A review by pages_with_panda
These Violent Delights by Chloe Gong

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

"This city is filthy and deep in the thrall of unending sin, so saturated with the kiss of decadence that the sky threatens to buckle and crush all those living vivaciously beneath it in punishment." 

This is the story of Romeo and Juliet killing a monster in 1920s gangster-run Shaghai. Gong does an amazing job of describing the city as alive, and as its own character with its own desires.

The story is slow-paced and Gong takes her time to describe the setting but I loved it - it's poetic, just as a Shakespeare retelling should be. The relationship between the characters is revealed slowly, through the POVs of each characters which I liked. It was a bit confusing to follow some of the politics or the characters but if you stick through it it starts to make sense.

The characters are a diverse mix as well. For being a historical fantasy, we have LGBTQIA+ rep. that I loved.

I loved the forced alliance between Roma and Juliette as well and the slow-burn between their relationship, but this is not a romance. They're relationship is not the main point of the story. There's a mystery going on within the city that they're trying to solve. 

The ending was a huge cliff-hanger and I can't wait to start reading the 2nd one! 

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