Reviews tagging 'Transphobia'

These Violent Delights by Chloe Gong

175 reviews

litliz's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious 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

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Hate crime, Toxic relationship, Confinement, Kidnapping, Medical content, Self harm, Stalking, Suicide, Body horror, Colonisation, Death of parent, Death, Grief, Gun violence, Mass/school shootings, Gore, Bullying, Chronic illness, Dysphoria, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Pandemic/Epidemic, Racism, Transphobia, Violence, and Vomit

elislittlelibrary's review

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious medium-paced

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

5.0

This is (as far as I can remember) the second Romeo and Juliet-retelling that I read and loved. It took me some time to get into this book, but it really paid off! I liked the writing and really loved the setting. The world-building was well done and, even though there is magic involved, the world felt quite realistic. While, as has been mentioned, this is a Romeo and Juliet-retelling, the plot did not feel romance-heavy, which I personally really enjoyed. And the romance plot that was there focused a lot on connection, which I also tend to like. 
There are various plot twists in the book. I did guess some of them (

Paul Dexter, the usage of Doodskus for example

), though this did not take away from the plot, so I didn't mind!
The book puts a strong emphasis on language aspects, as well as the use of different languages (they are used throughout the book, often just words or phrases, sometimes sentences), I LOVED that!
Also, this book ends on a cliffhanger and I really have to read the sequel!

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence and Death

Moderate: Racism, Blood, and Transphobia

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. 

---

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

bookycnidaria's review

adventurous dark funny mysterious sad tense slow-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

3.75

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Emotional abuse, Pandemic/Epidemic, Toxic relationship, Murder, Gun violence, Blood, and Violence

Moderate: Drug use and Transphobia

metalballwheatley's review

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

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

4.0

Romajuliette's alright but I loved Juliette as a character, she's so fun. 

Also this book has great white british man representation. I feel like the content here is really accurate to their culture. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Death, Alcohol, and Gun violence

Moderate: Transphobia, Racism, and Blood

m4rtt4's review

adventurous dark mysterious 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? No

4.5

Secret Shanghai is officially one of my favourite world's I've ever visited, and I'm glad to know the story doesn't end here. I enjoyed almost everything — the monster plotline could have been executed a little better — but I'm only taking 0.5 stars off for that. My absolute favourite thing in addition to the dynamic between Juliette and Roma was

everything about the brain-infesting insects (I'm a biology student...), though I must say the science stuff also felt a bit off and/or too modern for the time, for example the term 'viral' wasn't really used until the 1940s, and what were those machines in Lourens's lab, how did they work?

I need more specific answers, I'm curious — in all seriousness, I'm just a nitpicking nerd. Nevertheless, Gong has done an excellent job researching and creating all this, big kudos to her <3

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation, Death, Murder, Gun violence, Blood, Violence, Gore, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Racism, Body horror, Misogyny, Death of parent, and Medical content

Minor: Drug use, Transphobia, and Alcohol

kylosten's review against another edition

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

3.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Classism, Xenophobia, and Violence

Moderate: Gun violence and Medical content

Minor: Transphobia

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

---

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

thehannahclaire's review

DNF @ 50%

LOVED the premise, wasn’t a fan of the execution outside of the discussion of colonialism and race. I really wanted to feel connected to the characters, but I just wasn’t. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Blood, and Gore

Moderate: Xenophobia, Transphobia, Violence, Gun violence, and Racism

Minor: Deadnaming, Child abuse, Colonisation, and Drug use

snikhtha's review

mysterious slow-paced

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

1.75

This book took me FOREVER to finish. I'm just glad I managed to get it done this year. Good riddance.

This has such a promising plot, but sadly the execution does not live up. The pacing is the obvious culprit. The plot moves at a snail's pace and each chapter barely reveals one minuscule crumb of plot point. It takes forever to get the main plot going, and none of the side plots are interesting enough to make up for it.

The other problem is Roma, and by extension, the White Flowers. They're not nearly as fleshed out as the Cai's, and they get far less screen time. Roma has no real personality besides being the love interest, and Benedikt and Marshall are just... there. In comparison to Juliette's relationships with her cousins, the White Flowers boys just don't measure up. Roma's place within the White Flowers is also murky and the gang just does not seem as threatening in comparison.

Also, the twist villain. It was obvious from the first meeting. I would like to think I wouldn't have a problem with guessing twists, but reading 400 pages just to find out what I guessed all along was anti-climactic to say the least. 

Looks like this series might be DNFd. I can't take another 5 months for just one book.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, and Body horror

Moderate: Transphobia and Xenophobia