Review: 'These Violent Delights' by Chloe Gong

 These Violent Delights was impossible to escape in 2020 and much of 2021. I saw it everywhere and it sounded like exactly the kind of read I would enjoy: a Shakespeare-adaptation, 1920's Shanghai, knives, and doomed love. It still took me some time to actually get around to reading it, but now here we are!

Pub. Date: 11/24/2020
Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton

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.

As some of you might know I lived in Shanghai for four years. I love that city, I love the way it is so many things at once, from its glittery, Western Bund to the little side-streets of wooden houses and dumplings. It is an international city, but it is also one of major difference and major splits. Just imagining the way it must have changed and developed in the 20th century makes my head spin, but I loved being transported there by Chloe Gong. I adored the way in which Shanghai is a major character in These Violent Delights, the beating heart behind many of the choices that the main characters make. It is a home and it is a burden. The way in which this city is torn is still something that feels alive to me and I was very glad to see the loving way in which Gong described it. 

Shanghai is a glittering mess, split up not only in half by a blood feud between the Scarlet and the White Flower gang, but also into many different pieces by foreign influence. The French have claimed their Concession, the Brits are at the docks, and that's only the obvious influence. In this torn city, Juliette and Roma must find an answer to the madness that is making people claw their own throats out. Everything is at stake, not least their hearts. While the tragedy of Shakespeare's play is very much still present, These Violent Delights is its own creature entirely. Gong has not just transplanted the tale, she has taken it as an opportunity to highlight all kinds of themes that are either not present or only opaquely so in the play. Juliette and Roma may still be our star-crossed lovers, but they are far from innocent children. I loved the moodiness and flashiness and cockiness of these two, the fragility they hardly show but which is always there. I also adored the side-characters, from Marshall and Benedikt to lovely Kathleen, and maybe even Rosalind. The dynamics between these characters are beautifully written and were one of the highlights of the novel for me.

This is Chloe Gong's debut novel and I can absolutely understand all the love These Violent Delights received. It has everything you could ask for from a YA retelling and more. This novel is many things at once: it is a whodunnit, historical fiction, a romance, and a supernatural mystery. Sometimes these wires cross in a way that doesn't feel entirely smooth, but then there is a lot that needs to be set up. I think it is down to this that some of These Violent Delights felt a little too easy or fast. I adored the 'lovers to enemies to lovers to question mark' vibe of the novel, but some of it felt a little surface level. The harshness of the world in which Juliette and Roma live is clear, and yet some of the horror of it stays a little removed. I think this mainly stood out to me because Chloe Gong does such a brilliant job at describing the way in which Juliette feels alienated from her own country and culture. It is so heart-achingly written, the way in which Juliette, from her name to her outfits to her words, has been twisted and changed to the point where home is no longer where she feels most comfortable. I can't wait to learn more about her journey in These Violent Ends, even if I'm not the biggest fan of books ending on such a clear cliffhanger rather than finishing their story.

I give this novel...

4 Universes!

I enjoyed reading These Violent Delights, it is a wild rollercoaster ride full of twists and dramatic turns. I'll definitely read These Violent Delights, in parts because the story is incomplete without it.