Chloe Gong (Our Violent Ends; These Violent Delights) makes her adult fantasy debut with Immortal Longings, a propulsive, riveting, and meticulously crafted retelling of Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra. Gong's young adult series reimagined Romeo and Juliet in an alternate historical Shanghai, but Immortal Longings is set in an alternate present, in which technology and inequality are entwined. The world of Immortal Longings is tightly controlled and suffocatingly crowded, as the rulers of Talin control the lives of every citizen, and travel is all but forbidden. At the heart of Immortal Longings is a brutal televised competition in which 88 players fight to the death to entertain and distract the citizens of San-Er. All players are assigned a wristband that tracks their movements around the twin cities, a necessary device due to the supernatural element Gong has built into this world: jumping between bodies. Some people have the genetic ability to transfer their qi from one body to another, but jumping follows clear rules--or so everyone thought.
Pampi believes "the gods let us jump so that we could be free," but August knows: "'There are no gods in this world.... Only kings and tyrants." As the game intensifies and a fiery romance develops between Calla and Anton, Gong adds unexpected political maneuvering and a jaw-dropping twist. Immortal Longings showcases Gong's imagination and skill, and should put her book at the top of fantasy readers' to-be-read piles. --Suzanne Krohn, librarian and freelance reviewer