I finished Foul Heart Huntsman by Chloe Gong yesterday and have been mellowing in my thoughts to make sure that I understand how I feel about this book. It sounds a little ominous when I say it like that, but there’s just something about this book that hits differently to her previous ones.

Foul Heart Huntsman follows on from Foul Lady Fortune, jumping straight into the action like Our Violent Ends did. We have the characters of interest establishing a “new norm” so to speak, adapting and working out how to get the gang back together. We have a return of beloved characters from the original duology, These Violent Delights, and their involvement in this plot and the character interactions that arise did bring a smile to my face. We also have some pretty solid romance threads which are just the right amount of sappy for the characters involved and the whole culmination of elements which make up Foul Heart Huntsman.

But I can’t help but feel like the ending was a little lax compared to the rather explosive ending of Our Violent Ends. It felt more like a personal-based ending than a event-based ending. I’m probably not explaining it well. There is a certain feeling you get from an ending brought on by action and planning which holds wider significance than the personal ties to the characters we see. Then there’s the feeling you get when the ending feels like it is simply a personal wrap-up without involving the events and surrounding activity of the setting and environment. That’s what I got from Foul Heart Huntsman.

I completely understand why this ending happened because this is a historical fiction setting with direct lead into the Japanese invasion of Manchuria and subsequent puppet state that was created. There’s no changing that history, and for that I will commend Chloe for choosing to stick with the historical direction of events. A personal ending seems to be the only one that would have worked given the circumstances.

I will say I was skim reading some of the description and setting establishment while reading this, catching the dialogue to carry the importance of the chapters. That’s my fault, but it’s not a reflection of how I feel about the description. I really enjoy Chloe’s writing style and the imagery she creates. Her characters have layers and relatability which make them able to stand on their own and they can create realistic and meaningful connections with each other that feel believable. The developments of their identity and their place among friends and the public is really interesting and the conflicts surrounding that grasped my attention.

Overall, Foul Heart Huntsman was a fun read. It’s difficult to juggle so many elements of a story at once and I think Chloe Gong did an incredible job managing all the parts of her story world. While this duology may not have an ending like These Violent Delights did, it is certainly worth the read as it has some really fun characters and dynamics that I would usually frown at but work given those involved and the wider context of events.