Reviews with content warning for Abandonment - These Violent Delights

These Violent Delights is a re-imagining of Romeo and Juliet that doesn't follow the structure, depending on who you are that might make or break how enjoyable the book is. Despite that I don't think that it takes away from Gong's story at all. For me she was able to bring 1920s Shanghai to life and make me enjoy Romeo and Juliet much more than I did in class.

Writing: The writing and sentence structure makes it hard to read at times. There are long sentences full of description which while needed I feel could've been organized in a more processable way. Gong makes up for it though with her vivid word choice.

LGBTQ+: Not only do we have positive Transgender rep we also have possible bisexual/gay rep on both sides?? I think it's great because it seemed organic especially on Kathleen's side and how people act towards her, even her own parents and the people she interacted with before she transitioned.

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k_aro's review against another edition

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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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