Reviews with content warning for Homophobia - These Violent Delights

I cannot gush enough about how much I love the writing—it's simply gorgeous. It took a little bit of time to fall in love with the world and its characters, but when I did, I was hooked on them. They are all falling apart at the seams, ready to break when the city does, but I cannot help but be in awe at what a spectacle it would be when they do. There are some aspects of this book that bother me.

For example, Marshall's "death"—I adore him, but I feel like he should've actually died. I also find the whole thing with Dexter Walter being the Larkspur a little abrupt.

But, despite that, I enjoyed it very, very much.

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eisenbuns's review against another edition

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I really hated the writing. I found it inconsistent and shallow. When I finally got frustrated enough, I flipped to the end of the book and saw

that we end with Mercutio/Marshall's death, which I could almost excuse, but it smacked of burying the gays

. It also ends with a cheeky "To be continued" and I just wasn't having it. Life is too short for another bad Romeo & Juliet retelling, especially one that wants so badly to be Baz Luhrmann's Romeo + Juliet. Also huge trigger warning for suicide and self-mutilation. It's a no from me.

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plantskindaperson's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional funny inspiring sad 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

TEARS. whenever i think about it makes me sad. i still love this book so much. it made me feel every emotion under the sun.

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sarah984's review against another edition

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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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