Reviews with content warning for Torture - Our Violent Ends

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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kdailyreads's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

This was a striking and engrossing book. I don’t want to say I enjoyed this second book more than the first one, because there is a lot of dark and heartbreaking things that happen and I feel odd saying I “enjoyed” it. I was definitely highly engaged. I wanted to read this book whenever I had a free moment. I wanted to read it when I didn’t have a free moment. I felt like the first book in this duology was a little slow in pace at first, whereas this second one felt nonstop the whole time. This book is somehow both extremely plot-driven and character-driven, and both the plot and the characters destroyed me. Even though I knew this was a retelling of Romeo and Juliet, I wanted to know so badly what would happen. How close of a retelling it would be - would the ending be faithful? Or would Roma and Juliette (as I found myself hoping) survive somehow? And of course, I wanted to learn the answers to this retelling’s specific questions and mysteries. The book ends on a heart wrenching, but still somehow hopeful note. Our Violent Ends is incredibly well-written. I will be reading anything and everything else Chloe Gong writes. I also greatly appreciated the author’s notes at the end of both books discussing historical context, and am interested to learn more about this time period in Chinese history.

If you read this book (or the first one), be sure to look for a complete list of content/trigger warnings because there are many. Some major ones - gun violence, self-harm (due to monsters), violence to children, fire, neglect, and torture.

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brynn_books's review against another edition

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adventurous 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

I think I need to sue for emotional damage after reading this book.

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nodogsonthemoon's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious sad 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? It's complicated

4.0

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saoreads's review against another edition

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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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writingcaia's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional 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

4.5

Roma Montagov from the White Flowers Gang and Juliette Cai from the Scarlet Gang have been thorn apart by bloodshed in the past, but four years later, after being exiled in NY, Juliette is back to Shangai. And, just as things heat up in the blood feud and when a creepy monster that sheds hundreds of horrid lice-like ones to infect people into tearing their throats out prowls the streets of their town. It is this common threat to both their people that will have Juliette and Roma come together again, now with not but resentment in their hearts, or so it seems, but they’ll have to put their hatred aside and team up to take down their mutual threat. However, nothing is made easy for these two, love and hate runs close to the skin, the blood feud always in the path of their love, and the monster not as easy to deal with as they hoped especially when they have to run against time to save their loved ones.
This a slow to medium paced story, anchored both in the historical events of the 20/30’s in Shangai, revolution, communists, nationalists, foreign invaders, gangsters all making the streets of the town run red with the blood of the people, and it’s also a retelling of the famous Shakespearean love tragedy Romeu and Juliet.
I’ve to say it wasn’t the easiest book to dive into, thankfully there’re the Montagov and Marsh who were all so endearing and made me keep going, eventually I came into syntony with the story albeit dreading how close to the original it would stick to.
Soon it became a riveting read and continued until the end, with plenty of bloodshed, monsters, hate, betrayal, murder, and of course love to conquer all odds.
I can’t say how close it cut to the original tale without spoilers, I can only say there’re a few plot twists related and unrelated with the Shakespearean tragedy.
Overall a 4.5⭐️ duology and if you like YA retellings, with dark mystery, gangs, history and tragedy this is for you.

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aklovekorn's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional 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

4.5

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angstifies's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional mysterious tense

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.75

i found the first book much more interesting than this sequel, this book had very much the same exact plot as the first one it just unfolded differently somehow? mhmm idk

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