Reviews tagging 'Addiction'

These Violent Delights by Chloe Gong

22 reviews

kbairbooks's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

4.0

This was super confusing for me to read. Because I don’t like horror, politics, THAT level of gore, and apparently bugs in my books. BUT the storytelling was incredible, the romance was subtle but so well crafted, I liked the sister aspect that helped push the story along, I liked the friends aspects of Kathleen and Rosalind and the dynamic between those two sisters, I like Marshall and Benedict and the thing that happened with Marshall at the end and that fucking plot twist my dude?! How can you do that on the very last page!!!! Wild!!! So good. I was certain I wasn’t gonna read book two because of the first few things I mentioned but the story and the characters and the plot twists were just too good. I can’t not read book two. So here I go!!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcohol, Blood, Body horror, Bullying, Child death, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Drug use, Gore, Grief, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Misogyny, Murder, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Violence, and War

monsoleil's review

adventurous dark mysterious 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? Yes

4.5

great read! there were parts where it moved a little too slow for my liking but the overall pace wasn’t bad. the plot & character development were also amazing and it was great to see the story evolve in all its complexity. i particularly like the use of foreshadowing, just enough to still keep me on my toes. 

i had to pull out a translator for all the french bits, but aside from that, it was a very exciting story! can’t wait to get my hands on the sequel.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Gun violence, Violence, and Blood

Moderate: Murder

Minor: Addiction, Alcohol, Xenophobia, Drug abuse, and Death of parent

aseel_reads's review

dark mysterious slow-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

4.0

firstly I want to acknowledge that this was the lowest possible 4 star rating based on the system I use. 

secondly, I was WELL AWARE of the mixed reviews. I think the hype and blurb made it sound one thing and it was something else, so a lot of people were disappointed. 

I was not disappointed. I really enjoyed this. I love a retelling, loved figuring out who was who. I enjoyed the setting and time period. big fan of gangs, always. the fantasy/monster element was fun and different. I liked that the characters took their time before working together, it made sense with their history. living for the anti-colonial rhetoric we get. just happy to be here 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Blood, Addiction, Child death, Death of parent, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Murder, Physical abuse, Transphobia, and Violence

oljones's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious 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? It's complicated

4.5

OH MY GOSH I LOVED IT. The writing was descriptive without being pretentious and I fell in love with the characters. The plot twisted and turned and slotted together so well it was a joy to read. The cliffhanger at the end left me shook and I can’t wait for the next one. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Addiction, Alcohol, Death of parent, Drug use, Gore, and Murder

claudiamacpherson's review

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

2.5

This is yet another book that booktok hyped up and I just...didn’t like. I even bought it, because the cover was beautiful and I’d heard so many good things, but it only took a few pages for me to get annoyed by the writing style. I love retellings of classic stories, and the premise of this seemed so interesting—1920s glamor! Shanghai! Rival gangs!—but once I started reading I was pretty disappointed by the whole creepy bug concept. I’m not a fan of gore, and so there were a few scenes that I really wish I could’ve skipped past.

I did really like the Benedikt/Marshall relationship and I hope that we see more of it in the next book (because, yes, even though I didn’t like this book I’m still going to read the sequel).

 

Happy ending meter (no specific spoilers, just the vibe of the ending):

It was a bit of a cliffhanger! Definitely not happy, and even though it’s only the first half of the duology, I’m not surprised—this is a Romeo and Juliet retelling, after all. I am interested to see whether Gong sticks to the original ending in the sequel, or if she’ll decide to spin it in her own way.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror

Moderate: Blood, Death, Grief, Gun violence, Medical content, Murder, Violence, and Vomit

Minor: Addiction, Colonisation, and Drug use

vendottie's review

dark 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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Violence, and Medical content

Moderate: Xenophobia

Minor: Transphobia, Sexism, and Addiction

elissareadsbooks's review

adventurous tense medium-paced

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

4.5

i adore Shakespeare but do not particularly enjoy romeo and juliet. this book made me enjoy romeo and juliet. this was so much fun: as dark as it needed to be to live up to its premise, as hopeful as it could dare. i had a grand time, especially during the whirlwind of the last 100 pages. im in awe of how grand YA books are at the moment.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Gore, Gun violence, Medical content, Murder, Terminal illness, Torture, and Violence

Moderate: Death of parent and Racism

Minor: Addiction, Drug abuse, and Drug use

ecobookworm's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Murder, Racism, Self harm, and Violence

Moderate: Death of parent and Transphobia

Minor: Addiction and Alcoholism

If you're creeped out by bugs, definitely do not read this book!!!

nerdybirdy101's review

4.0

I read this book via audiobook. I was interested in this book because of the reviews many book influencers were doing, so while mafia Romeo and Juliet books are not things I usually like, I wanted to give this book a chance. I ended up really enjoying this book! I gave it a 4 out of 5 stars because I felt like there was some lag for me because there was a bunch of drama, then a slow dragging part, and then the ending was fast. I think I needed more of a balance to keep my attention since I am not an avid fan of the themes. The author is clearly skilled and I am very excited to see their future works, definitely am hopeful they will write more historical romance-type books. I do recommend this book because the author is a fabulous writer and they have skills that other people need to read. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical trauma, Medical content, Gun violence, Gore, Emotional abuse, Drug use, Drug abuse, Death, Death of parent, Cursing, Bullying, Blood, Addiction, Vomit, Violence, Toxic relationship, Suicide attempt, Suicide, Stalking, Police brutality, Physical abuse, and Murder

baexlee's review

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

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

5.0

This was delightful. Immediately I was drawn in by Juliette and Roma but the mystery and historic setting were also going to be right up my alley and of course I was thrilled with this read. I found my heart racing in some moments and aching in others and while I was initially tempted to rate this lower than five stars just because I was a bit disappointed with how quickly and loosely the end wrapped up, I realized I have been a bit to harsh with my own ratings lately and I truly enjoyed this book. I think that I was just disappointed that I will have to wait until the next book to see what happens and the cliffhanger in this is brutal. (especially

if you're hoping for romance between Roma and Juliette to reignite

)

Despite the fact that both characters have plenty of blood on their hands and find plenty more before the end of the story, it was not hard to root for either Juliette or Roma as they try to protect their people, even when their means were more... questionable. I didn't find that I was distracted by the moments where the story was making references more directly to the Romeo & Juliet inspiration, which was appreciated because I either find that it is distracting or nonexistent in other works, but I felt Gong found a nice balance here.

This was absolutely delightful, the only thing that could have made it better would be some more romance but I do love some slow burn trading betrayal back and forth enemies to lovers romance (ie Cardan and Jude from The Cruel Prince) so I guess I won't complain too much about it because I can have something to look forward to in the second book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Death, Gun violence, Murder, and Violence

Moderate: Alcoholism, Addiction, Drug use, and Gore

Minor: Xenophobia, Stalking, Racism, and Misogyny