These Violent Delights by Chloe Gong

These Violent Delights is a historical retelling of the classic Romeo and Juliette storyline. It’s set in the early 1900’s in Shanghai, China, amidst a city being torn apart by colonialism. The story follows Juliette Cai, the 18-year-old heiress of the Scarlet Gang and her mortal enemy Roma Montagov, the 19-year-old heir of Juliette’s rival gang, the White Flowers. 

A terrible contagion emerging from the depths of the Huangpu river begins to terrorize the city and threaten the lives of everyone in it. People start to show up dead through suicide, driven to insanity from and unknown cause and ripping their own throats out. Juliette and Roma are forced to, against their family’s will, team up with each other and race to find the source of this madness before the entire city is shredded apart. 

I loved reading this book. The setting and dynamics are so vividly written; I could almost smell the debauchery and power oozing from the cracks of the walls. The entire story is intense in every sense of the word. There’s tension between Juliette and Roma, tension between them and their families, tension you can feel in the air as they race to save the lives of everyone in the city along with their own. 

I also really liked how face-paced the story is. Sometimes books tend to drag with unnecessary dialogue, scenes, and descriptions. However, the fast-pacing of the plot doesn’t hinder the overall quality of the book. I think that Gong executed the balance between the pacing and quality of the scenes very well. Overall, I really enjoyed the book, and would recommend it to anyone reading this review. 

- Hannah