★★★☆☆ Wow! This felt familiar

Immortal Longings

Chloe Gong

Often I begin a review by looking at the publisher's blurb. I try to avoid spoilers, but my rule is that anything in the publisher's blurb has already been spoiled, and thus is free to mention in a review, without a spoiler tag. And this one!

Well, they tell us right at the top that Immortal Longings (let me just get this out of the way -- I have no idea what the title "Immortal Longings" has to do with the contents of the book) was "inspired by Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra". In paragraphs three and four they introduce the two main characters, Princess Calla Tuoleimi and Anton Makusa. Calla and Anton, do those names sound familiar?

Having given away who the main characters are and what their relationship is going to be like, the publishers proceed to reveal the plot.

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.

Yeah, so it's lethal musical chairs again. This plot seems to be having a moment: The Hunger Games, Squid Game, Their Vicious Games. And of course there are many computer games and real-world games with the same gladiatorial structure, although some stuffy ethicists frown on real-world games in which the elimination mechanism is the literal physical death of the contestants.

Thus, author Chloe Gong has set herself a difficult task: she's telling us a story we already know about characters we more or less already know, and she has to keep us entertained. To be clear, the problem here is not that the publishers gave everything away. I read the novel before reading the blurb, and still the main surprise was how closely the plot followed that of The Hunger Games. The characters and their relationships were very different, but honestly still pretty predictable.

Now, let's be clear: there is nothing wrong with retelling a good story in a new voice. The familiarity of the plot and characters might not be a problem for most readers. But there has been too much of the lethal musical chairs plot in my reading and entertainment budget recently, and I felt a bit jaded.

I will say this: I liked the ending. I saw it coming, of course -- so will you -- but it was nicely done.

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