Vilest Things is a viper of a book, poised to strike and leave its deadly mark. This is a sleek and evolved politically fuelled fantasy, inspired by Anthony and Cleopatra.
In Immortal Longings, Chloe Gong set the scene for the bloodthirsty world we will inhabit over the course of this trilogy. Anton and Calla, my favourite backstabbing schemers, came into our lives and our hearts, leaving us reeling with devastating twists. Here, they are developed further, but so is the world in which they inhabit. We meet a new player that shakes up the entire game and learn more about the chess game under our noses the whole time. The political moves in the first book have rippling effects, shown as Gong expands this richly imagined world further. Everything is not as it seems and the game is more complex than first realised. We also have the introduction of even more new players and further stakes that push the narrative further and the tension increases tenfold. It is all about scheming and chess moves that are ten steps ahead of your opponent.
Gong masterminds it all with a careful eye and callbacks that make you gasp. The details are impressive and sow the seeds for further action to come, while also redefining how you may have seen what happened before. It is brilliant how Gong balances this wider political scale with the very personal dynamics at the core of this book. Those relationships may determine the fate of a country and there is a fascinating examination of the way power structures can be reliant upon a single person. They can be toppled easily or they can be so intrinsically woven into the fabric of our society that they can feel like they can never fully be unpicked. That question of burning it all down remains and there is a vivid anger that runs through the two books so far, especially when you re-examine certain moves through knowledge you collect along the way.
Anton and Calla are still our scheming, complex characters that we met in the first book. Both are driven by a desire for revenge and also to not only survive a world trying to destroy the, but crush it in an iron fist as they rule over it all. Everything is about power. They might kiss but they also could very well kill each other. The power of the body-hopping is pushed further in this book and more of the speculative aspects around it are explained, giving us a cosmic sense of history and mythos that imbues the story with a sense of grandeur. It also adds a meta sense of being doomed to repeat the same narrative over and over again. This was something Gong grappled with in her previous series, but it is given more pathos and nuance here. In the adult space, there is more room for darkness and it overall feels like a series more tinged with despair and anger. You have a little less hope in your heart.
Gong mirrors our political atmosphere at times, creating conversational parallels that are sure to spark off imaginations. Fundamentally this is a world that only thrives by the decimation of those you consider beneath you. The Shakespearean touches are there but this is an entirely fresh and newly imagined narrative, twisting the familiar into a completely different space. I like how Gong continues some of the plot threads you would expect to see, but more often than not, takes them somewhere else entirely.
Vilest Things continues a deeply interesting and dynamic series—I cannot wait to see how it all comes together in the next act.
Vilest Things is available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other good book retailers, like your local bookstore.
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Synopsis | Goodreads
From #1 New York Times bestselling author Chloe Gong comes the thrilling sequel to Immortal Longings, inspired by Shakespeare’s Antony & Cleopatra.
Calla Tuoleimi has succeeded in the impossible. Despite the odds, she has won San-Er’s bloody games and eliminated King Kasa, her tyrant uncle and the former ruler of Talin. She serves now as royal advisor to Kasa’s adopted son, August Shenzhi, who has risen to the throne.
Only Calla knows it isn’t really August.
Anton Makusa is still furious about Calla’s betrayal in the final round of the games. In an impossible feat, he took over August’s body to survive, and has no intention of giving up this newfound power. But when his first love, the beautiful, explosive Otta Avia, awakens from a years-long coma and reveals a secret that threatens the monarchy’s authority over Talin, chaos erupts. As tensions come to a boiling point, Calla and Anton must set their conflicts aside and head to the kingdom’s far reaches to prevent anarchy… even if their empire might be better off burning.
