These Violent Delights by Chloe Gong

4/5 ⭐️ “Memories were beastly little creatures, after all—they rose with the faintest whiff of nourishment.”

You can read a summary of this book anywhere, it’s everywhere. It’s on the jacket cover at Barnes and Noble and even on NPR. Just like all my other reviews, I want to talk about how this novel made me feel.

This story is set in an incredible period in history, in a specific location, ShangHai 1926, trudged in great turmoil due to its colonial interceptions. What's left standing, two gangs, the (Russian) White Flowers and the local (Chinese) Scarlet Gang. The two main characters, Roma Montagava and Juliette Cai, are our modern day Romeo and Juliette.

Although this novel draws large comparisons to Shakespeare’s classic, it is far from it. Juliette is strong, bordering on ruthless. She is consumed by the blood needed to be spilled in order to keep the Scarlet Gang, the main power in ShangHai. Roma, a killer only out of necessity, but with great regret and constant anxiety. Both share the similar visions of a bloodless, bustling ShangHai with both gangs working together.

Chloe Gong adds a supernatural madness to the equation. Both characters have to piece together clues using the others help. Both know it is for the betterment of their gangs, but secretly its an excuse for them to spend time together. Secretly, they miss each other. This madness causes people to rip their throats out with their bare hands, adding gore-y imagery and an edge to the writing.

When a madness hits, they join together for a common good. They run through the town chasing leads, and chasing feelings long lost, from a time previous to Juliette’s bout in New York. Although they are so young, they share so much history and so much trauma. Their lives are so intertwined. They went from throwing pebbles down a crack int the sidewalk and seeing how far they roll, to the legacies of the most powerful gangs in ShangHai. Their romance dances back and forth between strong and stoic, to completely vulnerable. This makes for a consistently interesting read, even for those not interested in a romantic novel. As these characters learn more about the mystery of the madness, they grow, and in turn you grow with them.

A bromance, possibly romance, that not many other blogs write about is Benedikt Montagova and Marshall Seo’s. They share a one line romance that exposes sexuality is timeless, even in the twenties, in the most hyper masculine of situations (a blood thirsty Russian gang).

This novel depicts colonial imperialism at its finest. The French and English learned no other languages but their own. They looked down on the locals and looked at them only as profit. “These days Juliette,” he said, low and warily, “the most dangerous people are the powerful white men who feel as if they have been slighted.” The historical aspect of this book drew me in, and kept me interested until the end. Gong also depicts the introduction of communism into China and its effect on ShangHai’s economy and workers.

It’s hard not to draw comparisons to today’s world. This book has a political charge that makes you contemplate your own place in this world and the context in which we live. “The land of dreams. Where men and women in white hoods roam the streets to murder Black folks. Where written laws prohibit the Chinese from stepping upon its shores. Where immigrant children are separated from immigrant mothers on Ellis Island, never to be seen again.” Gong lays it all on the line, and I loved every minute of it.

This book has it all; romance, mystery, horror, history. Most of the time, I did not feel like I was reading a Y.A. novel. Even if you’re like me and Y.A. is not your primary genre, give this book a read. I can’t wait to read the sequel.

P.S.

Honestly, when starting this review I was nervous because of the thousands of reviews before mine. How could I say something they didn’t? Do I have that much to say about a Y.A. modern-day Romeo and Juliette? Then I wrote a paragraph, and then another, and another… and another. I realized this book has so much to offer. Chloe Gong is an excellent author, who breathed new life into an age old story, while giving a commentary on politics, history, love, family, culture, race, and sexuality. The surface may be a romance mystery novel, but dive deeper into the ocean of Gong’s thoughts, and you’ll experience an entirely new novel filled with depth and so much to say.

- Flip