First of all, thank you to the author Chloe Gong and to the publisher Hodder & Stoughton for giving me an Advanced Review Copy of These Violent Delights in return for an honest review.

First of all - it has taken me SO LONG to get to this book, for which I can only apologise. Since I was given a copy of this book in August 2020, Chloe has released a sequel (Our Violent Ends) and has just announced a spinoff. So I am definitely way behind on this one. (I'm aiming to fix this over the next month or so - my NetGalley has been SERIOUSLY neglected.)

These Violent Delights is a retelling of Romeo and Juliet, set in 1920s Shanghai. Juliet is now Juliette Cai, an 18yr old who has recently returned from America and is heir to the Scarlet Gang. Roma Montagov was her first love (and first heartbreak), heir to the White Flowers gang. Both gangs are above the law, using bribery and violence to control their sections of the city. But Shanghai is changing, with the British, French and Americans beginning to take control of the city - with areas off-limits to Chinese nationals. A mysterious illness has begun to take over the city, and both Roma and Juliet are forced to investigate as their gang members begin to succumb.

I was really excited to read These Violent Delights, after hearing lots about it around the internet and on Twitter. I loved the whole concept, particularly the setting, and I usually enjoy a retelling! I really wanted to like this book, but unfortunately, for me it was just an average read.

This isn't an obvious retelling - you could certainly read and enjoy this without having seen (or read) the Shakespeare play. There are some obvious elements, like rival gangs, and some Shakespeare quotes scattered around, but otherwise it's definitely its own story. It's very original, and the main plot isn't what I had expected. But despite being a Romeo and Juliet retelling, it's not a romance. It's primarily a mystery, with Roma and Juliet investigating the sudden pandemic. They end up working together, chasing a mysterious monster that has been seen around the city. Their love story isn't the focus of the story (which I am fine with! I don't really read romance).

There are a lot of political undercurrents here that I enjoyed, and after reading this I looked further into the history of Shanghai because it intrigued me so much. Some of my favourite parts of the novel were these side-plots - I found the sections where Juliet describes her experiences with colonialism and struggling with racism, sexism and reintegrating herself back into Chinese culture after spending so much time in America very interesting!

The plot dragged a lot in the middle, with Juliet and Roma struggling to solve the mystery. It gets a bit repetitive, with them charging in, finding a clue, then spending ages trying to find the next clue, before repeating. The mystery didn't seem very difficult to solve - I figured it out pretty quickly - and we're told Juliet and Roma are smart! This book is around 450 pages, so it's not a short read, either.

I also wasn't sure on the main characters. I loved the backstory and history to Roma and Juliet, but I just couldn't really connect with them. I usually love bad-ass female main characters like Juliet - she felt a little flat and cliché to me. Same with Roma - I just couldn't see what the attraction was or why they had feelings for each other. I guess they just felt a little too bland, and I didn't like that they sounded so modern - I couldn't believe they were living in the 1920s. However, I did really like Benedikt and Marshall's friendship (Roma's best friends) and really enjoyed their banter. I'd definitely like to see more of those two.

Overall this is a great concept - combining 1920s Shanghai with the classic Romeo and Juliet story. But for me, it just didn't live up to my expectations. While it was an enjoyable enough read, the storyline was a bit too slow for my liking and the fairly simple mystery seemed to drag on forever. I would have liked more character development from Roma in particular. There is lots to like here and it meant I learned more about the history of Shanghai — it's just not the five-star read I hoped for.

Could not read due to format - not breaks between paragraphs/chapters etc, loads of random characters! Unreadable copy

This book was fantastic! Inspired by Romeo and a Juliet but set in Shanghai. I loved the main characters and the fantasy elements were excellent.

Right book, wrong time.

Over a year late in reviewing, but I recently picked up TVD in the Waterstones exclusive paperback edition and hi. I am a Juliette Caí fanboi and I will forever pledge me allegiance to the Scarlet Gang.

This book was so good. I loved the setting. I loved the characters. It was wonderfully dramatic in a way that felt authentic. The magic was dark, the descriptions were thrilling. I finished it in one sitting and then immediately read OVE and that was even better, plus I got a ✨hardback✨.

Recommended to everyone.

These Violent Delights is a book that I read over a year ago and have only just go round to reviewing. I loved this book so much but found it so hard to put my thoughts on paper.

I can say that it is a great telling. A story that weaves the best bits of Romeo and Juliet in the mystery. While still oh so seemingly leaving a bit of mystery of the past to be considered and elements that are to be discovered.

I really enjoyed the fantasy side to this book. It added a lot of mystery and was actually only a small part of the story. For me the main part of the story was about family, and believing in yourself and doing the right thing. I also really enjoyed the 1920's feel and it was definitely this that made the book. I also loved the fact that the telling of the story flipped between the two main characters. So we got their perspective and saw everything from both angles. 

The reason why I've not given the book five stars is because I felt that it was too long. And at times I felt it dragged. But the story was told in such a whimsical way that I couldn't put it down no matter how I was feeling. 

I also need to talk about that ending. This is probably the main reason why I couldn't bring myself to review. Because it was such an explosion of an ending and such a cliff hanger that I could not bring myself to think about it. Thank goodness the second book is out now. So that I can find out what has happened and to hopefully have a happy ever after. 

These Violent Delights was a pleasure to read, and I cannot wait to dive into the next book!

This premise was excellent, the book started out strong, loved the rivalries, but for some reason it did not work for me. I think it was too slow for me to care enough to be more invested in it. Not a bad book at all, just not for me.

Brilliant. Brilliant. Brilliant. Brilliant. Brilliant. Brilliant. Brilliant. Brilliant. Brilliant. Brilliant. Brilliant. Brilliant. Brilliant. Brilliant. Brilliant.

For romeo and juliet retelling, this book is definitely not what I expected - in a good way! As a book club choice, this isn't my usual kind of read but I was suitably intrigued by the addition of the monster and the insect plague that resulted in a lot of unexpected bloodshed! I will definitely be checking out the sequel!

Honestly this was everything I could of wanted! I love the Rome and Juliet aspect but also how is was completely unique. I think my only issue MAY be the pacing, but that ending was INCREDIBLE!

Amazing. This is how you do fantasy. What a beautiful world building. I am in awe. This book is hyped for a reason. Loved it.

I was provided this as an arc by the publishers in exchange of an honest review.

I really started off living this and I’m not sure what happened. I think the fact that there are two povs really muddied the waters for me? No pun intended given the plot. I liked all of the elements that focused on Chinese culture and that of Shanghai and the real political turmoil of the time period. I wanted to know more, and yet we don’t really get to know Juliette’s culture or her family well. We only really know her cousins, and even then it’s plainly Kathleen. Who is awesome by the way.

The problem is that Juliette and Roma have a lot of secondary characters around both of them and their own plots, that they barely interact with one another. Perhaps if I didn’t know it was meant to be a Romeo and Juliette romance? I kept waiting for when they’d actually spend any time together that lasted more than a few minutes. I didn’t feel like I got to know any of the side characters either given the changing points of view.

Overall I just think there was a lot going on in this and as a result I didn’t enjoy it. It’s not bad but it didn’t make me care about anyone. I won’t be continuing the series but I will be keeping an eye out for more of Gong’s work.

I can see why so many people loved this because I am OBSESSED with it. The characters are beautifully developed and I just want more!

*I received an ARC via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Thanks for the free book!*

I enjoyed this Romeo & Juliet version set in Hong Kong, where the two starcrossed lovers are gangsters and have to fight a magical madness spreading in the city. While it was mostly entertaining, the book was a bit too long and boring for me. As someone who doesn't really like Romeo & Juliet, I have to admit that this was less insta love and more adult, which I enjoyed.

Cliffhanger galore at the end which I also didn't like, but well done overall. Compelling story, complex and more than just morally grey characters, and I liked Hong Kong as the setting.

3.5 stars

A unique take on the Romeo and Juliette retelling with unexpected characters that defy stereotypes. The Shanghai setting is atmospheric and the fights are meticulously choreographed, which make this a very chaotic and addictive read. Full video review - https://youtu.be/_t31j9tJWF4

I definitely enjoyed this book a lot more than I expected to.

The fantasy elements in this book are not what you would expect them to be, in fact I think it's probably better suited in another genre, but what one, I couldn't decide. It's very much centred around the politics of the setting and who controls the city, and what this means when trying to uncover the mystery, which is something that I surprisingly enjoyed as political books aren't really my thing.

The romance was interesting in this book, and I'm excited for the next book to see how the relationship between Roma and Juliette develops.

You don't experience any info dumps in the book, and you do have to work a bit to fully understand all the political parties in the city, who works for who etc, but I think this is beneficial to the duology, as there will hopefully be less of this in book 2, and more action.

I've rated this a 3,5, but I'm absolutely keen to keep reading the series, and I'm excited for what Chloe Gong does next.

I absolutely loved These Violent Delights!

The setting - Shanghai in the 1920s - was described so vividly and atmospheric.

Juliette and Roma were amazing protagonists, with Juliette being a cunning badass and Roma being her softer and more caring counterpart.
They had a great dynamic and I loved reading about their romance.

The plot itself was intriguing, but I won’t go more into it because of spoilers.

Overall I highly recommend this book and am desperate for the sequel.

This novel was all about the characters for me, especially Miss Juliette. She was everything I could ever want in a female lead. Sassy, vunerable, brave. Absolute perfection. I though the book had such a fantastically rendered cast of secondary characters too, so much so that I could absolutely read entire novels set in their perspectives!

Gong writes with such sumptuous prose that beautifully captured the seductive atmosphere of 1920's Shanghai, without shying away from the stark realities of its citizens during this period. It felt steeped in so much history.

The slow burn lovers-to-enemies-to-lovers romance was the perfect blend of sexy, tense, romantic and heart wrenching. An absolute triumph of a debut!

I wanted to love this book with my whole heart, I really did. I don’t know whether I just set my expectations too high or what but I just couldn’t connect with this one.
I didn’t really feel like I got the intense Roma and Juliette romance I was promised, I didn’t feel the desperate high stakes, or the dangerous blood feud. It all fell a bit flat for me.
I felt like very little actually happened? A lot of the interesting plot points happened prior to the book starting and we were just told in passing that this happened and that happened and Roma and Juliette fell in love four years ago and that was that, here we are... I didn’t see the passion or deep hatred that I assumed would be between Roma and Juliette, honestly it seemed there was very little there at all.
The plot, again, felt quite lacking. A monster enters Shanghai, infecting people, will the White Flowers and Scarlett Gang put their hatred aside to save Shanghai? That’s essentially the crux of the plot and the rest seemed predictable.
Wanted to love it, I’m sure many will. But it didn’t feel like the epic 1920’s slow burn Romeo and Juliette retelling I was promised.
2.5 rounded up to 3.

This was a book I really thought I would love, and there were certainly elements of the book that I really enjoyed but overall, I found it very hard to fall into the story, it felt very slow and drawn out and I just couldn't seem to really get the story to capture me the way I wanted it too.

The setting of Shanghai is fantastic, and there's so much political upheaval to consider in the story - not only are we learning about the rival gangs and all the warfare that comes with the blood feud but there is also the rising threat of the Communist Party, as well as the lurking Nationalists. And then on top of that, there's also a really interesting exploration of colonisation in this book that I think was done really well. The white man of England, France and even Russia has infiltrated the streets of Shanghai and has even cut away a portion of the city from its real inhabitant. The real monster in the story is the white man and the white man ideal of what is right and what is wrong, not the literal monster stalking the streets.

I liked learning about the Scarlets and the White Flowers though I agree with other reviewers that it feels like we got to know a lot more about the Scarlets. I can only presume there will be a bigger focus on the White Flowers in the second book. Juliette and Roma were....okay for me. I felt at times they were outshone by the side characters; Kathleen, Benedickt and Marshall. I actually felt more engaged reading about these characters than our main enemies to lovers. Call me bloodthirsty as well but I always have a roll my eyes moment when there's a character who won't kill in these kind of novels (Roma) when sometimes deposing of someone will literally save your life. I liked that Juliette was much more 'gangster' in that she knew sometimes you had to kill to get things done properly.

I just found it very hard to invest myself fully in this story- I found myself wandering off mid-chapter, I found that I was really motivated to really care about the main characters and overall my enjoyment level while reading it was low. I definitely appreciate lot of the themes in this book and I think they were done well, I just didn't have a good reading time.

These Violent Delights by Chloe Gong is a Romeo and Juliet retelling set in 1920s Shanghai, and honestly that was all I needed to know to be excited about it. I love a retelling of a well known tale, especially if that retelling makes the story more diverse. In this version we follow Juliette Cai, who has returned to her home of Shanghai after living in America for several years to retake her role as heir to the Scarlet Gang. But returning means dealing with things she's been trying to forget; including running into her first love Roma Montagov, heir to rival gang the White Flowers, and facing their fraught past. But when a mysterious illness means that people on both sides of the gang divide start ripping their own throats out, Juliette and Roma must work together to puzzle out the mystery at the heart of their city, or risk everything they know being torn apart.
I can honestly say I wasn't expecting too much from this except for it to be a fun quick read, but I got some much more than that, the synopsis really doesn't do this book justice! This book is a total mix of genres, young adult, historical, romance, with a dash of sci-fi, and moments that almost made me feel like we were teetering on the edge of fantasy, but thankfully Gong handles this is such a interesting and fun way. This book isn't all about the relationship between Juliette and Roma, and even though it's an interesting take of the aftermath of their love affair I think it benefits from having such an intriguing plot to propel you through the novel. I don't want to give too much away because discovering the mystery for myself was one of the parts of this that I loved, but it was fast-paced, dark, and delicately left clues throughout the narrative without it being spoon-fed to the reader, nor made too hard that you couldn't begin to guess yourself as the plot developed.
The aesthetics and diversity in this novel were really well-handled, clearly showing another example of how important it is to have own voice narratives in the book industry. Shanghai felt vivid and real to me as a reader who has never been, and the 1920s aspect gave it a fun interesting flare which heightened the affective imagery even more. Gong even managed to balance all this and dynamic interesting characters! Juliette is reimagined as a knife-wielding, scary, complex woman, who's ability to lead a crime syndicate you never doubt. I liked the balance of her being confident in her femininity while also being what you may call a typical "badass" YA female lead. Quite often in novels like this female characters are made to abandon typically female things, and even most emotions, to be considered worthy of the title of "badass" but thankfully Juliette is a character who is unashamedly both. She also deals with being often treated like a foreigner in her own country while enduring the pressure to be this American woman with an American education to get people to respect her, which just adds another layer of depth to her story and development. She was the most memorable character throughout the entire book and has stuck with me the most. But Gong also managed to bring more development to the side characters from Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, including a brewing m/m romance and a trans character. All of whom I hope play a bigger part in the sequel!
Roma was probably the only character that I felt a little lacklustre about, and in retrospect that is probably only because the others shined so much. He's quiet and introspective, and a refreshing take on the usual Romeo figure I feel like retellings give us. I do hope he gets more development in the sequel as I definitely see the potential of this character but for now he wasn't someone who stuck much in my mind. I also didn't feel too much of his Russian culture, not in the way you felt the Chinese and American influences on Juliette and her struggle with both. It was an interesting element, but again I feel like it could've been explored in more detail to give an interesting contrast to the Shanghai setting and provide a little more character to Roma.
Overall I did enjoy the romance between Roma and Juliette. I liked the fact that they had a history and we were watching the aftermath; the tension between them was great and it really helped keep that when they were simultaneously drawn to each other and yet were pushing each other away the whole time. I do wish we got more of their back story, more of what they were like before Juliette left, I think it would've given just that extra bit of detail that their story needed. At first it did just feel like we were thrown into the middle and expected to know their history, even though we didn't and we're drip fed it quite slowly, so I was a little confused at first. I was routing for them and enjoyed their encounters, but I wasn't as invested as I think I could've been. As I hope I am in Our Violent Ends.
Overall this book is an excellent example of a diverse YA novel that retells a familiar tale in a fun, unique way. I really enjoyed my time reading it and am excited for the sequel, but there are definitely things I'm hoping it improves upon in terms of the relationships between the characters.