While my overall enjoyment led me to award this book with 4 stars, I do recognize that it certainly has some issues and won't appeal to everyone.

What made me enjoy it so much was the magic and the atmosphere. The magic allows a gifted person to jump into the body of another. It was very simple in concept, yet it eventually became more complex. It added quite a bit of tense atmosphere as we follow Calla walking through the city, knowing anyone could be an enemy. And the city itself made for a great setting. It is this monster of a city with an overflowing population that made people squeeze in more living space wherever possible, joining buildings and blocking out the sunlight. The people are hungry and poor to such an extent they try to get hurt or killed by the game competitors to receive compensation.

The story itself was good enough. It certainly had some surprising moments, but also the game was more of a background that allowed for characters to collide.

The three main characters were morally grey and strongly goal-oriented and ruthless, which made it fun to follow their actions, but I also didn't get very attached to them.

The romance line wasn't very convincing or interesting. It's supposed to be a big part of the book and it just wasn't. I don't care for romance much, so I was fine with not getting it. The relationship might have not been really fleshed out, but it still worked well enough for the plot.

I think this book would appeal to people who enjoy world-building and ruthless characters. I wouldn't recommend it to those who are looking for a good romance story.

I received an ARC for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily. ( )

August is the heir to the empire of Talin, but he has plans to depose the current ruler, King Kasa, with some help from Calla Tuoleimi - a princess who killed her own parents and is believed to be dead. She's entered into the games, an annual event in the twin cities of San-Er, allowing the last person alive to gain an enormous amount of money and leave the impoverished populace behind. The plan is for Calla to win, with August's help, and as the victor when she's given access to the King, to kill him. But Anton Makusa, a former friend of August's, may just foil that plan as he enters the games with motives of his own and forges an alliance with Calla.

I'm ambivalent about this book, which has some elements that I very much enjoy, but doesn't quite live up to its promise. It's one of those blended science fiction/fantasy stories that seems to be set in the future, but also has magic elements, in this case the ability of people with really strong qi to "jump" into another body and take over for a period of time (or for good, if the stronger person so decides). The games will sound familiar to anyone who has read [The Hunger Games], though decidedly more violent in this adult book where, to keep the person from jumping, they must be killed quickly, often decapitated. Added to that the nods to [Antony and Cleopatra], which this is inspired by rather than a retelling of, and you just get A Lot thrown into a plot. The romance aspect kind of came out of nowhere, when all of a sudden they were attracted to each other, and was never developed to my satisfaction. And I'm not a huge fan of narratives told in present tense. I never quite got to the point where I could sink in and enjoy the story, but I remained intrigued throughout. That all being said, the idea of what one can do with their qi leaves much to be explored in future volumes of this planned trilogy, and the ending of this one left me curious enough to read the next one. ( )

Couldn't decide about this one. I'm still ambivalent - and the ending was just ... odd? ( )

This was my first Chloe Gong book, and sadly, I was kind of disappointed. The story was slow a lot where it felt like nothing relevant was really happening, and the world building was repetitive, info dumpy and confusing. Honestly, the only reason I'm probably going to continue the series is because of the twist at the end of the book. The book still got 3 stars because outside of the world building, I liked the language and writing style. There are a lot of good quotes in the book. I also didn't hate the character work. I definitely want to try out Chloe Gong's YA novels to see if I like them better than this one. ( )

An ambitious move after a string of great YA books. It pulled me in nicely and despite the ongoing gorefest, it kept me turning pages. The main characters are intriguing with the reveals about two of them, one at the very end, well done. I'll be greatly interested to see where book two takes the players. ( )