These Violent Delights – Chloe Gong (Review!)

Title: These Violent Delights (These Violent Delights #1)

Author: Chloe Gong.

Format: Hardcover.

Publisher: Margaret K McElderry Books.

Page count: 437.

Release day: November 17^th 2020.

Genre: YA, fantasy.

Rating: 3 stars.

What is it about? (Summary from GoodReads)

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. 

Rating:
Characters: 6/10
Atmosphere: 7/10
Writing: 7/10
Plot: 6/10
Intrigue: 5/10
Logic: 7/10
Enjoyment: 5/10
Average: 6.14

My thoughts:

I really wanted to love this book, and I just didn’t.. I mean it was not a bad book at all, I think I just expected more!

Maybe the problem is that I’m not really a fan of Romeo and Juliet, and this book is a retelling of that. Which honestly I think was really well done, there were quite some references to the original, but it was also really a story on its own!

I´m struggling writing down my thoughts on this one. First of all the prologue was amazing! It was both confusing and very intriguing, and I just had to continue on. But somewhere along the way I feel like the book lost its momentum.

This book is written from multiple POVs, which I generally enjoy and also really worked well for this book! Although not all characters were as interesting as others. Actually I was more interested in most of the side characters compared to the main characters. I really wanted to know more about Kathleen and Rosalind, their story was very intriguing! I also really liked Benedict and Marshall, and their conversations!

The plot was kinda predictable, and not because of the retelling aspect. I mean the whole monster part and where it was coming from. This predictability is probably the reason why I was not the biggest fan of the main characters. For example during their research they did some things/ figured out some things that ended up being wrong, and I felt like that was kinda obvious from the beginning.

My favourite thing about the book was definitely the atmosphere and the setting! I loved reading about 1900 Shanghai! I also thought seeing the politics was very interesting, since the author tried to keep it quite similar to the actual politics of the time!

They ending both confusing and very good! Confusing because I´m not 100% I got it, but if what I think happened happened, then it was very good haha! I´m very interested in the sequel and to see where the story will go from here!

Have you read this book? What did you think?