Let The Games Begin

I recently finished reading Immortal Longings by Chloe Gong. This is OwlCrate's first ever book for their new adult box, which started this past July. This is book #1 in the Flesh and False Gods series.

This exclusive edition features a completely redesigned cover illustrated by artist Weitong Mai, and was designed by Lichen and Limestone. The book is also signed by author Chloe Gong on a lovely tip-in page designed by Teres Chen. The book also features stunning turquoise-sprayed edges. *POSSIBLE SPOILER ALERT*

Rating: 2.5/5 stars "Every year, thousands in the kingdom of Talin will flock to its capital twin cities, San-Er, where the palace hosts a set of games. For those confident enough in their ability to jump between bodies, competitors across San-Er fight to the death to win unimaginable riches.

Princess Calla Tuoleimi lurks in hiding. Five years ago, a massacre killed her parents and left the palace of Er empty…and she was the one who did it. Before King Kasa’s forces in San can catch her, she plans to finish the job and bring down the monarchy. Her reclusive uncle always greets the victor of the games, so if she wins, she gets her opportunity at last to kill him.

Enter Anton Makusa, an exiled aristocrat. His childhood love has lain in a coma since they were both ousted from the palace, and he’s deep in debt trying to keep her alive. Thankfully, he’s one of the best jumpers in the kingdom, flitting from body to body at will. His last chance at saving her is entering the games and winning.

Calla finds both an unexpected alliance with Anton and help from King Kasa’s adopted son, August, who wants to mend Talin’s ills. But the three of them have very different goals, even as Calla and Anton’s partnership spirals into something all-consuming. Before the games close, Calla must decide what she’s playing for—her lover or her kingdom."

I have not nor do I think I could DNF a book, but this book drove me to almost completely the DNF sin many times.

This is not Chloe Gong’s best work, at all. It needs an editor— desperately. Someone needs to sit down and chop the pages upon pages of info-dumping that were slowly making me lose my mind. I barely know what the actual plot of the book is because I was choked to death with centuries' worth of history about the city of San-Er.

The way my eyes would glaze over almost immediately every time I forced myself to pick this up was just so demotivating. I know Chloe Gong writes rather slow expositions but the info-dumping was astronomical here. It felt like a history textbook more than a fantasy book. She didn’t clearly weave the information throughout the narrative and instead does so with the grace and decorum of a reversing dump truck with no tires on.

It seriously took me weeks to get into it, and even then it wasn’t out of my own free will and enjoyment, more so the fact I was just kinda sick of it looming over my head and wanted to be done with it.

The plot wasn’t gripping enough either— if you’re gonna do a Hunger Games-style plot but make it monarchical rather than set in a republic... make it different, somehow. Subvert it, and make some intriguing critical commentary. The story’s intent was very similar to the Hunger Games: the people living in squaller, the games their only hope, and the royal family using the games as a source of entertainment. It didn’t have the complexity I think Gong wanted here because there was just so much going on with so many different characters. Trying to keep up was truly exhausting, and everything was too surface-level to be interesting.

And what was even more exhausting was how none of the characters gripped me at all, so trying to latch onto something inviting or gripping just wasn’t in the cards for me. Most of them barely had any dialogue for the first quarter of the book— it didn’t really feel like I knew them because being inside their heads through the inner monologues lacked personality and was just more generic info-dumping. I wasn’t spending time with the characters, I was just reading pages of info-dumping through their POVs.

There was no bite or grit or edge or excitement. They each felt exactly the same— equally boring and subpar with no personalities.

She was also trying to make everyone too mysterious and edgy by not divulging much about them other than some vague comments here and there that was supposed to lure me in... but it wasn’t enough information to grip me, instead, it just heightened my confusion. She didn’t set out character motivations for the games at all, I didn’t understand this edgy thirst for vengeance and why they all wanted to participate in the games. So I wasn’t invested in any of them as characters at all.

I also have to add the strange politics of “body jumping” in this book and how Gong doesn’t really acknowledge the grossly exploitative nature of this concept nor anything about consent — she has the two MCs have sex with each other while inhabiting the bodies of two random people and… oooof, there’s a lot of unpack there.

I also read another review on Instagram that mention the problematic nature of one of the MCs (it was either August or Anton) body jumping into a child. Again, so much to unpack there that I don’t have the nuance or brain cells to talk about… but once it was pointed out to me, the dots started connecting in my head about how deeply uncomfortable this all is but Gong really doesn’t portray it for what it is. I think I didn’t realize how gross the concept was because Gong doesn’t really portray the reality of how exploitive and dehumanizing body-jumping is— she had the opportunity to have nuanced conversations regarding body politics, consent, free will, agency, and autonomy… and she just doesn’t. She offers us a blasé explanation that it’s illegal but people do it anyways and that’s that.

Based on my feelings for book #1, I do not think I will be continuing with this series in the future, but I guess, who really knows. Check out Immortal Longings, and take on the adventure in this dystopian fantasy.

Happy Reading :)