Reviews tagging 'Child death'

Our Violent Ends by Chloe Gong

18 reviews

ghostsversion's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious reflective fast-paced

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

4.0

Okay this was far better. Not by a lot but still. Honestly it’s probably the fact that we already knew the characters so there was no reason to waste time on unnecessary descriptions. Straight to the chase. Even when

we find out that Marshall’s father is the Nationalist General or that Rosalind is the traitor

it feels more gradual. Although I will say I did not expect a re-enactment of

the war scene from ACOTAR . You know which one.

Otherwise I'd say this has definitely given me hope for the next books in this series.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Kidnapping, War, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Vomit, Xenophobia, Child death, Cursing, Grief, Blood, Medical content, Violence, Death, and Gore

Moderate: Death of parent, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt, and Misogyny

emilywemily6's review against another edition

adventurous hopeful 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

4.5

I really enjoyed this book, but for some reason the first third of it felt really slow, like nothing was happening with the plot or the characters. I adore the entire cast and while the ending is heartbreakingly beautiful it has less weight for me because I feel like we are mislead and I don’t have to wait to read more books in this world. The tension of this love story against all odds is so good. I appreciated that Juliette and Roma couldn’t fix everything happening to their city during this political upheaval. I loved seeing the growth and change in these characters as their world was changing.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Death, Gore, Mass/school shootings, Torture, Murder, Suicidal thoughts, Grief, War, Blood, and Violence

Moderate: Misogyny, Child death, Sexual content, Child abuse, and Homophobia

ashbreadin's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny inspiring 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? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Blood, Death, and Child death

Moderate: War, Torture, Murder, Homophobia, Drug use, Violence, Alcohol, Suicide, Transphobia, and Death

linblythe_pub22's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful 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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence and Blood

Moderate: Classism, Murder, Kidnapping, Grief, Death, Child death, and Violence

Minor: Colonisation, Cursing, and Alcohol

clairew97's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional sad tense 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Cursing, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Colonisation, Alcohol, Child death, Grief, Blood, Death, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Murder, Body horror, Gore, Panic attacks/disorders, Torture, and Violence

nathat06's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad 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? It's complicated

5.0

This is my new favorite book. Nothing else can top this.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence and Death

Minor: Child death

maladaptivedaydreams's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Gore, Suicidal thoughts, Death, Gun violence, Mass/school shootings, Violence, Body horror, and Fire/Fire injury

sunlit_music's review against another edition

dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring 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? Yes

5.0

This is one of the greatest books I've ever read, and it nearly broke me emotionally. 

Chloe Gong writes about colonialism and war so passionately and intelligently, and seeing how civil war was tearing Shanghai and other parts of China apart was just devastating. 

The power shifts and politics are well set up, unpredictable and extremely clever. There's nuanced portrayals of racism, sexism and lgbt+ themes. Not a single word is wasted. 

The prose is beautiful, brutal, energetic and flowing. Dialogue moves seamlessly and the characters' banter is witty and clever. 

I just did not want to walk away from the characters, I love them so much. 

All the characters are so layered and nuanced, and change over time like real people, I feel like I know them. 

Roma and Juliet's sacrificed so much, I just wanted them to be happy together and alive, but the tragic ending for them made sense, even though it's heartbreaking. 

Alisa is so lovable, she lifts my mood. I don't know if there's going to be a sequel about her, but if there is, I'd totally read it. 

Benedikt and Marshall are so incredible and love each other so much. They risk their lives for each other and their friends and are so tender and funny with each other. I just can't express how much I love them. 

Kathleen is selfless, fierce and unstoppable, and she is fantastic. She is so underrated. 

Plotting was phenomenal, with triumph and tragedy stemming from the characters' actions. All believable, all heartbreaking. 

Descriptions of Shanghai are so raw, heartfelt and sincere. Also loved the contrast the rural town of Kunlon presented, it sounded like such a beautiful and peaceful place. 

The ending is devastating, but also hopeful in a way. All is not lost, and Roma and Juliette really did save many lives.  

I love how tenderly and sensitively this book portrays grief and loss, and how Roma and Juliette are determined to end their families' toxic blood feud. 

The ending totally wrecked me, but it was worth it. This book is a fitting conclusion to the 'These Violent Delights' duology and a worthy retelling of Romeo and Juliet. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Violence, Death, Colonisation, Medical content, and Suicide

Minor: Child death

kdailyreads's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

This was a striking and engrossing book. I don’t want to say I enjoyed this second book more than the first one, because there is a lot of dark and heartbreaking things that happen and I feel odd saying I “enjoyed” it. I was definitely highly engaged. I wanted to read this book whenever I had a free moment. I wanted to read it when I didn’t have a free moment. I felt like the first book in this duology was a little slow in pace at first, whereas this second one felt nonstop the whole time. This book is somehow both extremely plot-driven and character-driven, and both the plot and the characters destroyed me. Even though I knew this was a retelling of Romeo and Juliet, I wanted to know so badly what would happen. How close of a retelling it would be - would the ending be faithful? Or would Roma and Juliette (as I found myself hoping) survive somehow? And of course, I wanted to learn the answers to this retelling’s specific questions and mysteries. The book ends on a heart wrenching, but still somehow hopeful note. Our Violent Ends is incredibly well-written. I will be reading anything and everything else Chloe Gong writes. I also greatly appreciated the author’s notes at the end of both books discussing historical context, and am interested to learn more about this time period in Chinese history. 

If you read this book (or the first one), be sure to look for a complete list of content/trigger warnings because there are many. Some major ones - gun violence, self-harm (due to monsters), violence to children, fire, neglect, and torture.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Death of parent, Torture, Self harm, Blood, and Gun violence

claudiamacpherson's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful sad tense medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Blood, Suicide attempt, Murder, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Colonisation, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Grief, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, and Violence

Minor: Child death, Cursing, Alcohol, Drug use, Kidnapping, and Sexual content