Reviews with content warning for Animal death - These Violent Delights

Well this is now my favorite Romeo & Juliet retelling ever.

These Violent Delights takes us to a fantasy Shanghai were rival gangs fight over control of the city. As the blood feud rages, outside forces have come to Shanghai to try and take over. It will come down to Juliette Cai and Roma Montagov to figure out what the rumors of a monster and madness mean and who is responsible.

I loved this retelling so much. The way this story differs from the original was masterfully done. I felt like this story had so much more heart and dimension than the original as well. While we still have starcrossed lovers and rival gangs, this book also adds in a magical element of a monster that spreads a plague. At times, it did feel quite gory. And the fact that insects were involved just ups the cringe factor.

I loved these characters and their backstories so much! Juliette is so ruthless and cunning. She is the heir, but she's also working against a lot of misogyny and sexism to ensure she gets her due. Roma is secretly a cinnamon roll, but he looks like he could kill you. I really loved seeing these two work together and how their past actions informed their present. I'm not explaining this well but I just loved all their interactions.

Then there were all the side characters! This book is so rich in setting, culture and character. Like every little thing added up. Even though this was a longer audio, I felt like I sped through it and I can't wait for the sequel!

Rep: Chinese female MC, Korean male MC, Chinese trans female side character, possible MLM side couple, Chinese and Korean supporting cast.

CWs: Alcohol consumption, animal death (insects), blood, colonisation, death, gore, gun violence, injury/injury detail, medical content, misogyny, murder, racism, sexism, violence, war, xenophobia. Moderate: deadnaming, grief, transphobia/transmisia.

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aromarrie's review

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dark mysterious 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? No

4.25

with a book that holds so much promise in exploring even deeper the famous tragic tale of “romeo & juliet”, chloe gong completely exceeded my expectations with such vivid storytelling and such fiery angst that it made my reading journey with these characters absolutely memorable.

a historical fiction this story is, and gong does such an incredible job of making sure this piece of history—Shanghai in the 1920s—wasn’t a complete work of fiction. she shared rather marvelous insight and an in-depth look of how colonialism and power played a hand in shifting Shanghai during this time and what impresses me even further is that she did so with connecting these events to her own characters. romeo & juliet are shakespeare’s creation, yes, but roma & juliette are completely a work of art created in gong’s image. she took these two characters from a classic tale of star-crossed lovers and absolutely knocked it out of the park by completely tearing apart all criticisms that are attached to one of shakespeare’s famous works, and rather highlighting just how tragic this tale lies between not just juliet and her romeo, but between two prominent families within the same city that practically tore themselves apart.

the inclusion of a sort of fantastical element that much more teeters into speculative fiction heightened the tension that made the original love story between romeo & juliet so forbidden, and it goes even deeper to make the overall arcs of roma & juliette to be so high-stakes and incredibly moving. the passion that both of these characters have and the ties they’ve made not just to each other but to other characters as well brought deeper connections to the story and raised the angst bar pretty high once i got to the end of the book. i found the multiple perspectives included in this narrative to be so distinct and well-done, especially with the vivid atmosphere surrounding these characters in Shanghai, and while this story did feel very slow, i don’t have much complaints at all as i am a fan of a slow-moving character study that also relies on political tension so there’s no qualms coming from me.

how descriptive gong was in her storytelling, how imaginative, she was in laying out motivations between all the characters and the shocking reveal that erupts at the very last page was all so smart and exciting. it means a lot to me to see someone so close to my age have such a complex way of bringing her ideas to life, so much so that she’s gotten so much praise and well-deserved insights into how her ideas can stretch on even further once the sequel, “our violent ends” is eventually up to being released. seeing how much work she’s put into this and her making me see beyond what was said to be a satire in shakespeare’s original story, it just goes to show how much deeper these classic works could have gone and how inspirational the characters have become. i absolutely loved this.

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mothman19's review

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adventurous dark funny 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

4.5

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iviarelle's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
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 book is cheesy as heck and I love it. Just mind the content warnings, I'm sure my list isn't comprehensive but check out the main book page's lists, as there's very little this book doesn't get real squicky about. Especially something the content warnings don't include by default: bugs. If you freak out at those "bugs growing inside someone" urban legends, either prepare yourself for some nausea or consider avoiding this one.

These Violent Delights won't be to everyone's tastes, especially if you're the kind of person who reads "What was your name again? Peter? Paris?" "Paul." and rolls your eyes. Every major named character in Romeo and Juliet has a different name here and a slightly different purpose to the story.

But, for all that: I love what Gong has done with each and every one of them, though there are too many for me to list here. I also specifically love that Rosaline is NOT guesting as "Sir Not Appearing In This Film" and actually plays a role along with her trans fraternal twin, Kathleen. There are a lot of twists to the original work here and it's really interesting to me how Gong plays with our expectations, from start to finish.

And I gotta say, I fell for every misdirect and I loved it. Sometimes I start overthinking and figure things out too soon, but this really kept me on my toes until the very end.

Content Warnings

introvertinterrupted's review

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

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