A slow-burn romance and adventure in one delightful reimagining of one of Shakespeare's greatest stories. Set in 1920s Shanghai, Juliet Cai and Roma Montagov's warring families battle each other and outsiders to maintain control of the city. But a mysterious madness and illusive monster threaten to destroy everything. Juliet and Roma must team up to save their beloved city, and along the way find that they fight their growing feelings for each other.

This was one of my most anticipated titles of the year (in spite of 2020 being, well - 2020), and it certainly didn’t disappoint. A twist on Romeo & Juliet is tricky enough to execute, however Chloe Gong manages to excel at this feat in her story and break them constraints of the trope.

I’m sad to say I didn’t love this one as much as I expected to. It started off great, with a vibrant painting of 1920s Shanghai and the rival gangs that rule the street. I LOVED the Romeo and Juliet aspect as well as the mystery of the “Madness” that they’re trying to solve.

However, after the main set up of the plot, the pacing of this story just felt so incredibly slow and dragged for the bulk of the book. It didn’t help that it was difficult at times to distinguish the different supporting characters from each other. I’m pretty familiar with Shakespeare’s play and the various R&J retellings out there, but I was still scratching my head over who was who and what was going on.

If anything, the romance could have been beefed up a bit and the action could have been spread out more. The latter quarter or so of the book was certainly intriguing and I foresee myself eventually reading the sequel, but I wish this had strong pacing overall.

<i>"They fool themselves. These heirs think themselves kings and queens, sitting on a throne of gold and overlooking a glittering, wealthy empire.
They are not. They are criminals -- criminals at the top of an empire of theives and drug lords and pimps, preparing to inherit a broken, terrible, defeated thing that looks upon them in sadness.
Shanghai knows. It has always known."</i>

Ooooh, this was good y’all. It’s 12:47 and I will pay for this tomorrow, but damn if I couldn’t put this down.

TL;DR: This is a long book -- but after about 10%, I didn't care. I couldn't put it down. It's fast-paced and eloquently written and Gong's prose/storytelling just pulled me in. The allusions to Shakespeare's play definitely added another layer -- but aren't necessary to understand the plot. Definitely can't wait for the sequel.

Vibes: A retelling of <i>Romeo and Juliet</i> in 1920s Shanghai where the feuding families are rival gangs (Capulets = Cais & the Scarlet Gang, Chinese; Montagues = Montagovs & the White Flowers, Russian) and our star-crossed lovers have to hunt and kill a creepy AF monster terrorizing the city. Also, Communists.

Character MVP: Juliette. Kathleen and Marshall are a close second, but this is NOT Shakespeare's timid, demure, balcony sighing heroine -- Juliette is fierce and kick-ass (and more than a little cut-throat) but she's a heroine with agency and power in a male-driven world. And she's smart, too.

Verdict: Full disclosure: when I first started reading, I was pretty "meh" about it. I put it down over Memorial Day weekend and didn't really think much of it. But, it was the group read for an online book club, so I picked it back up again. And maybe it was just getting some rest and downtime, but something clicked. I mean, the writing was good; I saw that from the start. So maybe it was just that the story needed a bit of set-up, and once Gong scaffolded the story, things got moving.

﹅ -- It is a longer book -- and the multiple 3rd person POVs don't really help. That is, we don't just get Juliette and Roma's POV, we sometimes get Kathleen and Benedikt's POV and, on occasion, Marshall's and Alisa's -- and sometimes the POV shifts mid-chapter. Not a pro or con for me, just something to be aware of.

﹅ -- It's also maybe not the best pandemic read...? The "madness" that plagues Shanghai is presented as a highly contagious epidemic, so....again, not a pro or con, just 'context.'

✘ -- Speaking of the "madness": Gong's descriptions verge toward the "horror" side of things a bit too much for my comfort. But this is 100% a personal thing because I am an utter wimp when it comes to squishy monsters lurking around in the dark and people tearing their own throats out is just a bit too graphic for me. (People infected with the madness are driven to tear their own throats out and Gong does *not* hold back.)

✔︎ -- As an English major/lit nerd (but not a Shakespeare girl), I really kinda loved all the R&J references and how you could match the characters up to ones in the play: obviously you have Roma and Juliette, but Marshall Seo = Mercutio; Benedikt = Benvolio; Tyler = Tybalt; Rosalind = Rosaline; Lourens = Friar Lawrence; Paul = Paris. I especially loved Rosalind being a cousin, but not on the Cai side; she's a major player in the inner circle, but nowhere near Juliette's level, which tracks with Rosaline being the one Romeo falls for first in the play (i.e., good, but not enough). And Gong dances around the key plot elements of the play, but makes them her own.
The only character I think is unique to Gong's story is Kathleen...who, again, was a close runner-up for character MVP. She is, if I read correctly, a trans woman -- which in 1920s China is definitely a big deal, but I do appreciate the multi-faceted diversity Gong injected.

I definitely called the "twist" ending, but I don't even mind because it played out wonderfully -- which means we end Book 1 at the beginning of Act 3 of the play -- about halfway through. *chefs kiss*

Chloe Gong has written a great adaptation of a “classic.” The story is well told. The characters are amazing. The writing is phenomenal. An incredible work for Gong’s debut.

This one is sooo worth the hype! I absolutely enjoyed this one!

The perfect combo of Romeo and Juliet was a twist!

“Too many kind hearts turn cold every day.”
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It’s 1926 in Shanghai and there is a multigenerational blood feud between two gangs: the White Flowers and the Scarlet Gang. Roma Montagov is the heir to the White Flowers and Juliette is a former flapper returned home to take her place as the heiress to the Scarlet Gang. Once upon a time she loved Roma, until he betrayed her. Now her loathing is apparent every time they come into contact, which lately has been a lot due to the sinister presence taking over the city. Together Roma and Juliette join forces to find the monster terrorizing their people, as well as try and stop a contagion that’s killing those around them before there’s no one left standing on either side of their turf war.
🇨🇳
This Romeo and Juliet retelling is full of action, adventure, mystery, historical fiction and fantasy elements. It’s definitely genre bending. It was full of diversity with many Asian characters and LGBTQIA+ representation. The focus is definitely more on the feud and the evil in the city more than the romance, which differs slightly from the Shakespeare play. Gong does a great job with character development and a strong cliffhanger that makes me want to read These Violent Ends (book 2). Juliette is an amazing strong young woman who our readers need to see in books today. Grab the first in this duology now!
CW: blood, violence, gore, death, insects, parental abuse

The beginning just took too long to get into. I loved the representation, but as someone who isn’t a big fan of fantasy and historical fiction, this just missed the mark a bit for me. I needed more romance! Lol I probably will read book 2 though to see how it ends. 3 ⭐️

These Violent Delights by Chloe Gong
• historical fiction/reimagining

Rating: 4 stars

These Violent Delights is a debut novel by Chloe Gong. It’s a loose retelling/imaging of Romeo & Juliet, but in 1920’s Shanghai!


Thoughts:

The cover and the synopsis sold me immediately on this book, but it dragged for me in the beginning. I wanted to absolutely devour this book - I struggled to pick it up and I read it very slowly. What I loved was the mystery element, the danger, LGBTQ rep, the setting, and the monster element - that’s what really drove my page turning! If you’re looking for romance, this is a very slow burn.


Interest: 4/5
Romance: 3/5
Heat: 2/5
Would I recommend: Yes


*** I was given an UNCORRECTED PROOF copy of this book for an honest review by the publisher through Net Galley ***

Eighteen-year-old Juliette Cai is the heir to the powerful Shanghai gang the Scarlets. Their rivals are the Russian White Flowers. Her former lover Roma Montagov is behind a brutal betrayal that killed many of the Scarlets. Because of this, Juliette is sent away to America. Now she's back and wants vengence for the deaths his gang caused.

The blood feud between these two gangs runs deep. Then a violent illness hits the city. A sickness that kills not only the Scarlets, but the White Flowers as well. When Roma's younger sister falls victim, he reaches out to Juliette for a truce. But the betrayal is one that Juliette can't forgive. Or can she for the sake of her people's survival? Because if they don't come together, there will be no-one left in the city for either gang to rule.

What worked: Wow. Just wow. This is a powerful historical where two former lovers must work together to save the city they love. There's violence, betrayals, and deception throughout this gripping story. I was totally riveted from the first page.

Juliette is strong and does what she needs to in order to show she is the rightful heir to the Scarlet gang. This means more than once she uses whatever methods she has in order to show her strength. She has to do this as her cousin Tyler feels he's the rightful heir.

Roma is the more sensitive one in this story. Yes, he uses violence, but isn't so quick to use it. His trusted friends Marshal and his cousin Benedikt help him and also stay close to his side when a violent illness strikes.

The whole concept of 'supernatural' insects causing murderous chaos is intense and chilling. This magical realistic twist and what's behind it kept me glued to the pages. More than a few times I screamed out when Juliette and Roma got closer to the final reveal. And it's a powerful one!

There's great pacing and vivid descriptions of 1920s Shanghai where foreigners try to overrun the city. The tensions between the people are realistically shown and set behind the racism and sexism that not only happened then, but is relevent for today. There's also mention of the Communists and how they reach out to the poor in the city.

I admit, I didn't know who might in fact be behind the illness. There's a few red herrings and final reveal caught me off guard. I love when that happens!

I would like to recommend this book To every teenager I teach. There is something so perfect about a Romeo and Juliet retelling of done right. And the nuance between the original story and its new setting are perfect for the YA world.

One thing that took me off guard while I was enjoying the book is that while the main characters are complex people, you don’t actually know if you want to root for them. But instead, the reader finds themselves enthralled with the secondary characters’ roles that need to be played.

Anyone who know me knows that Romeo and Juliet is one of my favorite books of all time and my ultimate favorite to teach! This means that a reimagining of the story needs to be good for me to like it and in this case it was great! I loved the setting qnd the time period and how well it works with the story. That is really the beauty of Romeo and Juliet, the story never stops being relatable. As Roma and Juliette have to come together, despite their layered dislike for each other you can’t help but hope that this ending is going to be different! A great read!

What happens when you mix 1920s Shanghai with The Sopranos, Lovecraftian horror, and Romeo and Juliet? With Gong at the helm, the result is a chillingly violent romance that readers may hope, despite the source material, will come to a happy ending.
In These Violent Delights, Juliette and Roma are the heirs to the two gangs of Shanghai, crime families who once controlled the city but are both losing ground as more foreign interests—and communists—rise to power. Juliette Cai is the future leader of the Scarlet Gang, the only remaining Chinese power in the city. Roma Montagov is a White Flower, son of generations of Russians who fled the Bolsheviks, and now in a dangerous predicament as his father has begun to favor another Montagov over his own son as the possible heir. Years ago, Juliette and Roma met in secret, determined to defy their parents, pledging that together they could bring peace and prosperity to Shanghai.

But those years are long past, and now nothing exists between them but hatred—or so each of them claim. They would continue to be solely enemies if not for a contagion sweeping through the city, hitting Scarlets and White Flowers with equal severity, that causes the victims to rip out their own throats. The contagion seems to follow sightings of a monster—a creature that witnesses claim drives people mad. Investigating on their own, they are chasing their own tails. Together, they could be unstoppable…

Before you say that the story isn’t really a fairy tale—it long predated Shakespeare’s play—and while it includes no fairies, the element of the poison that emulates death borders on the supernatural. Gong’s addition of a monster that rises from the river and compels people to suicide brings in enough additional supernatural elements (mixed with a healthy dose of 1920s science) to include it within the genre. At the same time, the novel is just as much a crime drama; the feuding criminal families are vibrantly, violently drawn, and their ruthlessness makes it difficult to consider heroes (even while readers root for Roma and Juliette’s romance).

One of the delights of the story, for those familiar with Shakespeare’s telling of the tale, is watching Gong’s naming conventions give clues to the role the characters play. Lourens, a scientist working with the White Flowers, is an analog to Father Laurence; Benedikt and Marshall are Romeo’s friends Benvolio and Mercutio, while Juliette’s hotheaded cousin Tyler is Tybalt. But though they don’t always play into type (and they have their own motives far beyond the traditional tale), readers will still be waiting for that moment when Tyler and Marshall face off, and Marshall lays a plague on both their houses. That the story, while self contained, leads directly into a subsequent volume will have readers waiting to find out if fair Shanghai will one day see a glooming peace, and whether Roma and Juliette must both be sacrificed to achieve it.

THESE VIOLENT DELIGHTS is a delightful Romeo and Juliet retelling that takes readers to the dark and dangerous streets of 1920’s Shanghai filled with gangsters, street wars, betrayal, and bloodshed. Much as you would expect between the Montagues and the Capulets, or, in this case, the Montagovs and the Cais. There are monsters, there is madness, there is romance, but the highlight for me was the inclusion of so many realistic themes, including colonialism and political unrest.

Historically, so many countries were vying for political domination over China, primarily the Russian Communist Party, which played directly into the feud between these two families. Also important to part of the storyline is the conflict between laborers and the government, which resulted in the subsequent beginnings of the working-class revolution. I loved that not only did Gong give readers a dark and delightful fantasy, but she took it a step further and infused her tale with so much period history that it felt like the best history lesson in the history of history lessons. A page-turning, bloody, can’t-put-it-down history lesson.

Bottom line — THESE VIOLENT DELIGHTS was a gritty, gory delight filled with plenty of twists and turns. It’s light on both romance and fantasy, but most definitely heavy in politics and conflict. In true Shakespearean fashion, the ending most definitely is a tragedy, though I certainly won’t go into any detail. Suffice it to say that there aren’t any rainbows and butterflies at the end of this tale, but there most definitely is blood. And bugs.

This book was absolutely fantastic. I've already added it to our library collection and recommended it to students. Romeo and Juliet retellings are always useful to my ELA teachers.

As someone who really dislikes Shakespeare (but really wants to like it), I'm so happy to have found a retelling of Romeo and Juliet that I enjoyed!

Juliette Cai and Roma Montagov are sworn enemies due to the blood feud between their two gangs: the Scarlets and White Flowers. But suddenly a madness starts infecting people on both territories of Shanghai, killing increasing numbers of Scarlets and White Flowers alike. The two have to put aside their painful pasts in order to figure out what is causing the madness, as well as hide their tenuous partnership from the rest of the gangsters.

I really, really love morally grey characters, so Juliette was so much fun to read. It was interesting to contrast her thorny exterior with her inner monologue and justifications for her actions (such as needing to be doubly fearsome due to the fact that she is a women inheriting leadership of the Scarlets). At first I really didn't want to like Roma, but I ended up falling for him in the end. He was such a puppy-dog guy, which I'm also a sucker for.

I very much loved the side characters as well. Kathleen has my ENTIRE heart, with her cleverness and fierce loyalty to Juliette. Marshall and Benedikt had some banter that added humor and charm to the dialogue of the book as well. I really appreciated the diversity of these characters, and the fact that they still had pretty big roles in the book (they didn't seem to be there for diversity's sake alone).

The Romeo-Juliet aspect of the book was done really well in my opinion, with enough of a tie to the original book (besides the names) for it to be recognizable. At the same time I loved the more modern twist, the change of setting, the commentary on race and colonization, and the sci-fi aspects that were mixed in as well. It struck the perfect balance between old and new.

I do have to say that a couple parts confused me. I didn't exactly understand the dynamic of the nationalists versus communist versus factory workers versus foreigners versus gangsters. That may be totally my fault, but I found all of the overlapping identities and loyalties hard to keep straight. Sometimes there were really long sentences/descriptions that lost me in the middle and I had to reread over a few times. There were also a couple of predictable elements in the Roma-Juliette story (outside of what was to be expected).

Those were pretty small and picky points for me. This book managed to get me out of a reading slump, and I really enjoyed it! I can't wait to read the sequel as well.

Intended Audience: older YA
Content warnings: death, gore, murder
Pace: medium-fast

This was such a good book. The story, characters, time period were perfection to this book. I world highly recommend this book to those who enjoy retellings.

What a wild ride! I love me a retelling, and this was a REALLY GOOD retelling. Remixing the classical tale of Romeo and Juliet, Chloe Gong created a fascinating and unique rendition. I was not expecting the gore- but regardless the story was great and intriguing. I especially loved the side characters- they were so much more interesting than Juliette and Roma. Sprinkled throughout the novel were little Easter eggs that were a nod to the original Shakespeare play, which, as a Shakespeare lover, was done perfectly.

Its so unfortunate that this book is just not up my alley. Apparently I do not like the retellings of Romeo and Juliet and I just did not like the "mystery" behind it. It was not my liking but this is by an asian author and must be given a high rating since it is only my personal opinion due to my not liking the subject material.

Shanghai ports and a terrible monster in the prologue piqued my curiosity. A retelling of Romeo and Juliet with rival gangsters in Shanghai and a mysterious string of strange deaths. Roma and Juliettte are two nineteen-year-old gangster heirs that love each other but are meant to hate each other. Shanghai is being terrorized by a strange monster that causes madness and death. The two heirs are desperately trying to save their gangs and territories from the madness, communism and other foreigners threatening to take control of Shanghai. They don’t want to cross paths, but Roma and Juliette realize they need each other’s information to solve their problems. Two strong main characters that are conflicted bring angst and empathy to this retelling, 4 stars!

This book 10000% lived up to the building hype around it. I loved it and omg I need the next one RIGHT NOW!!! Like please please give it to me.