Back in 2020, the debut novel by Chloe Gong, These Violent Delights got published. Also, this was the first book in a duology. Even before publication, the hype and buzz for this book on social media was huge and real. With my previous experiences when it comes to hypes, I wanted to avoid this one at all costs. However, my curiosity got the better of me as always and I bought myself a copy. Unfortunately, I had a tough time getting through this. I even put it aside to pick it back up later. I finished it, but had a feeling I missed something. I just didn’t know what. Now the Dutch translation got published and that was a good time for me to find out what I might have missed. Spoiler alert: A lot. I’ve increased my rating from 3 stars to….. Well, you’ll see.

Title: These Violent Delights
Author: Chloe Gong
Series: These Violent Delights #1
Publication date: November 17, 2020
Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry Books
ISBN: 9781534457690
Number of pages: 449
Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy

Goodreads Choice AwardNominee for Best Young Adult Fantasy & Science Fiction (2020)
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.

Characters

The main characters are Juliette and Roma. We follow them the entire time, but the story is told in a multiple OPV narrative. So, we switch often between these rivals, who secretly like – and maybe love – eachother. Besides This is one of the elements we see from Romeo & Juliet, the classic These Violent Delights is a (allebeit quite loose) retelling from. There are more familiar elements, but we will get to them later. However, besdies Roma and Juliette this book has multiple side characters. I was a little confused as who was who at first and what their role was within their respective clans and therefore in this story. Once I figured this out for myself, I was able to remember them all and reading got easier. In my opinion, not only the main characters are excecuted in depth, several side characters are as well.

Atmosphere

The setting is late 1920s Shanghai. To be completely honest, I often forgot about that. I ust don’t know why, it happened. Gong alternated history a bit, but its all based on real events that happened in Shanghai, China and the world. When it comes to characters, the atmosphere was tense nearly the entire time. Everyone is constantly on edge. They need to be because of the blood feud though. To me, this made me eager to continue reading.

Writing

I guess the writing was fine, I’m not an expert on it so yeah. To me, it felt fine. In English this story was somehow harder to grab for me than in my native language. Unfortunately, the translation has several spelling mistakes, but it’s likely impossible to get it flawless.

Plot

The story of Roma and Juliette is based on Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet. Therefore, it contains various elements of this classic. Of course there are the names of our main characters, but there is also the blood feud and forbidden love between Roma and Juliette. The plot has been enriched with fantasy elements as the monster and magic, which gives the book more depth. It also made it more tense though (which I like). The end provides readers with a cliffhanger and curiosity for the sequel.

Intrigue

What was really different for me this time is the fact I got intrigued from the start. I have a confession to make, because when I was reading the English version (and the sequel too unfortunately) I fell asleep several times. Furthermore, I could put the book down easily and struggled to pick it back up. Now, I didn’t have this problem. The story intrigued me from start to finish.

Logic

Well, this is the one pillar of the CAWPILE structure I just don’t get. I guess everything was logic, I never rolled my eyes or whatsoever.

Enjoyment

Overall, I really enjoyed (re)reading These Violent Delights by Chloe Gong. I was a little hesitant to pick it up at all at first, and I had the same feeling with the translation. Often I hear the English sentences in my head when rereading a certain book in translation, but not this time. I enjoyed reading and finally understanding the hype. The characters were excecuted in depth, the writing was fine, the plot intrigued me from start to finish. I found this reading experience more pleasant than the original one.