Scan barcode
taroroot's review against another edition
- 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? It's complicated
5.0
Graphic: Gun violence
Moderate: Torture
kaetheluise_nckl's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Blood, Gun violence, Violence, Gore, Death, Murder, War, Alcohol, Torture, Physical abuse, and Mass/school shootings
Moderate: Suicide attempt, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Fire/Fire injury, and Confinement
Minor: Colonisation and Police brutality
insectslainiereads's review against another edition
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
5.0
100/100 stars perfect book love u miss chloe
after reflecting i’m definitely adding this to my tops 10 books, but it is honestly in my top 3 books right now, i am in love
Graphic: Death, Violence, Suicide, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Colonisation, and Blood
Moderate: War, Torture, Suicidal thoughts, Mass/school shootings, Gun violence, Genocide, Sexism, Misogyny, and Kidnapping
rebeccaxpaige's review against another edition
- 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
5.0
I will not say anything else other than if you want to see what real women are made of, you must read this book. 5 of the easiest stars I gave this year.
Graphic: Blood, Gore, Body horror, War, Torture, Suicide attempt, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Physical abuse, Murder, Misogyny, Kidnapping, Injury/Injury detail, Gun violence, Grief, Gaslighting, Forced institutionalization, Emotional abuse, Death, Cursing, and Colonisation
Moderate: Bullying, Child death, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Drug use, and Emotional abuse
jmusil44's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Blood, Violence, War, Torture, Mass/school shootings, and Gun violence
booksthatburn's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
The worldbuilding is consistent with the previous book, but it's now slowing down to build as many non-human parts of the setting as THESE VIOLENT DELIGHTS was able to. Juliet sometimes still wears flapper dresses, and Roma has a Meaningful Wardrobe Change, but tensions are high and there's just less time for fun. Plenty of time for emotionally fraught pining and hatred, especially coming off of events from the last book.
I love how much Kathleen shines in this one, she has a much better sense of herself and what place she wants to hold. Alisa, too, gets more of a role and it's very nice to see. Ben and Marsh are fantastic, I'm so happy about their arc here.
This wraps up a bunch of things from THESE VIOLENT DELIGHTS. It has a couple of storylines which start here and weren't present before, but since this is part two of a duology that's somewhat limited, as it exists to complete the story. I'm not sure if any major things were both introduced and resolved here, as generally the groundwork was laid previously even if the very specific story thread is mostly contained to this volume. It feels finished, except in as much as the ending intentionally left things open, e.g. living characters are implied to have plans for what they'll do next. The main characters are the same, with a similar ratio of how many chapters each one narrates. Their voices are distinct from each other but consistent with their styles of narration from THESE VIOLENT DELIGHTS. This might make some sense if someone picked it up at random and didn't know about the series (especially if they're familiar with ROMEO AND JULIETTE. The relevant backstory is succinctly and precisely conveyed in a way that makes it pretty easy to get up to speed, but certain character motivations and present circumstances will be confusing if someone tries to begin here, in part two of two. It does hit the sweet spot for enough of a reminder for readers who waited a while after reading the first book, at least as far as I'm concerned.
Well-done with an ending I'm still thinking about, make sure to check out OUR VIOLENT ENDS.
Graphic: Blood, Gore, Violence, Gun violence, Medical content, Torture, Murder, and Death
Moderate: Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Fire/Fire injury, and Child death
Minor: Physical abuse
azrah786's review against another edition
4.25
CW: violence, gun violence, blood, gore, mass shooting, murder, injury, death, kidnapping, torture, whipping, suicidal thoughts, war themes, parental abuse, police brutality
Our Violent Ends, where the “our” is really the reader because after finishing this I was so NOT okay!
This sequel continues a couple of months after the end of These Violent Delights with Shanghai on the brink of revolution. The blood feud is back in full force, especially with Roma seeing red after Juliette’s betrayal, which is not helping the situation in the slightest. Meanwhile Juliette is trying to tiptoe her way around her own secrets to save her neck as well as Roma’s. However, when the dreaded monster madness threat resurfaces Roma and Juliette are forced to once again come to a truce and combine forces to save their beloved city.
“Maybe it was inevitable in a city like this. Each and every one of them, taking on a path of destruction, even if they knew better, even if they would warn someone else off it.”
Chloe Gong's remarkable prose both immerses you right back into the setting, the city once again acting as a character itself, and perfectly captures the various tensions that can be found in its streets.
Much like the first book Gong has masterfully merged the classic story with the real world history of Shanghai, the political side to the storyline in particular taking centre stage. Plus with some of the primary plot from the play already having been mirrored in book 1 the retelling side is a little looser. However, I still had that constant anticipation for what events from the original were going to be rewritten and stumbling across cleverly utilised Shakespeare quotes made it all the more enjoyable.
“A rose is a rose, even by another name,” he whispered. “But we choose whether we will offer beauty to the world, or if we will use our thorns to sting.”
As ever the characters own my heart. The interactions between Roma and Juliette were as you would expect like a dagger in the heart, full of even more angst than before and I loved every second of it. I will admit I did spend a lot of time just wanting to jump into the book myself to knock some sense into the two of them and mainly yell at him to admit that HE LOVES HER and at her to acknowledge that HE’LL UNDERSTAND if she comes clean!!!
What I also really enjoyed was that there was a bigger spotlight on Kathleen, Rosalind, Benedict, Marshall and even Alisa which added so much more to the narrative! It has made me all the more excited for Foul Lady Fortune, the first book in the spin off duology releasing later in 2022!
“Sometimes hatred has no memory to feed off. It has grown strong enough to feed itself, and so long as we do not fight it, it will not bother us. It will not weaken us.”
All that aside I think I fall into the minority group of those who really enjoyed this book but didn’t love it as much as the first one (hence my slightly lower rating). The main reasons being the pacing and that I guessed a lot of the twists.. The book had a little bit of a slow start – despite there being some actiony scenes in the beginning which were great - and then when the political side of the plot really kicked off it got much more explosive and interesting but I also felt that the amount of focus on this made the monster part of the story seem a little overlooked? Not that this was a bad thing just there was SO MUCH going on!
Furthermore, I was reading this at an off time for me personally (it’s why I didn’t get through the ARC in time) so I think my mood definitely had an impact on my overall enjoyment but like I mentioned before this book was fantastic and I really didn’t want it to end.
Speaking of which, bittersweet though it was I don’t think we could have asked for a more perfect conclusion to this duology. I look forward to my heart being broken again in the next adventure Chloe Gong has in store for us.
Final Rating – 4.25/5 Stars
Graphic: Blood, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Gun violence, Kidnapping, Mass/school shootings, Murder, Torture, Violence, and War
Moderate: Police brutality and Suicidal thoughts
tahsintries's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
5.0
Graphic: Blood and Gun violence
Moderate: Death, Fire/Fire injury, Kidnapping, Murder, and Torture
Minor: Abandonment, Transphobia, Homophobia, and Death of parent
jenny_librarian's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
5.0
Why is it that every time I read a Romeo & Juliet retelling, I end up bawling my eyes out despite knowing the original story was never intended to be a romantic ideal?
It took me a solid week to get through this because it's a lot of politics crammed into 500 pages. You have to pay attention to every detail, otherwise you'll be lost further down the story. It would also help to have (re)read the first book recently. I couldn't for the life of me remember which sister was Kathleen and which was Rosalind, and the mention of Celia didn't help. I haven't picked These Violent Delights since I read the eARC last year, so I definitely wasn't in the loop anymore.
You get attached to all the characters, so every chapter is a knife in the gut where you wonder who will suffer this time around. Spoiler (not really): they all get their turn.
Chloe Gong managed to flawlessly include dialogue from the original play (eg "A rose by any other name would smell as sweet") and set it in this rich historical Shangai setting that will make you feel like you're really there. Her worldbuilding is a masterpiece, and the author's note at the very end speaks to the amount of research put into her work.
Speaking about the author's note, though, I need to know what the hell she meant by setting the set for the 1930s... Is there another book set in that era brewing? Because I will buy this thing the day it comes out!
Graphic: War, Violence, Torture, Murder, Gun violence, and Blood
Moderate: Racism, Grief, Gore, Death, Colonisation, and Body horror
Minor: Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Kidnapping, Injury/Injury detail, Fire/Fire injury, and Homophobia
kinsportch's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Death, War, Violence, Torture, Murder, and Gun violence
Moderate: Racism, Grief, and Fire/Fire injury
Minor: Child death, Suicidal thoughts, and Sexual content