Reviews with content warning for Blood - Our Violent Ends

Reviews tagging 'Blood'

Our Violent Ends by Chloe Gong

149 reviews

ladygetslit's review against another edition

adventurous emotional tense fast-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

There will be hatred. There will be war. The country will fight itself to pieces. It will starve its people, ravage its land, poison its breath. Shanghai will fall and break and cry. But alongside everything, there has to be love—eternal, undying, enduring. Burn through vengeance and terror and warfare. Burn through everything that fuels the human heart and sears it red, burn through everything that covers the outside with hard muscle and tough sinew. Cut down deep and grab what beats beneath, and it is love that will survive after everything else has perished.

My Personal Opinion: It is a rare sequel that lives up to the first installment, but Our Violent Ends managed to blow me away. This book has everything: political intrigue based in Chinese history, queer and trans representation, family drama, mysterious monsters, loyal friend groups, and (of course) star-crossed love.

My Teacher Opinion: this would be an amazing replacement for Romeo & Juliet, although I may ruffle feathers by saying so. I do think the duology would be best for an upper level high school class, due to the pretty heavy violence and complexity of the political plot lines.

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btrz7's review against another edition

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slow-paced

Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.0

Not sure exactly how I feel about this duology, but I guess I'll try to summarize how I feel in parts.
Firstly, this is one of those books where an author chooses a setting (location/time period) and instead of letting it just work as a background, they fully brought it to life and let it be relevant to the story. I think Chloe Gong painted a very vivid picture of Shangai and the gang's lives and this certainly elevates the story in my eyes.
As for plot, I understand intertwining politics with gang business (not that the two leads seemed to care that much about politics), but at some point I felt like the fantasy element was too much. Like, specially in this book, it felt like it was sidetracked for a long portion of the book, and I feel like the same effect on the story could have been achieved by a non supernatural element. This is already a retelling, which has its own elements and beats to hit, and while I thought the rival gangs with a blood feud fit it well, the book felt too long for me. As in, I felt like some sections of the plot were neglected for too long, and specially towards the second half of the book, I kept waiting for things to wrap up, and even when it felt like it was time to conclude it, there were tons of things still left.
Lastly, I didn't care much for the two main characters and their relationship (when it felt to me like it was time to end the book, I kept thinking "isn't it time for you to die now?") but I did like their respective sidekicks (Ben and Marshall, Rosalind and Kathleen), and it was their endings I was looking forward to since the end of book 1.

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averyrembish's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional 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

5.0

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angelsfw's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny hopeful sad tense fast-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

Content Warnings

takarakei's review against another edition

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dark emotional slow-paced

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

2.0

I am honestly pretty apathetic about this series. I really really wanted to like these, but ultimately I really struggled to get through both books.

I did not like the writing style or pacing of these books. The way the story is written makes it hard to follow, and I found the writing to be repetitive and boring. I found myself having to constantly re-read paragraphs but at the same time not really caring about what I was reading. Ultimately I did not care for Juliette and Roma’s relationship. After finishing the first book I found myself wondering why it is I just didn’t seem to really *get* their relationship - supposedly this is enemies to lovers (which is my favorite trope btw) but beyond this giant familial rivalry which is described over and over again I honestly did not feel enough tension or hatred between them to build up and make me care about them ending up together. I did not find either Juliette or Roma to be very complex and therefore their relationship was not impactful.

Throughout both books I was way more interested in the secondary characters: Benedikt and Marshall and Kathleen in particular. I found myself wishing for more time spent with these characters and their journey, struggles and development. To me, Kathleen is the real intriguing character of the series - she is way smarter, complex and ultimately I think more badass than Juliette. I would have rather been reading her story and POV solely.

In both books the monsters that plague the city and the entire plot-line there did not really intrigue me. Even less so in Our Violent Ends since it’s an even smaller part of the second book, and seems very in the background of everything else going on politically in this world.

Did I feel like the second book was better than the first? maybe a bit, but since it’s longer than the first book the pacing was even more of an issue for me. There were parts of the second book that I did enjoy reading but they were too far and fewer between (and were pretty much solely the parts from the secondary characters' POV).

I pushed myself to finish the books because I did want to see how it ended, but I was left feeling unfulfilled. The “climax” of the story feels like it drags on for too long, and I kept thinking “ok is this IT yet?”

I honestly think that it would have been more impactful to not leave the ending open the way it is and stick more to the source of Romeo and Juliet dying - because in Shakespeare’s tragedy them dying is what teaches those around them that violence, power struggle and hatred between people are the evils that corrupt our world. They die for love and for each other, and without that the ending fell flat. Perhaps it is intentional that the author will continue the series and eventually bring these lessons around to this world and those living in it? but I likely won’t be reading on.

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letiross's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional 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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breedawnwriter's review against another edition

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4.0

Um…

I have so many thoughts and feelings. I’ve never been more STRESSED about a book in my LIFE.

I LOVED it.

I teared up.

I cursed.

I squealed.

I think I screeched.

The ending felt kinda lackluster to me because I guess I expected it all to go down differently? Don’t ask me what I thought would happen because I don’t know, I just thought it would be different.

I wanted it to make me sob uncontrollably. It did not, so I knocked off a star because I’m a cruel book dragon.

Please don’t come for me. I will not respond or engage with that kind of behavior.

I will probably update this review when I’ve had time to think more about the book.

Content warnings (from the author): Blood, violence, gore, character deaths, murder (including mass murder), war themes, torture, weapon use, insects, alcohol consumption, parental abuse.

Additional content warnings: passionate kissing (including a gay kiss), a sex scene (not graphic, mostly just describes them undressing and the guy asking “is this okay?” before the scene ends), and strong cursing.

Content Warnings

ourlastopus's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional 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

5.0

we can clearly see how much chloe gong has evolved as a writer in this incredible sequel; this killed me in the best way possible
ok, now i’m going back to crying

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cemeterygay's review against another edition

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emotional fast-paced

Loveable characters? Yes

3.5

I thought this was a pretty okay and satisfying conclusion to the duology. I think the plot had a lot less direction than the first book which made me enjoy quite a bit less than the first book. However, I still adored the characters and the attention given to the political backdrop, and the ending was pretty great.

I really enjoyed it; however, I don't think I will be re-reading it any time soon.

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shannnne_reads_words's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

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