These Violent Delights by Chloe Gong

5 stars! Spoiler free review ahead!

Summary: Romeo and Juliet retelling + 1920's Shanghai + rival gangs + a monster in the depths of the Huangpu River.

In 1920's Shanghai, gangsters rule. You pick a side, the White Flowers or the Scarlet Gang and you stick to it. When a madness starts plaguing the streets and is targeting ALL gangsters, Roma Montagov, heir to the White Flowers, and Juliette Cai, heir to the Scarlet Gang know they must put their guns and grudges away in order to solve this mystery and save their people.

Thoughts:

I really enjoyed reading this book. Did it make my skin crawl? Absolutely. If you are not a fan of bugs, cannot read anything with creepy crawlies, or anything like that, you may want to skip out on this one. However, I stuck it out. Because the story and the mystery and the romance were just that good.

The beginning was a tad slow, I'll be honest. Took me a bit to get into the vibes of this Shanghai and learn all the characters. But once I got that grasp, maybe about 20% in, I was hooked! It's fast-paced, bloody and gory, and BRUTAL. The mystery element, solving this madness and getting to the bottom of this monster in the Huangpu river kept building up and up and up to a wild ending.

Juliette is fierce. She is a badass bitch and I'm here for her. Even when Roma makes her a little softie, because girl... I can understand why. Roma is -- for lack of a better word -- cool. He's got a brain, he's got the skills with a gun, he's got the heart of a big brother. I just loved him. And as you get to understand their history with each other while they're working together to solve this madness, LET ME TELL YOU. Romantic tension entered the chat from chapter one and was there to stay until you literally could not take it anymore. I was living for this romance. It wasn't too over the top, it was just right to add another layer to the overall story and play into the Romeo + Juliet retelling aspect.

Lastly, I want to touch on something that's more of a story telling or writing comment: This book does an amazing job of intertwining real sentiments of what it feels like to be "not white." There's a specific moment when Juliette voices her thoughts about how white people always feel entitled. Entitled to an America they think they found, though it clearly wasn't their land to begin. Entitled to power in Shanghai just because they chose to sail over and dock boats there. All these moments or feelings Juliette had, building the more political aspects of the book added a realistic element to the world. I mean... Down to the fact that she made these characters know multiple languages because foreigners refuse to learn theirs, it's chefs kisses and also mind blowing how many languages these kids speak. The author's note at the end topped it off. I LOVED this addition to the Shanghai and atmosphere Chloe Gong created.

Buy it on Amazon!

Check it out on Goodreads!