Reviews tagging 'Violence'

These Violent Delights by Chloe Gong

426 reviews

elislittlelibrary's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This is (as far as I can remember) the second Romeo and Juliet-retelling that I read and loved. It took me some time to get into this book, but it really paid off! I liked the writing and really loved the setting. The world-building was well done and, even though there is magic involved, the world felt quite realistic. While, as has been mentioned, this is a Romeo and Juliet-retelling, the plot did not feel romance-heavy, which I personally really enjoyed. And the romance plot that was there focused a lot on connection, which I also tend to like. 
There are various plot twists in the book. I did guess some of them (
Paul Dexter, the usage of Doodskus for example
), though this did not take away from the plot, so I didn't mind!
The book puts a strong emphasis on language aspects, as well as the use of different languages (they are used throughout the book, often just words or phrases, sometimes sentences), I LOVED that!
Also, this book ends on a cliffhanger and I really have to read the sequel!
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moondaisyy's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark funny mysterious tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

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creolelitbelle's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

These Violent Delights is a great re-imagining of Shakespeare's classic Romeo and Juliet set in 1920s Shanghai, China with Roma & Juliette now at odds against each other after secretly dating four years prior to the events of the novel. Their families head the rival White Flowers and Scarlet Gang, and they can never forget that key piece of their personal identities. I love the subtle (and not-so-subtle) callbacks to the original play through major and minor characters, scenes, and pivotal lines. Those were all written in carefully to tie book into its source material but not pull the reader out of the new historical fiction story. Gong also did a delicately wonderful job weaving Chinese and other world history into the setting and plot by laying the history out whenever relevant to the story or characters but never over-explaining anything. Knowing the history prior to reading this book is not necessary but did add to my experience. The mystery of what causes the madness seeping into the city pushes enemies together for collaboration, and the intense action kept me hooked. Diversity in cast felt authentic to the time period of China's forced spheres of influence from other countries' powers, and the multi-pov storytelling really made certain chapters feel like isolated scenes as in a play. I am excited to read the sequel and the other books in the world of Secret Shanghai soon. The bonus content in the B&N edition was well worth it, too. I loved getting inside Roma's head through his letters from their first romance together, the prequel story of their courtship before is so sweet. 
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kottengoesbork's review against another edition

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dark mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

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erikajosephison's review against another edition

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mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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bookycnidaria's review against another edition

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adventurous dark funny mysterious sad tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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metalballwheatley's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

Romajuliette's alright but I loved Juliette as a character, she's so fun. 

Also this book has great white british man representation. I feel like the content here is really accurate to their culture. 
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lujisa's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.75

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bookwyrmmads's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

Okay not going to lie, I ALMOST DNF-ed this one. I knew going in that there was going to be quite a bit of violence, but what I was NOT prepared for was the graphic descriptions of gore. I feel like that went a bit too far sometimes, but admittedly I’m not much of a dark romance or horror kinda person so maybe I’m just sensitive to it. The descriptions of the way the disease spreads alone (no details here, but EW) almost made me shut the book, but I got far enough in that I figured I’d go ahead and push through. Luckily for me, the last 25% or so of the book really picked up! I enjoyed finally getting to some of the romance and the heist/mind game/social politics aspects that came to fruition. Despite my initial hesitations, the ending of this book made me desperate to know the end of this story so book 2, here I come! 
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onceuponherbookshelf's review against another edition

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dark mysterious sad tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

The story itself is good, but it felt like it dragged on a bit. I enjoyed the characters. The romance was meh (could possibly be better without it honestly). And the challenges in the story were really cool to me. Also a little creepy! 
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