Reviews

These Violent Delights by Chloe Gong

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itsbtrixy's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny mysterious tense fast-paced

5.0

doyvrs's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

Loveable characters? Yes

5.0

this literally altered my life forever btw

cipotalectora's review against another edition

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4.0

So don’t start believing that skill is all it takes to stay at the top. Loyalty plays its dirty hand too, and it is a fickle, ever-changing thing.

These Violent Delights has become one of the most talked-about books on every part of social media, and I can see why now.

When you’re someone like Gong and decide to write a historical retelling of Romeo and Juliet, with a Chinese Juliet and Russian Romeo as they put their rivalry and blood feud to the side in order to stop a mysterious madness roaming the streets, you’re going to get it going all sorts of places. Add on the popular enemies to lovers trope, except mix it with childhood best friends turned lovers turned exes turned enemy lovers? Yeah, I’m actually really fucking set.

As mentioned, These Violent Delights is an own-voices Chinese inspired retelling of Shakespear’s Romeo and Juliet. I haven’t read the well-known classic, nor have I seen any adaptions made from it, but I know enough to catch some references from the original. The premise of this book is just as explained above, so I'm just going to get to the point: I really enjoyed this book. Immediately after starting it, I was fully entertained. I was enjoying it all—from the reasoning behind the madness and its development, the history behind the rivalry behind the gangs, the history between Roma and Juliet, the love they left behind, the contributions of the side characters (especially Benedikt and Marshall), the different discussions between the different political parties and, generally, everything else.

But, there’s no denying that there is a particular theme in this book that plays an important role in Juliette and Roma as individuals and the plot as a whole. Many other reviewers have already mentioned this, but I think it’s important to continue mentioning it: The portrayal of colonization and white supremacy in the book adds to the vivid atmosphere Gong has created. I found the portrayal of colonialism and hegemony to be described and told in a very rich and realistic manner. Juliette’s struggle with her identity brought back a couple of memories.

How many times had she asked herself that question in Manhattan? How many times had she climbed up to her building’s rooftop and gazed out on New York’s skyline, refusing to let herself love it, because loving one meant losing another, and losing Shanghai meant losing everything?

In a way, her identity has been taken away from her, erased, and made to be seen as invalid. She struggles with how she’s not one nor the other and has difficulty accepting both because of how afraid she is to be seen as one but not the other. Juliette’s Chinese identity is there as well as her American identity, yet she’s taken so lightly. She struggles with her own identity, accepting herself for who she is, and the ignorance of many people who surround her is visible throughout every encounter.

Personally, it reminded me of my own self, and how I struggled to come into terms with my Salvadoran identity and my Central American background. My own peers and classmates made it seem as if I was invalid, as if my Central Americanness was inferior and less than my classmates (who were usually and always Mexican), which I then realized is derived from Mexican hegemony. Similarly with Juliette, she’s proudly Chinese, but the white people in her own land trying to take over make it seem as if she’s inferior, less than them, and needs to become a part of their white savior complex narrative. Not only that, but I also had to start going by a nickname all of my academic years, which is what Juliette had to do as well. She decided to start incorporating the name Juliette into her life because she was mocked and made fun of for her real Chinese name, saying it was “too Chinese for the west”. This is something many people struggle with, and it’s such a shame how some of us then have to live with two different identities because our real one can’t be accepted by many.

Would I be less if I sounded like my mother, my father, and all those in this city who were forced to learn more than one language, unlike you?

Something else I absolutely loved was how easy the writing was. Not only were there many parts that were extremely well-written and beautiful, but the writing was so easy to follow and never boring. Even its simple parts made the story progress instead of slowing it down, which I feel is quite common in many books. I believe some authors tend to either try too hard to write in a poetic way or write too simple and dull, ruining the story due to their lack of consistency. However, Dong, in my opinion, managed to incorporate both (simple and beautiful) and craft an entertaining story to the point where you end up reading 100 pages without realizing it.

Even the land of dreams needs to wake up sometimes. And though there may be beauty beneath its core rot, though it is big and open and plentiful, hiding those who want to be hidden and shining on those who wish to be remembered, it is elsewhere.

While this is a retelling of R&J, the romance is very different. I can understand why many people don’t like the romance between Roma and Juliette. I found myself enjoying it . . . a little. Truly, sometimes I didn’t feel any romantic chemistry between the two. It was as if they were just enemies who were only childhood best friends before, without there being any romance involved in the past. There were only a couple of moments where I felt the tension between them, whereas in the other parts (which were the majority), I felt as if I was just reading the downfall of a friendship consisting of lies and betrayal. I think part of this has to do with the fact that there were never really intimate moments between the two. Even when they were together, the closest tension Juliette would mention, for example, was how when Roma would grab her shoulder, it sent a small spark of memory to the time they shared in the past. Regardless, it was never so . . . angsty, and there wasn’t so much angst. I never found myself rooting for them and wishing for them to just make up. It really wasn’t until their actual intimate moments where I was rooting for them, simply because there was more connection and chemistry between them. I’m aware of the mixed enemies to lovers trope, but even other books with that trope tend to show and have more affection.

While they were launching marbles along the uneven ground, they were just Roma and Juliette, not Roma Montagov and Juliette Cai, the heirs of rival gangs. They were laughing kids who had found a confidant, a friend who understood the need to be someone else if only for a while each day.

Admittedly, I was more interested in the growing relationship between a side m/m relationship, Marsh and Ben. When Dong described Ben as panicking because he caught himself staring at Marsh’s torso in his moth-eaten pajama pants hanging low on his hips, I knew there would a side relationship to be explored. I’m hoping this relationship is further developed in the next book, especially with that ending!

While the book is highly focused on Juliette and Roma (and the side characters as well) figuring out how to bring the madness down, there are a couple of cultural elements added to the story as well. However, this is where I found myself a little disappointed with, since I wish the author would have added more to it, especially about Roma and his Russian background. It is clear that Juliette is Chinese and Roma is Russian, but even with the minimal descriptions of Juliette’s culture, I wish there would have been more descriptions of it. Minor mentions included the traditional clothing of the Chinese or traditional Chinese streets, but I still felt like the cultural aspect of the book lacked. Since the book is set in China, I wish there would have been more descriptions of what the country or towns looked like, traditional celebrations, format meetings, etc. Not only that, but the book is set in 1926, yet it felt really modern. Besides the uprising of Communism and Capitalism, most of the book felt more modern than historical. Juliette and Roma felt as if they were born in 1999/2000 instead of 1908 or such. Adding on to that, there was no mention of the other countries whatsoever. For example, we know Roma is Russian, but there is nothing about him that showed his Russianness besides the language and how it is one of the other European countries playing with the colonization card.

It is never as simple as one truth. Nothing ever is.

Even with these key points that disappointed me, there is more to be praised from the book. Apart from being a generally quick and easy read with beautiful writing, something I appreciate from Gong is her ability to craft like-able and distasteful character who play their role correctly. Usually, when I watch a movie and I find myself really hating the villain, I give praise and kudos to the actor/actress playing the villain because they’re clearly doing a good job at their role. In this case, I found myself really liking the side characters (such as Marsh and Ben from the White Flowers and Rosalind and Kathleen from the Scarlet Gang, who were the best of friends of Roma and Juliet) and really hating the evil characters.

The White Flowers and Scarlet Gang had similar thinking, thoughts, and opinions, they were all still very different from each other. I felt as if there was uniqueness as well as originality to their personalities and how they acted with each other as well as with others. I never found either of them to be annoying or a burdensome. Side characters are sometimes a hit or miss for me, and considering how I fell in love with every character (who the author at least expects us to like), I’m really excited to see how their relationships develop. Not only that, but Chloe Dong herself said that the book set in the same world as TVD (but after TVE) will be about a character in TVD, so I’m really looking forward to hearing more news about that.

The stars incline us, they do not bind us.

Finally, I’d like to talk about Juliette as an individual. I throughly enjoyed her character. No, I simply loved her. She was strong and independent, and I loved her for standing up to herself, for fighting for herself and her people, for fighting because no one else would. Not only did she have to deal with prejudice and discrimination for being Chinese, but she dealt with sexism from her own family. I loved her determination to prove the people who didn’t believe in her wrong. Some found it strange that she, as a female, was next to be heir, but she wasn’t going to allow her gender and her standing from keeping her throne as heir. I loved that from her, and I loved how supportive she was of her own self. I don’t think we talk about how important it is for people to support their ownselves, if that makes sense. In Juliette’s case, the way I see the support she had for herself is how she didn’t take no for an answer and she would make sure to carve her way to get through her mission if needed. She believed in herself and never gave up, even when weakness was taking over her entire body.

There is so much beauty in seeing female characters like Juliette grow and thrive. I never found Juliette to be stupid, especially when it came to the decisions she made. Even if some were made from an act of impulse, I found them to always be needed. It’s as if she was naturally always correct, no matter how stubborn she presented herself as on many occasions. Not only that, but she had character development. Just the fact that she came back as a more strong, mature, and independent grown woman from the old Juliette Roma knew showed me how strong she is.

At fifteen, Juliette had come back with dreams. She was going to do something worth of remembrance, be someone worthy of commemoration, ignite lives worth fighting for.

I’m a strong believer in saying These Violent Delights is worth the hype. Even if you’re someone like me who still has not read the popular classic and/or seen any of the movie adaptions, I still believe you’ll be able to enjoy this. It’s more than just a fantasy retelling and a historical book. It is also about finding strength in the people you thought you would never forgive. It is about giving second chances to your enemies. It is about leaving your expectations behind in order to become the person you want to become, not the person others are trying to make you.

Anyone can be the master to a monster should their heart be wicked enough.

emilykate0214's review against another edition

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Couldn’t get into the storyline, not enough romance for me

maddy_4s's review against another edition

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I started this book a while ago and have been going back and forth to it I need to read this book when I have no others I’m currently reading as it needs a lot of focus to make sense of the world building and what is happening