Reviews tagging 'Outing'

These Violent Delights by Chloe Gong

3 reviews

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

k_aro's review against another edition

adventurous dark hopeful mysterious sad 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

3.5

Whoo! These Violent Delights is certainly not what I was expecting, and I do not mean that in a bad way. I mean, when someone comes up to you and tells you about a "Romeo and Juliet retelling set in 1920s Shanghai as gangsters", it definitely gives someone a certain image.

Anyways, I liked it! It's not a Romeo and Juliet retelling in the traditional sense, so per my English teacher's ask, I do not think it is a good prelude to Romeo and Juliet. It like, barely follows the Romeo and Juliet plotline.

The characters are a lot of fun, though I find Juliette to be a little bland in terms of how she talks about herself—like, obviously sexism is something that would face a would-be heiress of a gangster empire in the 1920s, it just feels a little trite (as a narrative, as a narrative device, etc). I also wish she was allowed to be angrier and kill more people, but I just like characters who are like that.

There's also something that I'm not entirely a fan of, which is how much (textually) Juliette pines for Roma but it isn't so much that way in the inverse; trust me, I am very much a fan of the whole "pining for each other but for one reason or another shouldn't", but I've read enough fanfic (and just like... books lol) that if only one half, and especially if that one half is the female half in a straight relationship, it doesn't make me really happy. Something about how overly emotional women are, I guess? Seems to confirm the things Juliette is fighting against, metatextually (not that she shouldn't be emotional, but given that Roma isn't showered with description on description of how badly he pines, it feels... a little unbalanced).

On a lighter note, Roma's a lot of fun! I like his character, it very much falls into a pattern of how I enjoy my male characters (tightly controlled until pushed to the brink, which could also just be my enjoyment of characters who go nuts). 

Marshall is a lot of fun! He's very Karma Akabane-esque, and I mean that only as the highest of compliments, because Karma Akabane is like... my original comfort character haha.

Anyways. It's an enjoyable book. But I think I'd recommend other books before this one.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Body horror, Colonisation, Death, Death of parent, Drug use, Gore, Grief, Gun violence, Blood, Domestic abuse, Murder, Self harm, Transphobia, and Violence

Moderate: Abandonment, Deadnaming, Medical content, Misogyny, Outing, and Xenophobia

emsavors's review

adventurous dark mysterious sad tense

• 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Colonisation, Deadnaming, Death, Death of parent, Gore, Grief, Gun violence, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Mass/school shootings, Medical content, Medical trauma, Murder, Outing, Racism, Transphobia, and Violence