You need to sign in or sign up before continuing.
Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.87 AVERAGE
3.87 AVERAGE
dark
emotional
tense
slow-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
The biggest issue with These Violent Delights is that most of the romance between our main couple happens off page, several years prior to the current events. I never really bought into this romance because of the fact that I didn’t get a chance to see it develop. I only ever got to see what happened post fallout. I think the author’s commitment to the enemies to lovers trope really held her back here.
This book had the opportunity to be a really rich and complex story with love and betrayal at their core, but I just never really got the feeling that this book was authentic. The surrounding cast was intended to be fleshed out, I understood by way of the time Gong took occasionally to center them. However, it felt like a second thought that came only after the story of Roma and Juliette had been written. It was as if their story was finished, then the author realized that it needed more to actually pack a punch. Again, this had the chance to center complex relationships with a web of connections, but that just never really clarified into reality.
The prose also felt very repetitive. Not only was information shared more than once, but often exact wording felt lifted from earlier in the book to be reused later. It felt a bit patronizing and redundant.
The setting was quite interesting, and Gong did a nice job of writing a rich and unique place and time for this story to take place. This was really the main draw for me, and she certainly executed on it.
Okee… hmmmmm. Als ik heel eerlijk moet zijn; er waren veel momenten in dit boek waarbij ik dacht: “nee dit vind ik echt niet goed geschreven/uitgedacht” MAAR er waren ook echt momenten tussen Juliette en Roma that had me giggling and kicking my feet, en er waren ook spannende momenten waarbij ik echt even shook was. Ik vind het tweede gedeelte van het verhaal sws een stuk beter dan het eerste deel, het heeft meer spanning rondom de monster-storyline en meer tension tussen Juliette en Roma. Wat ik vooral meh vond, is dat het gevoel dat er weinig backstory wordt gegeven bij veel van de karakters. Naast de hoofdpersonen zijn bijv Marshall, Benedikt, Kathleen en Rosalind ook heel belangrijk, en ook al voelt het door de schrijfstijl wel dat ik in hun hoofd kan kijken, mis ik soms een connectie door de lack aan backstory. (klinkt dit logisch ??)
Maar wel echt een pluspunt was de plottwist/cliffhanger op het einde!! Ik ga deel 2 z.s.m lezen.
Ik wil niet zeggen dat ik dit boek niet leuk vond, want er waren echt heel veel stukken die me aanspraken, MAAR er waren (voor mij persoonlijk) een aantal minpuntjes die het boek ietsssss minder leuk maakte. Het was dus niet suuuuuuper fantastisch, maar wel gewoon echt leuk en entertaining.
3.5/5 ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Maar wel echt een pluspunt was de plottwist/cliffhanger op het einde!! Ik ga deel 2 z.s.m lezen.
Ik wil niet zeggen dat ik dit boek niet leuk vond, want er waren echt heel veel stukken die me aanspraken, MAAR er waren (voor mij persoonlijk) een aantal minpuntjes die het boek ietsssss minder leuk maakte. Het was dus niet suuuuuuper fantastisch, maar wel gewoon echt leuk en entertaining.
3.5/5 ⭐️⭐️⭐️
adventurous
emotional
medium-paced
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
4.75 stars, rounded up. THIS BOOK! Yes, I know I'm a teeney tiny bit late to the hype (i'm really late, let's just admit it.) And I tend to be very silly in that I sometimes am disappointed by incredibly hyped books. But let me tell you, this one DESERVES it!
First of all, the writing!! AHH! I could just gush and gush about it for hours. The atmosphere, the emotions, the dialogue, all of it was crafted to perception. I loved all the different perspectives we got to see! Next, the little nods to Shakespeare. I'm really familiar with Romeo and Juilet so I recognized the equivalents to not only Romeo and Juilet, obviously, but also Benvolio and Mercutio, Paris, Tybalt, and Friar Laurens! I loved her interpretation of every single one of these characters! I loved the little plays on quotes from the original ("A plague and both your houses!") etc... and just the clever little references sprinkled without. I see you, Ms. Gong! You are a GENIUS and a QUEEN! Now... the characters. Is it wierd that I loved Benedikt and Marshall more than Roma and Juliet™e? Yeah... kinda unpopular opinion, I know. But they were everything to me. And I'm fully invested in them. But I also loved Roma and Juliette, and how they have so many walls up but how they're ultimately very soft deep inside... I adore them both. Kathleen and Rosalind are super cool too, and I think we get to see more of them in another series as well which is awesome! I really enjoyed hanging out with these characters and seeing all their angst and wholesomeness and everything in-between!
Now, the plot! There were so many twists and turns, especially toward the end, that I didn't see coming, even with being very familiar with the play, and I think that was very purposeful! I was on the edge of my seat and I just had such a fun time reading it... it made me happy and sad and scared all at once. The whole plague/monster thing was... yeah. It was a lot, so if you're sqeamish, PLEASE use caution reading this book! If you're scared of insects and they gross you out, please use caution LOL. The author's descriptive writing was wonderful and some of the scenes will be painted in my mind forever. I'm so glad I got to read this and I'm really hoping to get to the sequel ASAP!
First of all, the writing!! AHH! I could just gush and gush about it for hours. The atmosphere, the emotions, the dialogue, all of it was crafted to perception. I loved all the different perspectives we got to see! Next, the little nods to Shakespeare. I'm really familiar with Romeo and Juilet so I recognized the equivalents to not only Romeo and Juilet, obviously, but also Benvolio and Mercutio, Paris, Tybalt, and Friar Laurens! I loved her interpretation of every single one of these characters! I loved the little plays on quotes from the original ("A plague and both your houses!") etc... and just the clever little references sprinkled without. I see you, Ms. Gong! You are a GENIUS and a QUEEN! Now... the characters. Is it wierd that I loved Benedikt and Marshall more than Roma and Juliet™e? Yeah... kinda unpopular opinion, I know. But they were everything to me. And I'm fully invested in them. But I also loved Roma and Juliette, and how they have so many walls up but how they're ultimately very soft deep inside... I adore them both. Kathleen and Rosalind are super cool too, and I think we get to see more of them in another series as well which is awesome! I really enjoyed hanging out with these characters and seeing all their angst and wholesomeness and everything in-between!
Now, the plot! There were so many twists and turns, especially toward the end, that I didn't see coming, even with being very familiar with the play, and I think that was very purposeful! I was on the edge of my seat and I just had such a fun time reading it... it made me happy and sad and scared all at once. The whole plague/monster thing was... yeah. It was a lot, so if you're sqeamish, PLEASE use caution reading this book! If you're scared of insects and they gross you out, please use caution LOL. The author's descriptive writing was wonderful and some of the scenes will be painted in my mind forever. I'm so glad I got to read this and I'm really hoping to get to the sequel ASAP!
adventurous
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
adventurous
dark
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
it's... Wow........ if i were being honest the throat tearing epidemic was a bore and the reveal of who it was behind it was also a bore..... like you would get a hunch sooner or later. not a big fan of the genre clash with this like tense political environment and then suddenly theres a monster amok... like errr Ok!!!!!!
i thoroughly enjoyed the politics and everything in between though! just not found of the spider-man ish kind of trail that we were following...... the book in the first few hundred pages is a bore until you get to the middle of the book and it was kinda still a let down .... like i couldve DNF'd the book but i genuinely had no reason to.... so i just kept reading...
but i kinda did enjoy the story because of the characters! chloe gong's writing is magnificent i really enjoyed picking and reading in between the lines of her proses it was a treat to read through all of them!
i need to see more of marshall and benedikt please reunite them ill kms (also i want kathleen to have a girlfriend thats it!)
i thoroughly enjoyed the politics and everything in between though! just not found of the spider-man ish kind of trail that we were following...... the book in the first few hundred pages is a bore until you get to the middle of the book and it was kinda still a let down .... like i couldve DNF'd the book but i genuinely had no reason to.... so i just kept reading...
but i kinda did enjoy the story because of the characters! chloe gong's writing is magnificent i really enjoyed picking and reading in between the lines of her proses it was a treat to read through all of them!
1.5 star ⭐️ i wanted to love this book so mf bad and when i tell u those tiktok previews and shit people were making had me BY THE THROAT!!!! but omg this was lowkey painful to read through. a lot of the jargon is unnecessary imo like i’m always trying find the underlying meaning and that is too much brain power for me. also juliette was lowkey an entitled bitch and roma was very bland and i was very surprised that he was russian just bc i thought the two rival gangs would be from shanghai originally but that was my own assumption. the book doesn’t really hit till the last 50 pages and although i am curious abt what happens next, i will prob just read someone else’s spoilers. juliette is also so rash??? like gorl
adventurous
dark
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Didn’t get into it will try again later.