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A review by coppacabana
Immortal Longings by Chloe Gong
3.0
It was a creative premise with a medley of tropes and retellings. However, lots of plot holes. There was a lot of info dumping about the city without actual proper world building. Vivid descriptions of how gross and awful the streets are but very little investment into the actual people that exist in this slum that Calla is supposedly fighting to liberate from poverty. And not nearly enough understanding of how San amd Er are different and why or any important cultural references other than "the old gods".
Honestly, there are just WAY too many components in this book with the *very loosely* assigned Antony/Cleopatra obsession dynamic, Hunger Games ripoff death game, monarchy infighting and scheming, fantasy elements of body jumping and "old magic", rebellious provinces, rival country with war trauma, AND a secret society to boot.
There's just too many things to actually be properly invested in and fleshed out.
Don't get me wrong, I was entertained and will probably read the next one to see if it ties up some loose ends. But really I had a large amount of suspended disbelief and filled in a lot of gaps with my own imagination. I ignored a lot of holes with the expectation that they would be filled later.
Specific issues I had:
The eye colors as identifiers has way too many holes and loose ends that did not get explained or plugged by the end. She makes Anton a smart/observant enough character to guess Calla's big secret but not wonder about her eyes not fitting that narrative. No shot.
She made Calla a smart and cunning enough to kill a room full of the trained royal guards and the king and queen in her mission to rid the country of its selfish monarchy but is dumb enough to think that putting August on the throne is the society solution she wants. And she's had 5 years to ruminate on this while in hiding...? And even when Anton calls her out on it. Like her own motives aren't even consistent. She recognizes throughout that August is manipulating her but still thinks he'll make a good king?
And she says she hasn't been able to work while in hiding cause she's too identifiable but can somehow afford an apartment to herself despite Gong describing how people are starving to death in the streets.
There's honestly more but there's plenty of other reviews that go off on it
Honestly, there are just WAY too many components in this book with the *very loosely* assigned Antony/Cleopatra obsession dynamic, Hunger Games ripoff death game, monarchy infighting and scheming, fantasy elements of body jumping and "old magic", rebellious provinces, rival country with war trauma, AND a secret society to boot.
There's just too many things to actually be properly invested in and fleshed out.
Don't get me wrong, I was entertained and will probably read the next one to see if it ties up some loose ends. But really I had a large amount of suspended disbelief and filled in a lot of gaps with my own imagination. I ignored a lot of holes with the expectation that they would be filled later.
Specific issues I had:
The eye colors as identifiers has way too many holes and loose ends that did not get explained or plugged by the end. She makes Anton a smart/observant enough character to guess Calla's big secret but not wonder about her eyes not fitting that narrative. No shot.
She made Calla a smart and cunning enough to kill a room full of the trained royal guards and the king and queen in her mission to rid the country of its selfish monarchy but is dumb enough to think that putting August on the throne is the society solution she wants. And she's had 5 years to ruminate on this while in hiding...? And even when Anton calls her out on it. Like her own motives aren't even consistent. She recognizes throughout that August is manipulating her but still thinks he'll make a good king?
And she says she hasn't been able to work while in hiding cause she's too identifiable but can somehow afford an apartment to herself despite Gong describing how people are starving to death in the streets.
There's honestly more but there's plenty of other reviews that go off on it