Reviews tagging 'Sexual content'

These Violent Delights by Chloe Gong

10 reviews

creolelitbelle's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny 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

5.0

These Violent Delights is a great re-imagining of Shakespeare's classic Romeo and Juliet set in 1920s Shanghai, China with Roma & Juliette now at odds against each other after secretly dating four years prior to the events of the novel. Their families head the rival White Flowers and Scarlet Gang, and they can never forget that key piece of their personal identities. I love the subtle (and not-so-subtle) callbacks to the original play through major and minor characters, scenes, and pivotal lines. Those were all written in carefully to tie book into its source material but not pull the reader out of the new historical fiction story. Gong also did a delicately wonderful job weaving Chinese and other world history into the setting and plot by laying the history out whenever relevant to the story or characters but never over-explaining anything. Knowing the history prior to reading this book is not necessary but did add to my experience. The mystery of what causes the madness seeping into the city pushes enemies together for collaboration, and the intense action kept me hooked. Diversity in cast felt authentic to the time period of China's forced spheres of influence from other countries' powers, and the multi-pov storytelling really made certain chapters feel like isolated scenes as in a play. I am excited to read the sequel and the other books in the world of Secret Shanghai soon. The bonus content in the B&N edition was well worth it, too. I loved getting inside Roma's head through his letters from their first romance together, the prequel story of their courtship before is so sweet. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm, Emotional abuse, Blood, Classism, Violence, Murder, Death, Gun violence, Gore, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Sexism, Death of parent, Physical abuse, Cursing, Terminal illness, Racism, Alcohol, and Grief

Minor: Transphobia, Sexual content, and Drug use

cnaccarato's review

adventurous dark emotional informative mysterious 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Blood, Body horror, Medical content, Misogyny, Classism, Death, Pandemic/Epidemic, Alcohol, Gore, Murder, Grief, Gun violence, Xenophobia, Sexism, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, and Racism

Moderate: Addiction, Emotional abuse, Transphobia, and Drug use

Minor: Police brutality, Outing, Bullying, Sexual content, and Homophobia

emilywemily6's review

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-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

5.0

I absolutely loved this book and bought the rest of Gong’s work because of it. This story is such a unique retelling with little hints of Shakespeare while being entirely its own thing. I loved the combination of gangster blood feuds, political intrigue, a mysterious madness sweeping the city, and a touch of romantic tension. The characters are vibrant yet morally grey and very interesting. Although it was on the longer side, I enjoyed every minute of it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Blood, Child death, Classism, Murder, Pandemic/Epidemic, Death, Gore, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexism, Violence, Body horror, Gun violence, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, and Misogyny

Moderate: Alcohol, Death of parent, and Medical content

Minor: Cursing, Sexual content, and Homophobia

amweber's review

adventurous mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Body horror, Gore, Blood, Gun violence, and Violence

Minor: Drug abuse and Sexual content

moonchild_cos's review against another edition

adventurous 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? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Death, Murder, Blood, Body horror, Grief, Violence, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, and Alcohol

Moderate: Classism, Racism, and Transphobia

Minor: Sexual content

jackiemcguire's review

adventurous dark hopeful tense medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood

Minor: Sexual content

sarah984's review against another edition

dark mysterious slow-paced

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

3.0

This book was fine, but it left me feeling disappointed.

First off I will say, I loved the concept of a 1920s Shanghai Romeo and Juliet retelling. The descriptions of the city and events surrounding the characters are great, and you can tell that the author is passionate about this history. The monster story does the job and some of the horror writing is great.

The story and characters were another thing, unfortunately. The book takes way too long, with characters meandering around monologuing while nothing much happens for large amounts of time. Juliette is an interesting enough character (a little too stock YA heroine for me but she's fine) but Roma is like a block of wood. This is a shame because in the play you can call Romeo a lot of things but "boring" isn't really one of them. The enemies to lovers romance is so bland and uninteresting. The word "thudding" is used so often that I want to erase it from the author’s brain.

Things finally come to a head at the end and the final confrontation is exciting (though there are definitely some stupid things that happen because they sound cool, like firing a 1920s pistol underwater) but the author takes a big risk and then immediately backtracks it, which bugged me.

It was fine, if you like YA enemies to lovers and/or historical you'll probably enjoy it, but I don't really care too much if I read the second one or not.

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Alcohol, Body horror, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Racism, Toxic relationship, and Xenophobia

Minor: Death of parent, Drug use, Homophobia, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Sexual content, Vomit, and Transphobia

maple_dove'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

5.0

There's a lot to take in the beginning, so make sure to summarize the chapters 10 and before, or something like that.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Gun violence, and Violence

Moderate: Blood, Racism, and Transphobia

Minor: Sexual content

khawk97's review

adventurous mysterious tense fast-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? It's complicated

5.0

I LOVED this book, not only because it was an interesting twist on Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, but I adore the enemies-to-lovers trope and it was so well done. There was so much sexual tension between the main characters without needing to be overly explicit, with a great build to their relationship. I like how it interwove lots of different languages and a lot of the references were historically accurate for the setting - 1926 Shanghai. Can't wait for the sequel!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence

Moderate: Gun violence and Sexual content

readerette's review

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

I'm not sure I'm a Romeo and Juliet fan, so undoubtedly that impacts my enjoyment of any retellings. I like the world building and all the factions represented and the energy of the city. The two main characters were mostly enjoyable but ultimately tiring for me to keep caring about, with all their gangster antics and anguish. The story was predictable (even having only a rudimentary understanding of R&J) and the fantasy element completely unnecessary and not really believable as part of a world and a history based heavily on our own reality (but I do prefer an element of believability in my fantasy stories). The descriptions were overwrought in many places, which made the book feel less polished and overly long.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Blood, Death, and Violence

Minor: Gore, Gun violence, Medical trauma, Racism, Sexism, Sexual content, Transphobia, and Xenophobia