abandoning their birth bodies if they want to; with this, the violent action scenes are always tenser, especially if a jumper doesn’t leave the body before death. Calla is an intriguing lead, morally grey and a self-confessed murderer because she believes that things will truly improve by killing Kasa; likewise, August believes that he can solve all his adopted father’s problems if he could just take the throne permanently. Anton, meanwhile, is a romantic but also one of the great body jumpers. However, the warning from the beginning is there can be only one winner to these games, so you spend the entire book waiting for that moment when the relationship between Anton and Calla will fall apart. This book is a stunning first novel for a series; nothing about it is predictable, the ending was incredible, and I can’t wait for more in this universe.

I think this is my favourite Chloe Gong read to date, I loved everything about it, world-building, the characters, the plot, just everything so well done, so intriguing and magical , also so much emotion and bloodshed, you need to read this

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

Thank you so much for accepting my request for this novel.

Although I enjoyed this novel it didn't grip me as much as I wanted it to. I have been having a reading slump so I will re-read as I feel it could be me and not the novel.
I did enjoy how the storyline developed and the characters felt real but I just wasn't feeling it unfortunately.

Do I still recommend? Yes because what I didn't feel doesn't mean someone else won't love.
Give this novel a go!

After having read three books by Chloe Gong that I for the most part enjoyed, I was actually looking forward to her foray into (new) adult fantasy. Unfortunately this book did not work for me at all.

One of the big plot points of this book is that Call is using the yearly game to get close enough to the king to kill him. Five years ago she killed her parents, the rules of the co-kingdom and would have killed the current king if she had not been stopped. Now she has been in hiding for 5 years in their walled city.

For five years she does absolutely nothing. She just hides. No plotting, no planning and al of a sudden this years game is going to be it. There is no explanation, nothing on what she has been doing these 5 years that explain why she is now moving or why she couldn't move. And lets not forget, how can you hide for 5 years in a walled city, near the caretakers she had while in the palace. She has an own appartment and a kitty. She doesn't work but has money. And lets not forget that she should be standing out as she doesn't body jump like the rest of them.

That is the big power in this book. Body jumping. There is a yellow flash when you jump so everybody knows. People have an own identification code to still be able to identify themselves. But there doesn't seem to be anyone stopping from jumping into a random person every 5 minutes. No consent needed. And if they are just about to get killed in that body, lets just jump to the next one. Tough luck for that body's owner. Even worse luck for those that don't have the jumping gene. They are meaningless and at any point they can be used and have no idea what has been done with their body. This is not at all adressed in the book and it feels very icky.

The game doesn't make sense. Why kill when the chip just has to get pulled or removed from a person? Make it make sense? Why would you even enter this killfest voluntarily because they all have to sign up, only the last 89 get chosen from all those signed up. And great there is something nice at the end, awesome. Money for those poor can be a great incentive. I get that. But the book doesn't actually talk about that. About previous winners and what it got them. And it is in the middle of the city. Nobody cares about collateral damage. What? Well there are barely any rules so whatever. If that joined school teacher just pulls a kid in front of them you just kill them both.

Adding on to that, I didn't really care about any of the characters and I also have isues with a lot of the plot twists that I don't want to get into because of spoilers.

Immortal Longings ⭐⭐⭐.5

In the twin cities of San-Er, a group of contestants is chosen from a volunteer pool to participate in brutal and spectacular street games. The city becomes an arena for the tournament, where only one can survive and receive unimaginable rewards. Calla has her own goal in joining. She does not care about the glory of victory but craves an opportunity to get close to the king and enact her revenge...

Immortal Longings is a novel full of action, excitement and fights. There are actually lots of fighting sequences in this book, and they are brilliant. The problem is, there is no structure to the tournament. The players run around the city, hiding, jumping each other and fighting to death. All of this seemed too chaotic, but it actually stressed the ruthless nature of San-Er. Who would allow such games in their city? Our main characters all believe that change is necessary. All of them want to achieve something else through the games.

Honestly, I don’t know what to think about this book. The plot seemed chaotic, and there was no clear reasoning behind many scenes. The characters could use more development. The romance? The idea of two contestants of a deadly tournament falling in love with each other is nothing new but still enjoyable. If it’s done well and this romance was rather flat.

This was my first Chloe Gong book, and I heard so much about her Secret Shanghai series. I probably will read the second book to check if the story improves.

This was an interesting read, which I wanted to love, but somehow didn’t. For starters, the story was written in present tense, which slightly jarred as it was also in third person point of view. This tense is generally more effective in first-person viewpoint (I) and I found the narrative slid out of the protagonist’s head and into a fairly hefty descriptive passage about the city, or the shop, or palace, or a slice of historical background without convincing me that we were still in the protagonist’s head. This happened throughout the story, which really held up the narrative pace. The fact it was a desperately overcrowded city and the ruling elite were incompetent and uncaring of the general population was repeatedly demonstrated throughout. Not only did these chunks of description interfere with pacing, but it also got in the way of the characterisation – at least where I was concerned.

For me, this was the biggest problem. Try as I might – I didn’t warm to Calla, Anton or August, who were all scheming and ruthless. Calla and Anton had to kill off a number of people along the way – and this didn’t bother either of them nearly enough. The fights were described with visceral intensity that added to the tension and excitement, although it would have mattered more if I’d been more invested in the characters. What did work was the slowly increasing affection between Calla and Anton. It was this conundrum that kept me turning the pages, as I wanted to discover how they got around this issue. It wasn’t exactly a love story – in many ways it was an anti-love story…

Which also had me scratching my head as to how this story has any connection with Antony and Cleopatra. Back when Noah was knee-high to a hen, I studied the play for A level. And I couldn’t see sufficient similarities between the two stories for one to claim to be a retelling of the other. Antony and Cleopatra had flaunted their established love affair for each other – to the extent that it led to their downfall. And whatever Calla and Anton were doing, it wasn’t that. The conditions of the city were vividly described and the jumping between bodies created some interesting twists. However although I was never tempted to DNF this offering, it wasn’t quite the engrossing read I’d expected. While I obtained an arc of Immortal Longings from the publishers via Netgalley, the opinions I have expressed are unbiased and my own.
6/10

Thanks to Netgalley and publishers for giving me an e- arc of this book. However this book might not have been it for me. I can appreciate the world building and the levels op spice, but this is not something ill be likely reading again, and I love Chloe's books. This is just not very well done and if she'd taken more time this story couldve been so much more!

Having enjoyed Chloe Gong's YA books, I was excited for her adult debut - and I wasn't disappointed. Immortal Longings is a hunger games style dystopian adult fantasy. It's a retelling of Anthony and Cleopatra. I'll admit that since I have not read the Shakespearean original, I probably didn't fully appreciate the references to the source story.

The world Gong created is rich and jumps of the page - San-Er offers an urban setting, a crowded and impoverished, bustling city, where eighty-eight contestants fight to the death for the chance at riches and a better life.
The two main characters, Cella, the former princess who has long been assumed dead, and Anton, a palace born exile, find themselves among the contestants. They quickly form an alliance to eliminate other contestants faster, which develops into a romance. But it wouldn't be an Anthony and Cleopatra retelling without politics and betrayal.

I loved that the politics and action took centre stage, and the relationship between Cella and Anton was woven into the background in a perfect mix of character development and plot.

Another element I enjoyed was the concept of body jumping and all the moral questions this raised. What of the bystanders that got killed while their body was possessed? But also, how did I feel about the idea of loving someone for who they are, completely detached from a physical body?

While the initial part of the book moved a bit slowly, once the story hit its stride, it was a fast-paced page turner. I loved the plot twists and the ending left me impatient for the next installment in this trilogy.

This was very interesting, the premise sounded really good and I have enjoyed Chloe's work before. This was definitely a unique retelling, but I just expected more from it. I felt like the games were lacking a bit, and the action scenes were very 'she killed him super fast'. It was a fun read though and I'd like to read book 2.The ending was great!

I received this book as an arc by Netgalley and Hodder & Stoughton / Hodderscape in exchange for an honest review. Thank you again for this opportunity.

«  It doesn’t take a blade to carve open a heart. It only takes a soft glance. »

One overall sentence of the feel of the book / my feeling on the book

(Tropes)
🌸 Family feud
🌸 Villain mc
🌸 Enemies/rivals to lovers
🌸 Graphic scenes

Rating: 4⭐️
Genre: Adult Fantasy Romance
Format: Ebook / Physical
Pages: 392
Spice:🌶️ one detailed on-page scene
POV: third pov with multiple povs
S/S: Flesh and False Gods #1
Check trigger warnings for any book

thoughts:

Wow. I think this is by far my favorite Chloe Gong novel this far. The world-building is tedious, but it is so well done. You are in San-Er, you can smell the air, hear the eery sounds… The immersion in the world is very easy. Though the description can be a bit dense at times, or a bit repetitive as the book went on.

The characters? Immaculate. They have so much depth, so much goodness, rawness, and selfishness. The way they interact was addictive.

The plot itself? Very intriguing. The whole Hunger Games-ism of the San-Er games was well done. The bloodlust, the bloodshed, the desperation, and the hatred. All could be felt.

The lore of the jumping gene? How cool is that!!!! I wish we had even more history on it, as well as what was evolving with that gene. This led the so curious!

And that ending? That final paragraph??? I gasped audibly. WHAT IS GOING TO HAPPEN NOW MISS CHLOE GONG??

I am now awaiting the sequel. Too many questions, too many things are going to happen and I just NEED TO KNOW!!

Leena - Leena.reader review - xoxo

"Immortal Longings" by Chloe Gong takes readers on a thrilling journey into a world where power, love, and sacrifice collide amidst a deadly competition. Set in the dangerous and dense capital twin cities of the kingdom of Talin, this novel weaves a tale of danger, secrets, and the price of ambition.

The heart of the story centers around the annual deadly games hosted by the palace, where those capable of jumping between bodies fight to the death for the promise of unimaginable wealth. Princess Calla Tuoleimi, who has been in hiding for years after committing a heinous act, plans to use the games to exact her revenge against her reclusive uncle, King Kasa. However, her path becomes intertwined with that of Anton Makusa, a man seeking to save his comatose childhood love by winning the games.

Gong masterfully crafts a world that is both richly imaginative and ruthlessly unforgiving. The intricate political landscape of the kingdom and the pulse-pounding action of the games draw readers in from the start. The author's ability to create vivid descriptions and tension-filled scenes contributes to an immersive reading experience that keeps you on the edge of your seat.

The characters are multi-dimensional, with motivations that are complex and relatable. Calla is a fierce and determined protagonist, driven by her desire to liberate her kingdom from her own family's tyranny. Anton's unwavering love and sacrifice for his comatose love bring a sense of heart-wrenching authenticity to the story. Their unexpected alliance evolves into a captivating partnership, rife with tension and genuine emotions that leap off the page.

Gong excels in depicting the moral dilemmas faced by her characters. The stakes are high, and the choices they make are both heartbreaking and compelling. The story raises thought-provoking questions about the true cost of power and the sacrifices one must make for the greater good.

At its core, "Immortal Longings" is a tale of love, loyalty, and the pursuit of justice. The novel's pacing is well-crafted, with suspense building steadily as the games approach their climax. The author's writing style effortlessly alternates between action-packed sequences and introspective moments, allowing readers to connect deeply with the characters' inner struggles.

It felt at times like the author had a word count to fulfil, which led to unnecessary repetition and prolonged scenes. The constant repetition of character's full names disrupted the flow of the story, was redundant, and frustrating at times.

World building was lacking, felt sparse, and not very well thought through.

I love Chloe Gong's book! This is her first adult-fantasy and I was very excited to read it. I loved her worldbuilding and the character-development was spot on - didn't disappoint!

You best believe Calla and Anton are living RENT FREE in my head since the moment I finished Immortal Longings. No one writes star-crossed lovers like Chloe Gong does and Immortal Longings has definitely solidified her place as one of my top all time favourite authors. This book was addictive. The kind that has you up at the middle of the night wondering what will happen.

I’m already asking myself how soon is too soon to reread… 👀 it’s going to be a painful wait for book two after that ending!

Chloe Gong never dissappoint, I really loved this book. Even though, it took me longer than it should have to know which character's who, this book was really enjoyable to read. I really loved all of the characters and I'm excited for book 2

I think that this will be my last attempt to get into Gong’s work. I really wanted to get onto the hype train for this, but unfortunately I was once again unable to connect with the characters or the prose!

This was my first dip into Chloe Gong's work and instantly I can't wait for more. I was apprehensive about this, partly due to my unfamiliarity with the author, however that dissipated immediately as I started reading, The book itself gives hunger games vibes, which instantly drew me in, it is compelling, with easy to follow world building and complex but lovable characters. I thoroughly enjoyed watching the characters develop, and was consistently surprised by the plot twists, especially towards the ending. I can't wait for more.

I always enjoy Chloe Gong's writing style and, although she is now entering the NA genre, that remains true with Immortal Longings. Chloe Gong also continues her theme of East Asian inspired settings, except in this book she takes it further with immersive and descriptive world building to create an enjoyable fantasy world.

This book does have more dark themes than her previous books, but the characters lacked depth and the info dumping (which I've seen that some other people also have problems with) made it hard to get into the story so I do prefer These Violent Delights to Immortal Longings.

Overall it was enjoyable, but I struggled to stay immersed in the plot and engaged with the characters.

At first I was liking this a lot. Even as my enjoyment declined, the aesthetics of the setting kept me reading because it felt quite unique and interesting, and I really wanted to love it.

My main reason for stopping was that I was getting increasingly uncomfortable with the concept of body jumping without any discussion or even acknowledgment of consent - something I'd expect from an adult novel. Reading other reviews, it looks like this gets worse and is continually not addressed. Including - (view spoiler). I'm not saying the text has to sanitise this aspect as it's clearly meant to be an edgy and gritty novel, but I would expect SOME discussion of consent. It made me feel yucky.

Other than that, the continuous info dumping became too much for me. At first I could cope with it, but it became so much I just got bored. It needed another round of edits so bad, because despite things happening and getting nearly half way through, it felt like nothing happened. And despite the info-dumping, I still had so many unanswered questions about the worldbuilding that it distracted me nearly every page.

I also heard about a huge plothole from @sophiareads_ on TikTok and I can't go on whilst knowing about it.

Oh also - it's a choice to make all of your protagonists rich/royal/privileged when it seems like the major theme of this poverty? In fact, the way Gong wrote the whole poverty thing really screamed of privilege, it was mostly 'these people are poor. that means they are hungry'. It was like reading about poverty from someone rich who hasn't even taken a cursory glance at what it's like to live in poverty. They took it as a backdrop but didn't explore what it's actually like, which made it all seem very two-dimensional.

This book is one of those books that if you look too closely things start falling apart. Once you question one thing it leads you to 15 more things and then suddenly you're confused and lost and not enjoying yourself anymore

I saw someone else describe this book as dark and twisty and I have to agree!

Chloe Gong’s writing is immersive - the characters’ motivations make sense and the world building is easy to follow.

And that twist at the end!!!! I need a squeal immediately.