Reviews tagging 'Self harm'

These Violent Delights by Chloe Gong

56 reviews

litliz's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Hate crime, Toxic relationship, Confinement, Kidnapping, Medical content, Self harm, Stalking, Suicide, Body horror, Colonisation, Death of parent, Death, Grief, Gun violence, Mass/school shootings, Gore, Bullying, Chronic illness, Dysphoria, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Pandemic/Epidemic, Racism, Transphobia, Violence, and Vomit

creolelitbelle's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm, Emotional abuse, Blood, Classism, Violence, Murder, Death, Gun violence, Gore, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Sexism, Death of parent, Physical abuse, Cursing, Terminal illness, Racism, Alcohol, and Grief

Minor: Transphobia, Sexual content, and Drug use

readwithria's review against another edition

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Self harm, and Gun violence

reachingforstardust's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense 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? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Self harm, and Body horror

Moderate: Violence and Transphobia

lira_the_recluse's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

I loved the setting, the noir feels, the monster, and how the characters from the play were changed to fit the worldbuilding.

The technology of the time mostly seemed to fit. However, I am begging the author to put in some time at a gun range to understand how those actually work. Numerous times a gun is described as kicking/firing with nothing coming out. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Colonisation, and Self harm

Moderate: Violence and Gun violence

f4ye's review against another edition

adventurous 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? Yes

4.25

THE SECONDARY LOVE STORY WAS BETTER THAN THE MAIN ONE I SAID IT. the book was so good i annotated it

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Suicide, Murder, and Self harm

Moderate: Gore and Gun violence

Minor: Racism

chronicacademia's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Gore, Gun violence, Suicide, Death, Child death, and Self harm

Moderate: Body horror, Animal death, Classism, Blood, Genocide, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Murder, Toxic relationship, Colonisation, Drug use, and Violence

anjasfairylights's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.5

Stumbled upon Chloe Gong while doing some research for uni and was immediately caught up in her books so I decided to get the first one. I really liked it, especially the story settled in 1920s Shanghai - this is not something you find in your everyday‘s fantasy novel and it worked out very well. I enjoyed the dynamics of the two protagonists, even though sometimes it was a bit hard to keep track of all the secrets, intrigues etc. Also I didn‘t quite get the building of the chapters where one perspective chased the other, but I got used to it eventually. Definitely gonna get the second volume.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Injury/Injury detail, and Self harm

Moderate: Gun violence and Racism

karcitis's review against another edition

Just not in the mood, lots of gore.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Gun violence, Body horror, Blood, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Colonisation, Self harm, Murder, Pandemic/Epidemic, and Death

Minor: Drug use, Addiction, War, Transphobia, Drug abuse, Alcohol, and Xenophobia

vagorsol's review against another edition

adventurous 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? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Suicide, Gun violence, Self harm, and Violence

Moderate: Racism

Minor: Transphobia