Book Review: “Foul Heart Huntsman” by Chloe Gong

September 18, 2023

Book Review: “Foul Heart Huntsman” by Chloe Gong

It’s the end of an era. Foul Heart Huntsman marks the conclusion of the Secret Shanghai series by Chloe Gong. It’s hard to believe it’s been rolling along for four years now, but here we are.

Needless to say since this is the end of a series, there will be spoilers for the previous books in this review, especially for Foul Lady Fortune [Buy Bookshop Amazon] and Last Violent Call [Buy Bookshop Amazon]. Continue reading at your own risk.

Big picture: it’s a take on Shakespeare’s As You Like It set in 1930’s China shortly before the Manchuria invasion… oh and there’s a scientist trying to create super soldiers by experimenting on her own children.

Foul Heart Huntsman [Buy Bookshop Amazon] picks up shortly after the end of the first book in this duology, which is packed with twists and turns of its own, including revealing the identity of Priest. I say this as one final warning for Foul Lady Fortune spoilers. Lol

It’s hard to tell you exactly where this story picks up because there are so many people going in so many different directions. Rosalind is determined to find Orion from his mother, who turned him into a brainwashed soldier. But now that her secret identity is revealed, she’s off covert assassin missions and being sent on a national tour. Celia and Oliver are also trying to find Orion, but in a different way… which means they are stalking Rosalind in hopes he’ll make an appearance. Phoebe is trying to get Silas to stop investigating Priest and just let her live in peace. We are also following Alisa though this chaos and have a few run ins with our favorite couples from the first duology, so, it’s a lot to keep track of.

And that, my friends, is my biggest beef with this book. There is just too dang much to keep track of. Yes, they eventually work together (for the most part) to try to get Orion (and then Oliver) back from their mother’s experiments, but there’s so much to remember politically and character-wise. There are some touches of history wove through this (and explained in the author’s note at the end), so it just kinda felt overwhelming and confusing at points.

That’s nothing against Chloe’s writing. It’s such a creative take on the story and she writes very well. She still packs some delightful twists in this series conclusion, which I loved. Even with the 544 page chunky monkey that this is, the ending still felt a little rushed. So who knows… maybe Chloe will pull these characters out in a few years and show us what shenanigans they are up to again.

Overall, it’s still a solid read. It just took me a hot minute to get through it. Thanks to Colored Pages Tours for including me. See below for more tour information.

Author Information

Chloe Gong is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the critically acclaimed Secret Shanghai novels, as well as the Flesh and False Gods trilogy. Her books have been published in over twenty countries and have been featured in The New York Times, People, Forbes, and more. She is a recent graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, where she double-majored in English and international relations. Born in Shanghai and raised in Auckland, New Zealand, Chloe is now located in New York City, pretending to be a real adult.

Author Links:

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/18899059.Chloe_Gong

Website: http://www.thechloegong.com/

Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/thechloegong

Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/thechloegong

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