Reviews tagging 'Confinement'

Our Violent Ends by Chloe Gong

15 reviews

caseythereader's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Suicide, Classism, Confinement, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Gun violence, Kidnapping, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, and Violence

moonchild_cos's review against another edition

emotional 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? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Grief, Death, Violence, Torture, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, and Mass/school shootings

Moderate: Kidnapping, Confinement, War, Alcohol, Murder, Gore, Genocide, and Colonisation

Minor: Body horror, Fire/Fire injury, Medical content, Sexism, Sexual content, Death of parent, Homophobia, Misogyny, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, and Classism

jessiereads98's review against another edition

adventurous dark 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? Yes

3.75

This was a great ending to the duology. It strays enough from the original Romeo + Juliet while maintaining the themes to create the perfect balance for a retelling. 

Chloe Gong once again nailed it with the setting and atmosphere of 1920s Shanghai. I loved how she tracked the shifting the politics and atmosphere of change. The pacing in this book is great. I also just love a fantasy novel set in or based on 1920s East Asia.

The characters were well done and compelling for the most part. I feel like we got a good amount of time with all the side characters to experience the world outside the view of the two main characters, without it feeling like it detracted from the story or was a waste of time. I actually wish we had gotten more time with Rosalind. I think the story would’ve felt more complete, and she would’ve been a great counterpoint to Juliette had she been more fleshed out. I was left with questions at the end around her character and motivations.

I know she’s the focus of the next duology in this universe. However, her character and POV still should’ve been explored more in this book, especially given the important role she plays here.

Once again, this book is a bit overwritten. There’s metaphors and heavy handed setting descriptions that are unnecessary. Some of the dialogue feels forced rather than natural for the characters and their setting. There are a few moments of cringe, but it isn’t enough to make the entire book off-putting.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Classism, Death, Gore, Gun violence, and Violence

Moderate: Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Confinement, Grief, Body horror, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: War, Death of parent, Kidnapping, Suicide, Abandonment, Homophobia, Medical content, Suicide attempt, Pandemic/Epidemic, and Sexism

dianaschmidty's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful informative mysterious sad tense medium-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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Mass/school shootings, Colonisation, Gore, Medical content, Murder, War, Genocide, Toxic relationship, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Blood, and Homophobia

Moderate: Confinement, Suicide attempt, Suicide, and Kidnapping

Minor: Police brutality

clairew97's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional sad tense 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Cursing, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Colonisation, Alcohol, Child death, Grief, Blood, Death, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Murder, Body horror, Gore, Panic attacks/disorders, Torture, and Violence

ye_li's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Classism, Death, Genocide, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Police brutality, Confinement, Cursing, Fire/Fire injury, Violence, War, and Xenophobia

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Misogyny, and Sexism

Minor: Death of parent

komalks's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Hate crime, and Gun violence

Moderate: Confinement, Death of parent, and Gore

ashleycmms's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional funny hopeful mysterious tense slow-paced

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

2.75

If you liked book one, book two is an amazing pairing that brings the chaos and tragedy of the R&J story. While opening up an interesting world for what is to come afterwards. I would definitely suggest picking it up, if that’s the case for you. However, I am on the other side where I was anticipating Book 1 forever and felt bored and disappointed throughout it. While Book 2 gives some character development and explains some of the GAPING context holes, for me, it still wasn’t a WIN. I’m glad I gave the second book a chance, but the blood feud remains nonsensical, Roma & Juliette continue putting each other above everyone else EXCEPT the people that they DO NOT KNOW who they feel the need to protect for no reason but the city is “theirs” and they feel responsible… For a mess they did not create. The length/pacing of this was too drawn out for me. And it made all the parts that could have made this a 4/5 star read for me feel lost in all the other plot lines, characters, etc. I’m tired. I never want to dive into this world again.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Fire/Fire injury, Murder, Violence, Physical abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Death, War, Torture, Grief, Confinement, Colonisation, and Blood

Moderate: Suicide attempt, Suicide, Abandonment, and Toxic relationship

jayisreading's review against another edition

adventurous dark fast-paced

4.25

This was a fun way to wrap up an overall great retelling of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. Our Violent Ends had as much of my attention as I was able to give between everything happening in my life as of late. Like These Violent Delights, I truly appreciated Gong’s spin on a classic love story and some of the creative liberties she took in the sequel. With that said, I think after reading this and having had time to mull over the first book, it’s safe to say that I was more invested in the characters than anything else. The plot of Our Violent Ends felt more scattered than its predecessor, had some loose ends, and it felt as though the book served more as a means to satisfy readers’ desires to see how things come together for the characters while the happenings of Shanghai were somewhat of an afterthought. Thankfully, the delightful thing is that Gong really knows how to breathe life into her characters in such a refreshing and exciting way.

From what I gathered, Gong seems to be working on another Shakespeare retelling, and I look forward to what she’ll come up with next. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mass/school shootings, Violence, War, Death, Blood, and Gun violence

Moderate: Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Racism, Body horror, and Kidnapping

Minor: Confinement, Suicidal thoughts, and Homophobia

saoreads's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative reflective sad 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? Yes

4.5

I'm just glad it doesn't have a fixed ending. Somehow, there's that hope and that hope that could provide even a little bit of a silver lining that the sacrifices were worth it. It displayed a lot of realistic analogies, especially on bouts of inciting war, which have become more prevalent with the pandemic since the first book was released in 2020, and how it wasn't all about the blood feud and physically taking over cities, but a metaphor for biological warfare through the form of a monster. Or how the main cause of evil wasn't uprooted (there's some truth in that, only the ones who seemingly caused harm at the very moment and not in the long run). I have to properly process this book because it evoked in me various emotions: it made me giddy, made me mad, made me feel sappy, and made me badly detached. This book had an obvious denouement, but at some point, life still goes on and this tale continues to live on, and maybe that's how love is made eternally.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Blood, Confinement, Gore, Grief, Murder, Suicide, Torture, War, Stalking, Suicide attempt, and Violence