These Violent Delights was one of my most anticipated books of fall 2020, so I was really excited when I started this book. And I couldn't be more surprised with how different this book actually was, from what I was expecting. This is a re-telling of Romeo and Juliet, and that was the main reason why I was so drawn to this book. Shanghai is ruled by gangs, Scarlet Gang and White Flowers. These gangs are willing to do anything to destroy the other one, and so are their heirs. Juliette, and Roma. They loved each other before. Before he... betrayed her. However, her revenge has to wait. There's something dark and evil hiding in Shanghai streets, something that makes people go crazy and kill themselves. Juliette and Roma have no other choice but to cooperate, for the sake of their people and Shanghai. They have to find out what's happening and fast.

The plot of this book is so gripping that I had a problem to stop reading because I wanted to know what will happen next. I loved the combination of slow-burn romance between Roma and Juliette, mixed with a detective plot and some dark plot twists, mainly from their pasts.

The main characters, Roma and Juliette, were immediately my favorites. I loved how strong, brave, and powerful Juliette was, as a perfect example of a great female character that I want more of! And I can say the same about Roma, who surprised me only in a good way. Though he was a bit mysterious at the beginning, I loved how soft-hearted and dedicated he actually was. There were also some great side characters, that would deserve more space, like Juliette's cousin Rosalind or Benedikt.

I adored Gong's writing because the story was so easy to read, yet full of beautiful scenes that I won't forget. It definitely made me look forward to her other books, and to the sequel of These Violent Delights. After this, I truly believe that it will be even better than the first book.

Overall, I just have to recommend These Violent Delights. In fact, if you haven't read it yet, you should read it asap. It's a brilliant story that deserves your attention, believe me.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an arc in exchange for an honest review.

A reimagining of Romeo and Juliette transported to glittering 1920s Shanghai - I couldn't ask for more really!! Just a fantastical alternate history with sci fi and gangs with the twistiest of plot twists!! I really enjoyed this world Chloe Gong created and only wish we'd seen more of it.

Like many others, I had heard brilliant things about this book and was really looking forward to reading it. Sadly it did not meet my expectations and I found I was having to force myself to pick it up.
I was expecting a fast paced and tension filled retelling and this did not hit the mark, in some areas it was easy to jump paragraphs because the pacing had slowed so much. A real shame as I was so looking forward to this,

I will definitely keep an eye on Gong in the future as there is true potential and I hope to enjoy her next work far more.

I really enjoyed this and a brilliant debut from Gong. It wasn't quite what I was expecting having anticipated this book very much, but still very enjoyable. Excited to see where this series goes from here.

I couldn't read this book because of the pdf format. My eyesight is really bad.

Please make these e files more accessible for readers. pdf can't literally be adjusted in font or size which is so hard for my already weak eyesight. So many readers have had a hard time with pdfs because of how they are so difficult to read. And mostly end up not being able to read those e-arcs given to them.

Ahh so please, please we all shall be very thankful if you take this into consideration. Best regards, readers everywhere. Thank you so much for your time.

REVIEW

These Violent Delights / Chloe Gong

Reimaginings of the classics have become standard fare in the young adult and fantasy book world, Night Spinner from Addie Thorley took on The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Renée Ahdieh tackled the epic One Thousand And One Nights and Anna K. from Jenny Lee reinvigorated the classic Anna Karenina from Tolstoy. To add to this plethora of brilliant reimaginings is one of this years must reads, These Violent Delights from Chloe Gong who reinterprets Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet with spectacular aplomb.

Transporting the Verona action to the steamy, sultry, decadent atmosphere of 1920s Shanghai, the book has all the elements you would expect, forbidden love, madness, warring families, death and much more including some intriguing supernatural elements. In addition to this there is some great historical background from Gong revealing much on the foundations of the glittering Shanghai. Plus there is great diversity in the book with some great LGBTQ representation.

These Violent Delights is beautifully written and will wrap you up and pull you deep into it’s decadent layers. The ending is a killer and will have you desperately counting down the days until the next book.

An assault on the senses. Decadent perfection ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ out of five

Thanks to Hodder & Stoughton and NetGalley for the Advance Review Copy in exchange for an honest review.

An enemies to lovers reimagining of Romeo and Juliet set in 1920s Shanghai? Like any sane person I thought that sounded pretty cool. It's not simple story transfer by any means however, there are significant plot changes and the two main characters Roma and Juliette knew each other in their mid-teens (the book takes place 4 years after their initial meeting) so there's enough here that is fresh and new.

Juliette is the heir to the Scarlets and Roma is the heir to the White Flowers. The two gangs have a death grip on the city of Shanghai and predictably loathe one another. So far, so familiar. Juliette is a young Chinese woman who spent much of her formative years in America so has a very different outlook to some of her other family members. She also wears a lot of beaded dresses for some reason. Going out to a burlesque club? Beaded dress. Going out on a dangerous reconnaissance mission? Beaded dress! Going to assassinate someone? Beaded dress of course.

The story itself is...absolutely fine. It definitely suffers from some pacing issues and there's lots of fetch quest filler but I didn't find myself getting bored. I was pretty engrossed from start to finish to be honest. The main issue I had was with the central conflicts, it all just felt a bit busy. There was a supernatural element and an element firmly grounded in real history and I just didn't feel they worked very well together. The whole thing with the insects was just a bit weird although I did get a laugh out of the fact that Juliette's product saturated hair made it impenetrable to the killer lice? Yeah there are killer lice in this book and it is gross. I think it would have worked better with just one central conflict be it the rivalry between gangs, the communist uprising or the supernatural element as opposed to all three.

The enemies to lovers aspect is rather slow burn which I am not against but I just wasn't feeling the love from Roma's side of the pairing. I understood why Juliette was so cut up about their relationship but I didn't get the sense that Roma was even that bothered. Perhaps it was an issue with his characterisation as I struggled to connect with or visualise his character at all. I didn't really "get" him. I think if I had felt more insight into his character then I might have been able to buy into the love story aspect of the book.

I was surprised to get to the end of this book and realise it was going to be part of a series. I think it would have worked perfectly as a standalone but it seems standalone YA books are a rare breed these days. There were some plot points that didn't go anywhere. What was Rosalind in such a big humpf about? Who was the traitor? What's the deal with Kathleen? Perhaps these will be resolved in the next book(s?). Maybe the sequel will follow the predictable pattern where the conflict between the two lovers is reset with the other character taking their turn to be pissed off and angsty but time will tell.

I received a free ecopy of this book in return for an honest review. Many thanks to Hodder & Stoughton and to NetGalley for the opportunity.

This book is a retelling of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. Not the first retelling, but a particularly unique one for some very specific reasons. Unless there’s another version with a river monster as part of the plot, or I missed it in the original play because it was buried in the archaic English.

This retelling is set in 1920s Shanghai, where violence constantly erupts between the Chinese and Russian gangs, where the Communists trying to unionise the workforce and where the European merchants treating the Chinese population like a minority in their own country. Juliette Cai is the heir to the Chinese ‘Scarlet’ gang. Roma Montagov, the heir to the Russian ‘White Flowers’. Though previously close, they became estranged following attacks on both sides apparently initiated by Roma. When a plague begins to attack the local population, decimating both gangs, the two must join forces to investigate. This collusion, however, must be kept secret, at the cost of their lives.

I love that of the two, Roma is the gentler, less violent one, whereas Juliette is tough and business-like. It is sometimes true in life, that a woman in a man’s world must be tougher, but often fiction goes with a stereotype of female softness underneath a steel exterior. Juliette, here is hard core though. She does what needs to be done and doesn’t dwell on it. In contrast Roma is quite a tender soul, forced into violence in order to protect those close to him, but always looking for a better way.

I was quite intrigued by the friends on both sides. Juliet’s cousin, Kathleen, is a transexual, forced into posing as her own dead sister in order to live how she wishes. I felt like I wanted to know more about how she dealt with the alteration of power and prejudice compared with her early life. I desperately wanted to get to know Roma’s friends, Marshall and Benedikt better. I liked what I saw of them, and wanted to know more about their relationship with Roma and with each other, and why they were different from others of the White Flower gang.

I feel we do need to talk about the ‘ick’ factor. There are some seriously graphic and stomach churning scenes related to the plague in this book. Think more James Herbert than William Shakespeare. You are not going to want to be snacking during those scenes. This book could easily have been marketed in the horror section. I know I’m not the only reader to have been caught off guard by this aspect which I felt was downplayed in the descriptions.

As you can tell by my rating I did enjoy this book, but I felt it had been misrepresented somewhat. This wasn’t some soft romance. The romance was was there but it was buried in a hard core of aggression and some truly gross descriptions. This book doesn’t pull any punches and though at times it felt like hard work, it was worth it. If you aren’t worried about the odd stomach-churning scene, and you want a historical romance that embraces the violence of the times, this is a book you will enjoy.

The buzz? The hype? The excitement? IT'S ALL REAL.

4.5 stars, bumped up for that fantastic last 30% that had me sweating and swearing in the middle of the night.

My Highlights:

🌼 The concept! A Romeo-and-Juliet remix set in a 1920s Shanghai that's torn apart by rival gangs, a blood feud, imperial powers, mysterious deaths and a monster lurking in the Huangpu River.
🌹 An alternate historical sci-fi mystery that'll keep you on the edge.
🌼 Featured tropes: second-chance romance, star-crossed lovers, fierce girl/fierce (secretly soft) boy, friends-to-lovers-to-enemies-to-???
🌹 A scathing, unflinching portrayal of colonialism and imperialism in 1920s Shanghai in the aftermath of the opium wars.
🌼 Plot twists I did NOT see coming.
🌹 Juliette Cai.

Also, if you're squeamish about insects....prepare yourself 💀

I really enjoyed this book. The characters are well rounded and very interesting. The way Chloe has written it is fantastic, the right amount of descriptions and dialogue kept my gripped throughout the whole thing.

I found it fascinating how the book could feel a certain way whilst going through an action scene, and then i could feel the aspects of a romance. I'm really looking forward to reading more of Chloe's work.

I've been wanting to read this book for so long! It was one of my most anticipated release of the year. Unfortunatelly I was overall really dispointed.
Before talking of what I did not like, let's talk about what I really enjoyed! First, it's an ownvoice AND a retelling. I knew from the begining that I would be interested: Romeo and Juliet but in Shangai? Yes Yes and Yes. Besides, the retelling was really interesting and I love how the author get inspired but not too much by the original work!

The themes are really important and the way Chloe Gong conveyed messages (about colonization for example) through the plot is really well done.

Unfortunately what got me lost then annoyed is the multiplication of the point of view. According to me some were really not necessary and it made the story chopped. Everytime I wanted to knox more I was cut by a point of view. And the latter seems to bring nothing to the plot.
The other thing that I lacked was the romantic tension between out two main characters. I was really expecting more because it's a retelling of Romeo and Juliet so my expectations were high and unfortunatelly this book did not meet them.

I have to say that I was really excited for this book. I mean a retelling of Romeo and Juliet with a diverse twist to it? Yes please. However for me I felt it wasn't just right. The characters were fine but I found that the chemistry wasn't all there, the pacing of the book was also quite slow in places and that I found I could easily put the book down.
I did however enjoy the storyline and I will say the characters individually were absolutely great I found that when they weren't interacting together there was more depth to them.

A good debut book.

I was really looking forward to that book but unfortunately i didn't enjoy it
I wasn't a fan of the writing style and the story was different from what i was expecting from the synopsis

"These violent delights have violent ends
And in their triumph die, like fire and power,
Which, as they kiss, consume" - Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet.

The Violent Delights is a Romeo and Juliet retelling set in a 1920s Shanghai. It features two rival gangs, The Scarlet Gang run by the Cais and The White Flowers run by the Montagovs who have been in a blood fued for years. When a mysterious madness and rumors of a monster arrive in Shangtai, Juliette Cai and Roma Montagov, heirs to the gangs and ex-lovers, try to set aside their feud and work together to save their city.

This was simply glorious. The premise of two rival gangs, a monster and a mysterious madness killing half the city, two ex-lovers working together to save the city... Just amazing! The writing was beautiful and immediately pulls you in. The story starts off with a bang and keeps you intrigued through the end. The betrayals and distrust makes that tensions are running high and that makes you even more hooked to the story.

The chemistry between the characters is the best and results in rooting for all of them. The ending left me absolutely speechless and can I just please have the sequel now?!

I really enjoyed this!! I didn't expect it to have a fantasy aspect nor it being this gory, but I enjoyed it nonetheless. I liked the historical aspect - it was really interesting to read about Shanghai in that time period. I also of course loved reading about the characters!! THE YEARNING! I cannot wait for the next book because THAT ENDING WAS BRUTAL WHAT

Chloe Gong’s YA debut These Violent Delights is a fairly violent fantasy set in 1920s Shanghai with very deliberate and obvious echoes of Romeo and Juliette. The mix of influences and styles seems like an attempt to mash all of Gong’s loves into a single narrative. And when it is not too distracting, it works.
Juliette Cai is the heir to Shanghai’s Chinese-run Scarlet Gang. She has just returned from four years in New York, a place she fled to after a brutal attack by the Scarlet’s arch enemies the Russian-run White Flower Gang. The White Flower Gang is run by the Montagov family, and the heir to that empire is Roma, who four years before had been in a secret relationship with Juliette. At this point, the linkages to Romeo and Juliette are more than obvious, and do not take the introduction of Roma’s friend Benedikt or Juliette’s cousins Rosalind and Kathleen. But this story only uses the names, blood-feud family enmity and some unrequited sexual tension between Roma and Juliette, as the background to a totally different tale.
That tale involves a monster that seems to emerge from the river, a spreading madness that has people ripping out their own throats (hence the violence), and political tensions in Shanghai involving the gangs, foreign interests and the rise of the Communists. Roma and Juliette, despite their mistrust of each other, both family-based and personal, are brought together to investigate the cause of the spreading madness in the city. That investigation is made more critical when Roma’s young sister Alisa is struck down with the madness and has to be sedated to prevent her taking her own life. The bulk of the story then is this investigation made more difficult by the growing tensions on the streets of Shanghai.
As noted above, the links to Romeo and Juliette in this context while interesting (for example trying to pick how Gong has reinterpreted some of the quotes and references) can be distracting. The milieu and story that Gong has developed is interesting enough without this additional layer. In some ways it feels like a shorthand way of creating backstory for the two main characters. It occasionally feels like this is Gong’s attempt to imagine a sequel to Romeo and Juliette that is set four years later and imagines that rather than dying the two were given time to cool off and reset. But that would be ignoring aspects such as townsfolk ripping their own throats out or the fact that the Juliette in this story is a kick-arse, gun wielding investigator, who pulls off some Crouching Tiger-style action moves and has no trouble pulling the trigger when the need arises.
Putting the Romeo and Juliette homage to one side, These Violent Delights is an atmospheric, page turning, historical urban fantasy. This is a world in which people just accept that monsters are real and get on with trying to kill (or profit from) them. But Gong also captures the grungy and mercantile but glamorous world of 1920s Shanghai, thrown into political turmoil in the ongoing aftermath of the First World War. And just when it seems that Gong will not pull it all together in time… she doesn’t. While the main plot seems to be resolved, plenty of threads are left in flux and the stakes are raised again before the epilogue ends with a cheeky “To be continued…”. By that time Gong has made sure that readers will be back for more.

4.5

'These Violent Delights' is a 1920's Romeo and Juliet retelling with a big ass monster. If that doesn't sell it for you then I don't know what will. Maybe the amazing characters and relationships, the dynamic storyline and the incredibly well thought out settings. This novel is one of the best fantasy books I have read all year and I need the sequel right now please give me it.

The romance in this book was insane, the slow burn enemies-to-lovers was perfection, I think my neighbours hate me for screaming multiple times whenever Juliette and Roma were in any kind of proximity together. Also the second romance in this book is my favourite ever - if you know, you know.

The setting of this book was so atmospheric, I can see it so clearly in my minds eye. The streets of the White Flowers and the Scarlets are so different and I love the way the interactions were detailed on each side. The world felt so real to me, and I would not want to face that monster!

I really enjoyed this book, and I'm super excited for the sequel! Be sure to check this book out if you're a fan of fantasy romance, enemies-to-lovers and bad-ass protagonists!

Retellings of classical texts are absolutely my cup of tea, however Gong's novel did not meet my expectations. Although the author does a great job of portaying colonialism and of exploring the themes of racism and sexism, I could not get behind the romance, nor did I find the plot structure appealing (though I guess that the novel being part of a series is mainly to blame).

I was really excited about this book, and it delivered on everything I was hoping for and more. I loved the 1920s Shanghai setting, and Chloe Gong uses incredibly well-researched details to bring the setting to life. I also felt that it works really well as a retelling, drawing on details from Romeo and Juliet but reinventing them in a fresh and modern way. The characterisation is another strength, as the central cast is quite large and I felt invested in all of their stories. These Violent Delights is full of drama, romance and action. I can't wait for the next book!

I loved the setting! I’ve never read a book set in Shanghai, especially not in the 1920s. It was so atmospheric and interesting to read about.
The romance was really nice, I love the enemies to lovers trope so I enjoyed this quite a bit!