Well, that was quite a ride. As the second in the These Violent Delights Duology, I expected a continuation of the fantasy and romance we got in book one; however, delightfully so, we get historical fiction Shanghai in the 1920s) with the Romeo and Juliet retelling and then a dash of fantasy.

Character development took off immensely, as Juliette and Rom explore not only their rekindled romance but what role they want to play in the salvation of Shanghai. Our supporting roles, Marshall, Benedict, Dimtri, Kathleen, and more all get their moments to grow and play a part in the story unfolding.

There seemed to be a good balance between a character vs action-driven plot, after all the story hinges on the fights between Scarletts and White Flowers and then Nationalists vs Communists; and this is where we get our fantasy monster element thrown in, trying to figure out who's controlling them and which side they are on, then ultimately how to defeat them.

Great twist on Romeo and Juliet, and a great conclusion to the duology.

A truly imaginative twist on Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet continues in this sequel, “ Our Violent Ends.” Gorgeous writing, a stunning backdrop of 1920’s Shanghai, and characters that make you want to cry, drool, and scream over. Oh and also in Gong’s adaptation Roma and Juliette fight monsters. My only real complaint about the book was the pacing. And at nearly 500 pages, it was tragic when I lost interest. Once I stepped away it was very difficult to return and get lost in the story again.

This duology cleared my acne. Absolutely phenomenal. I’m going to continue to cry over all the characters for the next year.

This book was the perfect, heartbreaking conclusion to this duology. It was full of twists and turns that I wasn’t expecting. Like the first book, I absolutely loved the setting in 1920s Shanghai.

I knew this duology was a Romeo and Juliet retelling, and for some reason I still wasn’t prepared for the heartbreak. I loved getting to be back with Roma and Juliette and I enjoyed seeing more of the side characters in this book including Rosalind and Kathleen. This book was very well written and I loved the relationships, plot, and political tensions.

Overall I’d recommend this duology!

Unpopular opnion: not a 5 star book?

TVD was good but it took me so long to get into the story. The retelling aspect is brilliant but both TVD and OVE dragged on. The pacing was slow to the point of being stand still sometimes.

However, the absolute heartbreak makes up for that entirely. Gong knows how to craft a gut wrenching, heart shattering story.

This book had me gasping, crying, laughing, and cheering in equal measure. Loved the twists, the fresh take on Romeo and Juliet, and the unusual and compelling historical period.

Our Violent Ends is the explosive, heartwrenching conclusion to this Romeo and Juliet inspired duology by author Chloe Gong.

The year is 1927, and Shanghai teeters on the edge of revolution.

Picking up seemingly only moments after the catastrophic conclusion of The Violent Delights, Juliette is living with her choices while Roma is suffocating under the burning consequences of them.

Convinced that Juliette played him for a fool, Roma swears to have his revenge on the Cai heiress.

But as well all know, these violent delights have violent ends, and in their triumph die like fire and powder, Which as they kiss consume.

Chloe Gong is a literary genius. the complex stories she writes and her characters are always incredible!! I loved getting to see the rest of this story play out and how things were wrapped up. I genuinely look forward to the books that she puts out in the future!

The story of Roma and Juliet continues in Our Violent Ends. If you’ll recall, I read These Violent Delights last year (review can be found here) and I was curious to see how the story ended.

Unfortunately, I faced some of the same issues I had with These Violent Ends. If you haven’t read the first book, I would stop reading here because there are likely to be spoilers for the first book as we continue with the review.

We pick up pretty much right after the events of the first book and the mood between Roma and Juliet is ~tense~ at best. Unfortunately, there is a blackmailer who is claiming to release more of the monsters into the city unless they are paid handsomely. Roma and Juliet must work together to figure out who the blackmailer is in an attempt to save the city the love, all the while political tensions are high and the city is becoming more and more divided. The future of the gangs is looking more and more uncertain.
I absolutely love the story. It’s imaginative and unique – a fresh take on a very familiar story. We know going into this, what happens to the original Romeo and Juliet, but Gong takes that base story and twists it in a new, exciting way. The problem I have faced with both of these books now is the pacing. It will be engaging and fast paced, and then hit a slump. And the pattern continually repeats throughout the entire book. I was struggling so hard to get through the e-arc version of this story. I finally managed to get my hands on the audiobook version, which went a little faster. Sometimes, ya just need someone to read the book to you. I will say, trying it on audio made it easier to stay invested. I don’t even think it’s a writing style issue. Gong has moments where the writing is just so beautiful and has a way of making even the city feel like a character I care about.

There is so much happening in this book. Roma and Juliet are on a constant back and forth, trying to fight their emotions and fight for each other. I loved these two so much. But my favorite characters are still Marshall and Benedikt. I just want to give them both a hug and be their best friend. There is betrayal, monsters, epic fights, and tender moments sprinkled throughout. Nothing really ends the way you think it’s going to, but it was perfectly done. The ending had me a little nervous because I wasn’t sure how it was all going to play out. I was immensely satisfied with how it all wrapped up. The characters are perfectly loveable and their emotions jump off the page. I was sad to end the story because I wasn’t to hang out with all the characters for just a little bit longer.

This was a great book! After finishing "These Violent Delights", I was itching to get into the last book of Chloe Gong's duology. I felt like the writing and language used in this book was just as descriptive and powerful as the first book, and I felt like the pacing was perfect. I usually have problems with the second book of a duology starting off too slowly, but I did not feel that way at all picking up "Our Violent Ends".

The entirety of the book took me on an emotional rollercoaster ride, and the end left me crushed. I feel like I should have known what would happen at the end, but I was still caught off guard nonetheless. This is one of the best books that I read in 2021, and I cannot wait to read the other books that Chloe Gong comes out with in the future.

I think this book is the definition of emotional rollercoaster.

Even though I went into this duology knowing it was inspired by Romeo and Juliet, I still didn't expect the ending. Chloe made me hope too much. Tears were shed and audible gasps were made while reading this novel.

While Roma and Juliette were the focus in the first book, I was extremely thrilled to see more of Rosalind, Kathleen, Tyler, and Alisa. These characters were pivotal in many of the actions taken throughout the novel, and seeing their points of view only enhanced the overarching themes and plot.

I'm still devastated by the ending, and the fact that the duology was not just inspired by Romeo and Juliet, but a true retelling that not only retold, but spun the original around and upside down.

I have tried so hard to love this book. SO HARD. I really struggled with the first book and it literally took me MONTHS to finish it. I know that this book is very hyped up so I felt like I was missing something? I thought maybe in the second book I would enjoy the book even more.

Unfortunately, I could not finish this book. After spending months on the first book, I could not continue giving my time to this series. I tried. I tried SO HARD to love this, but I just could not get into it. I felt like the story itself would be amazing, but it was just all over the place. I got about 50% into this book and decided to DNF.

Our Violent Ends certainly lives up to its title! If life in Shanghai was dangerous in book one of this duology, it’s gotten even more treacherous in the finale. This book focuses a bit less on the fantastical monsters than it does on the political machinations of the various groups in Shanghai and the ways that the average citizen ends up suffering in the process. (I’ll confess that the political side of fantasy is typically my least favorite aspect, but the fact that it was paired with a lot of character growth for a character I really enjoy helped a whole lot.) And the story culminates in a spectacular showdown. I don’t want to say too much about what happens, but I will just say that this book brings some of the major elements of Romeo and Juliette to life in surprising and satisfying ways.

***Disclosure: I received this book from the publisher for review purposes. No other compensation was given and all opinions are my own.***

Ahhhhh that ending!!

Roma and Juliette return while facing an even bigger threat. Not only are monsters lurking in the city, but someone is using them to blackmail both the Scarlets and White Flowers. With Roma still furious over his cousin’s death, it appears unlikely that the pair will be able to work together. But with the city unraveling at every corner, the two must collaborate to figure out who is a threat-and what their ultimate goal is.

So I was a really big fan of These Violent delights. And while I definitely enjoyed Our Violent Ends, I wouldn’t say it quite lived up to the first book.

To start, I was confused for about half of it. Now this might just be a me problem, because I’ve noticed that whenever books deal with politics, I have no clue what’s going on. The same thing happened to me in Game of Thrones (fantasy politics, but still). Keeping the two gangs and the nationalists and the communists (and the workers?) and all of their various alliances separate was really, really hard for me. So when characters would talk about the various parties I kind of zoned out. Again—this is probably my fault, but it did make for some long and boring parts.

I wasn’t sure about the overarching plot-in a lot of ways it was the same as the first one. There’s a return of the madness. Roma and Juliette are on opposing sides. Tyler and Dimitri are insufferable. But at the same time, there were characters that deviated in ways that didn’t make sense to me.

Although it took a while to get to the action in this book, it did retain a lot of positive elements from the first one. Juliette was just as determined to stand up to colonialism and the foreign powers threatening to overtake Shanghai. There was lots of tension between her and Roma that made for great drama. And of course, we got to see the best characters of the series, Benedikt and Marshall. One of this duology’s big strengths is the witty banter we get from the couples, which definitely continued in this book.

Overall I would say this is worth a read if you enjoyed the first one, although it takes a little bit for the story to truly pick up!

Rating: 3.5/5
Pacing: slow beginning, fast end
Intended audience: YA
Content warnings: violence, blood, murder

Chloe Gong has once again done it, from her debut novel "these violent delights" to the sequel I am in love with the world and characters. We have Juliette and Roma starting off right where they left off, sworn enemies. Only Juliette doesn't want to be enemies, she yearns for the love they once had while Roma believing the worst have this undeniable tension that keeps me going. This book was truly heartbreaking, gut wrenching and the perfect close to this series. Quite frankly,I wish I could read this series for the first time all over again. I can't wait to see what else Chloe Gong writes. If you were on the fence of reading the sequel, I would 100% say read it.

I loved this book! I really fell in love with These Violent Delights so I was ecstatic to pick up a copy of Our Violent Ends. This was an amazing book that I couldn't put down. I fell in love with the characters even more and I feel this is even better than These Violent Delights.

This duology is amazing and I recommend it to all readers! What an amazing take on a classic tale that keeps the reader guessing until the very final page. I loved this book and cannot wait for the future of Chloe Gong.

This book was absolutely fantastic. How long it took me to read it has 0% do to with how amazing it is. There were some slow parts, but that happens with every book ever.

I loved the ambiguous ending, I loved how it hit all the different notes of the source material. I loved that even if you're read Romeo and Juliet and taken in a lot of retellings of the story and thought you know what was about to happen, Gong was able to take the expectations and twist them just a little bit.

I loved this book, Highly HIGHLY recommend.

In an epic conclusion to a duology filled with political tensions, supernatural threats, forbidden love, and betrayal Our Violent Ends manages to surpass These Violent Delights with a quicker pace and an already established backgrounds of all the characters involved.

The build up, the dread, and the high stakes were done with such a clear level care and attention. When conflicts overlapped, it was very easy to be overwhelmed but in between those moments we got lulls that still managed to maintain momentum.

The language was beautiful and consistent with book one and the climaxes were gut-wrenching. It was excellent.

As a huge fan of Gong's previous novel, I was beyond excited for OUR VIOLENT ENDS. Unfortunately, this rendition I felt to be a bit predictable and the characters one-sided.

That being said, the world itself is lush and gorgeous, and Gong's writing lights up the page. The plot felt overly drawn out and the betrayal itself was not as much as a surprise as it could've been. I'm eager to see what works Gong writes next, and am excited to see her continued contribution to the literary world.

This book was rich in historical detail. The characters for the most part well-developed. The relationship between the two protagonists was complicated, as were the relationships between all the main characters, which is to be expected being in rival gangs in the pressure cooker of Shanghai at this time. In spite of the seriousness of the plot (the plague has been replaced with another type of death— remember the original was in an Italian city-state and the plague was still a problem) the novel is a fun mashup of genres, noir (although a little early it has that atmosphere), roaring 20s with a little bit of gothic horror added to the mix. It is not a nail biter in the suspense department, but still engaging. The end is appropriately indeterminate. I recommend both books in the duology: These Violent Delights and Our Violent Ends.