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cherrylav 's review for:
These Violent Delights
by Chloe Gong
3.5 stars, leaning to 3 more than 4.
well-written worldbuilding, believable character building & writing. i truly felt the griminess & clutter that is 1920s shanghai through the words.
there are some parts where it, weirdly, was a "show" that felt more like a "tell". too much exposition jumbled in areas, part of me feels that it may have been better if there was just dedicated flashback chapters or starting in the past instead of trying to interlace them with the present. not invested in the romance aspect as much as a romance YA should elicit, no fault of the characters, but i guess roma & juliette felt more like tense colleagues than tense past-lovers.
really good debut, not amazing or breath-taking, but really good. still well-written though, definitely will read the sequel once it's out
well-written worldbuilding, believable character building & writing. i truly felt the griminess & clutter that is 1920s shanghai through the words.
there are some parts where it, weirdly, was a "show" that felt more like a "tell". too much exposition jumbled in areas, part of me feels that it may have been better if there was just dedicated flashback chapters or starting in the past instead of trying to interlace them with the present. not invested in the romance aspect as much as a romance YA should elicit, no fault of the characters, but i guess roma & juliette felt more like tense colleagues than tense past-lovers.
really good debut, not amazing or breath-taking, but really good. still well-written though, definitely will read the sequel once it's out