By Svara Jayasinghe
These Violent Delights by Chloe Gong is a Romeo and Juliet-inspired historical fantasy. Taking place in Shanghai in 1926, the streets of China are ruled by two gangs-the Scarlet Gang and the White Flowers. A blood feud between the two that is filled with anger and the need for revenge has turned the once beautiful city into utter mayhem. Eighteen-year-old Juliette Cai, the heir of the Scarlet Gang, has returned from her time away in the United States to fulfill her duties. However, as some sort of madness begins to sweep through the streets of Shanghai, members of each gang alike are found with their throats ripped out, the culprit, every time, being their own hands. As this insanity spreads to every corner of the city, Juliette is forced to team up with the heir of the White Flowers, Roma Montagov. However, the two have a complicated past that runs far deeper than just the blood feud between their two families. Despite this, the pair must set aside their past and personal betrayals to save their city from an inevitable uprising.
I rate this book a 9 out of 10. While Chloe Gong’s Shakespearean yet contemporary writing style received mixed feelings from readers, it was something that I thoroughly enjoyed. Her specific writing style occasionally made it hard to follow- especially at crucial plot points where several different events were taking place-but I often found that it painted a detailed image of the story’s events in my mind. For the most part, I thought the plot to be cleverly crafted and entertaining. Every storyline was well thought-out, and, as far as I could tell, had little to no plot holes or details that didn’t match up with the rest of the story.
Overall, I highly enjoyed These Violent Ends! There were a couple of things I wished were done a bit differently (as I detailed above) but that is mainly just me nitpicking. I would like to issue a word of warning to readers: this book contains heavily graphic details of violence! If you are very squeamish and do not like detailed descriptions of blood and violence, I would recommend staying away from this novel.
If you are somebody who enjoys historical fantasies, vengeful main characters, and lovable side characters, I highly recommend These Violent Delights!