I couldn’t finish Immortal Longings. Usually when I DNF I stop at page 50 but for this one I made it to 150 which is rare that I try for that long.
Here’s my notes while reading:
The body jumping world building isnt explained clearly in the beginning to understand how common it is and the purpose. Are people ever actually immortal and how?
After chapter one I have many questions:
Why did August want adopted by his uncle?
Why is he pretending his uncle is his father?
Why is August looking for his missing cousin/the princess?
Why do people want to be a part of the competition when it sounds like there is only one victor of 88 participants?
Calla has the next point of view (both third person) and is the princess the city assumes is dead.
I’m unsure if she already has killed someone but her hope is to kill the current king. Why?
It seems like Prince August, her cousin, gifted her a bracelet to be a part of the games. She has all the confidence in the world that she will win them.
I still have a lot of questions about qi and body jumping. Things might get confusing…
How rare is the ability to jump?
Mid chapter we head hop to a third point of view Anton, which I’m not enthused about.
I know it’s a simple thing but two main characters starting with the same letter A is going to make me have to reread things often.
Okay well now we have a 4th point of view? How many will there be total? There are too many side characters too far. It’s not narrowed in and focused enough. The start has been slow and I wish the opening scene of the book was Calla’s in person conversation with August. The author is making the world building unnecessarily complex. So far there’s a lot of politics and royalty power themes which isn’t my fave.
I couldn’t visualize the scene with the bags, coins and chips? It’s not explained clear enough and I can’t envision what’s happening. If there were 87 contestants then why was someone eliminated? Were there also 87 chips?
At least I finally understand the jumping gene is illegal (except during the games. Which helps a little…
Calla is a complicated character and I’m unsure if I’m rooting for her or not. She seems to want to give the people the power over their land. But why? And how?
How could Anton possibly count 86 contestants correctly at the opening countdown and how is he so certain he’d notice the fluidity movement of Calla if they were all just standing around?
I gotta give Chloe Gong props for thinking of all the potential discrepancies such as cameras not being able to pick up the flash of light when they jump. And the grainy quality of film to Calla isn’t instantaneously recognizable.
Why does Anton need an alias and how did they know it’s him so easily?
Now Pampi has a PoV? ugh. Who is she? It’s too vague. What’s her goal?
Whatever happened to Lusi? I’m on page 91 and that character disappeared from the story.
It’s interesting that we have no idea what any character looks like for physical features since they jump bodies.
At page 147 I’m struggling. Now Yilas has the 5th point of view. So far the pacing is too slow for me, the politics is too heavy, there’s not enough momentum for the goals and the prose feel odd since it’s third person present tense which feels unnatural.
Also… if there’s supposed to be any romance later there is 0 set up for that as any option so far.