Full Disclosure: This book was read as an e-ARC (Advance Reader Copy) obtained via Netgalley from the publisher in advance of the book's release on July 18, 2023 in exchange for a potential review. I give my word that this did not affect my review in any way - if I felt conflicted in any way, I would simply have declined to review the book.
Immortal Longings is the first book in a new fantasy trilogy by Chloe Gong. Gong is well known for her YA work, beginning with her These Violent Delights duology which took Romeo and Juliet and reimagined it as taking place in 1920s Shanghai, with its conflicts between Communists and Nationalists and between foreign Imperialists jockeying for power from the West and the East and the local peoples. I really liked that duology, which reimagined its Romeo and Juliet type characters in interesting ways, dealt with the impacts of real life historical atrocities of imperialism and even local massacres, and had characters and a story who really worked. I was less enthused by Gong's first book in her follow up duology (Foul Lady Fortune), but I was impressed enough by the first duology that I was certainly interested to check out Gong's first non-YA long fiction, as Immortal Longings is pitched.
And like These Violent Delights (which honestly could be just as easily considered not YA if the protagonists weren't the right age), Immortal Longings is certainly interesting - filled with a couple of really strong lead characters, some very strong themes of power, Empire, and what it means to try to fix oppression and suffering. Yeah it's all centered around a plot structure that's pretty familiar and Hunger Games-esque, albeit with an Asian-inspired setting, but Gong makes that familiar setup work thanks to some excellent characters and plotting. And with a magical power that most of our characters have to jump bodies, you also have here some interesting questions about the soul and what it means to be one's self/own-person. The result is well worth reading, even if the book's last act featured way too many abrupt ends to plot threads and a VERY abrupt cliffhanger ending.
Plot Summary:
Five Years ago, the Kingdom of Talin was ruled by its two royal families, each of whom ruled from one of the twin cities of San and Er. The two royal families ruled over their kingdom with an iron grip, leading to poverty and misery throughout the kingdom, even in much of the twin cities. But then Princess Calla Tuoleimi of the Kingdom of Er massacred her family in an attempt to dispose of all the royalty at once in hopes of a better country arising in the Kingdom's place....but her failure to kill King Kasa of San has left things much as they were. Now, though the twin cities are now merged and known as "San-Er", King Kasa's oppressive greedy reign remains unchallenged.
But Calla has a plan to finish the job. Every year, the King hosts a contest, by which eighty-eight people are chosen from a lottery. The eighty-eight people are then given a wrist band and the task to eliminate each other: by either killing the rest or by removing the chip from the wristband they carry. The winner of the competition is given vast riches...and more importantly for Calla, they are given a direct congratulations by King Kasa himself. This year, Calla has managed to win the lottery...and when she wins the contest, she will finally have the access she needs to take down the King. And when the King's adopted heir August tracks her down and offers to help her, it seems there's no chance anyone will stop her.
But what Calla didn't count on was Anton Makusa, exiled noble boy who once, along with his beloved, was part of August's team seeking to change power in San-Er. Anton needs the money for winning badly, for the sake of the comatose girl he loves, and he's got one major advantage - he's the best known person at the power of Jumping, the god given power to use one's Qi to take over another's body. Anton takes over bodies as easily as breathing and doesn't know what his original body looked like at this point; by contrast while Calla can jump, she's famous for refusing to do so. And when the two encounter each other, each incredibly deadly, they find themselves oddly drawn to one another...even though only one of them can survive the competition.
But Calla and Anton will have to survive more than each other to get what they want. For something strange is happening in the games and someone is killing Players in ways that don't make sense...and might be coming for Calla and Anton next.
Let's be clear: the general setup here for the contest that provides for much of the action and conflict in this story is just another form of Battle Royale/The Hunger Games or even just a Breads and Circuses type game - a deadly last one standing game meant to distract the populace and people from their own misery though entertaining bloodsport. You've also got a corrupt autocratic ruler at the center of it all, one who is cowardly and too afraid to go out in public but is fully willing to put on a murderous set of games or to kill any dissenters who struggle with taxes. And of course you have those who would seek to change this status quo both through and outside the games, although they differ on how that should be done. You've seen this all before, even if the Asian inspired background is a little different.
But there's enough here to do some really different and interesting things with this setup and its themes. First our three main point of view characters - Calla, Anton, and August - are really excellent even as they each illustrate different archetypes that you may have seen before. In Calla, you have the woman who is desperate to create a better world - and perhaps more (there's a secret I won't reveal that underlines her motive) - and the only way she can see that happening is to kill the greedy King who allows for and creates the oppressive unjust society she sees all around her...and who is willing to seemingly do whatever it takes, since there's very few people left she cares about. At the same time, Calla kind of hates herself for indulging in such bloodshed, In August, you have the person who has schemed his way into a position of power, one where he may soon be able to replace the King...where he swears he will use that royal power in a more just fashion, even as he treats most people himself as simply tools. And then there's Anton, a former minor noble who was once was part of August's crew - along with Leida, August's closest confidant, and Otta Avia, the girl he fell in love with. Otta has since fallen into a coma as part of an illness related to her Jumping after she and Anton for some reason backed out of the plan - or perhaps August's plan isn't what it seemed the book hints - and Anton is desperate to pay to keep her alive so that she might one day come out of it. For that purpose he will do anything and use his magical power of Jumping to achieve his goal, winning the Games to get the money needed to save her, even if August would prefer he simply disappear.
Ah yes, Jumping, which I've largely ignored in this review but really shouldn't have, for it forms a centerpoint to multiple of the book's themes. Jumping allows a person with strong Qi to transmit their mind into another person's mind....if they're strong enough, they can take over that body, while their own will fall unconscious and empty. Eventually being in another's body long enough will kill the original host mind...but if you jump out a second time, the original person comes back to consciousness. Each of our main characters uses it differently - August jumps into people without any issue, but always ensures his original body is safe to go back to while Anton jumps from body to body at will, trusting he is the strongest jumper there is, such that he has long since lost his original body. Meanwhile Calla is famous for having always, for some reason, refused to jump, despite being able to do so - she always keeps her own original body. This concept of Jumping allows the book to deal in some more unique ways with the questions of power, as well as the question of self - with the ability to jump in and out of others' bodies, what really makes someone themselves? And these questions are only made more complicated when an antagonist uses Jumping in seemingly new and impossible ways (the book also notes that trans people may sometimes jump into the body of another gender, although we never see anyone of that nature in this book).
Immortal Longings uses all of the above to put together an interesting plot and discussion of the above themes, and its characters work in a solid if unexceptional romance. But it's not perfect and there's a few annoying flaws. For one, there's a mystery antagonist - who first seems to be another POV character and then turns out to be someone behind that character - who is teased as being a big deal...and is then dealt with exceedingly easily and abruptly near the end (as is the POV character, who is teased as being incredibly powerful and dangerous and instead is dealt with in like 5 seconds once pinned down). The same goes with the book's final cliffhanger, which the book sets up by featuring most of its last few chapters from only Calla's point of view, to allow for a surprise to end it all. And then not only is the cliffhanger kind of unearned, but it's well just super abrupt, as if the book just was cut off from a larger volume rather than having any particular ending. It's not a bad enough abruptness for me to really be annoyed or unsatisfied, as major plot arcs are resolved in this volume, but it's enough to give me a little bit of annoyance.
Overall though, Immortal Longings is a pretty good adult fantasy novel by Gong, and I look forward to seeing where the story goes in its sequel.
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