Book review: These Violent Delights

These Violent Delights by Chloe Gong

Genre: fantasy

TW: violence, gore, abuse, racism, grief, mentions of drug usage.

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The year is 1926, and Shanghai hums to the tune of debauchery.

A blood feud between two gangs runs the streets red, leaving the city helpless in the grip of chaos. At the heart of it all is eighteen-year-old Juliette Cai, a former flapper who has returned to assume her role as the proud heir of the Scarlet Gang—a network of criminals far above the law. Their only rivals in power are the White Flowers, who have fought the Scarlets for generations. And behind every move is their heir, Roma Montagov, Juliette’s first love…and first betrayal.

But when gangsters on both sides show signs of instability culminating in clawing their own throats out, the people start to whisper. Of a contagion, a madness. Of a monster in the shadows. As the deaths stack up, Juliette and Roma must set their guns—and grudges—aside and work together, for if they can’t stop this mayhem, then there will be no city left for either to rule.

Perfect for fans of The Last Magician and Descendant of the Crane, this heart-stopping debut is an imaginative Romeo and Juliet retelling set in 1920s Shanghai, with rival gangs and a monster in the depths of the Huangpu River.

Goodreads

First of all, do you see how beautiful the cover is?! I know we shouldn’t judge a book by its cover… but isn’t it just so gorgeous!!

These Violent Delights is a book I’ve been thinking of reading for a long time and I finally did as a “reward” for finishing my October tbr (I did it!!)

Anyway… I started this knowing that it’s a book with a beautiful cover… and that a lot of people seemed to like it. Now that I read it, I’m happy that I finally did but at the same time, I’m kinda disappointed… I think I was very hyped about reading it that when it didn’t exactly live up to my expectations–which made me feel a bit bummed. Don’t get me wrong! I enjoyed it, but it just wasn’t ThAt mind blowing…

P.S. I’m extremely busy/stressed with Uni these days, so maybe that affected a bit my reading experience.

The characters were well-described and I could clearly imagine them. I liked reading about their interactions and I really loved the usage of different languages. I LOVE learning new languages and this made me really want to learn Chinese and Russian asap. The tension between Roma and Juliette was very very very present throughout the book.

For me, I thought the story’s pace was kinda slow at some points, where I really struggled to concentrate on what was going on. Thankfully, the whole book was really well-written so that made up for that fact.