These Violent Delights by Chloe Gong
(Format used for this read: Print—hardback)
As a theatre loving person, I want very badly to say that I ADORE all of Shakespeare’s works.
That his work is a vital part of why I fell in love with the stage and the art of performance.
I feel like it is a requirement….a rite of passage…almost HERETICAL if I do NOT say that.
But yall….
I can not say that without lying.
Deep down, I am not super into Shakespeare’s original works 😬
This may revoke my alumni status in the International Thespian Society (yes, this is a REAL THING) BUT it is a true part of my soul I must be honest about.
But all hope is not lost for me when it comes to Shakespearian appreciation…because while his original work ain’t my thing….modern reimaginings of his work ARE.
One of my fave movies from my teen years was the 1996 film “Romeo + Juliet” with Leo DiCaprio and Claire Danes.
And THAT reimaginging still remained true to the original dialogue of the play…the setting was just changed to be in modern day and had hip 90’s up and coming music on the soundtrack (which played on my CD player on REPEAT, yall)…..so that isn’t TOO much of creative adjusting from the original.
This book is also a Romeo & Juliet reimagining tale….and this author is HELLA creative and original in the way she crafted it!
Here is the official summary:
“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.
In this spectacular reimaginging of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, debut author Chloe Gong brings readers on a heart-stopping journey of violence, passion, and star crossed fates.”
This book is another gem I received from Book Of The Month. (if one of your goals for 2021 is to read more, you should DEFINITELY look into a membership…you will discover so many cool authors:
https://www.mybotm.com/rcthh8xwcnf?show_box=true )
And I had NO IDEA is was a YA book until I looked up the author AFTER reading it!
Of course yall know I love me some YA so that wouldn’t have affected me negatively in choosing to read this in the slightest bit, BUT this book did NOT read like a YA book.
It legit read like a grown up book.
So while this book technically IS in the YA category, I would personally place it more in the “realllllllly close to adulthood” category 😁
Or maybe that’s just the category I myself fall in LOL
This story was an eclectic mix of science fiction, fantasy, history, romance adventure and also social and cultural commentary.
Yall can probably see why I liked it just from that sentence alone.
This isn’t just some romance story of two mismatched lovers who are supposed to be enemies…this is also a story about a terror sweeping the city streets.
A monster terrorizing the people of Shanghai is both literal and figurative in the plot of this book.
There IS an actual monster of unknown origins causing a violent type of “madness” taking over and killing people’s physical bodies….but there are also the “monsters” of corrupt government, societal inequality, and gangster rivalries that are taking their own toll on lives as well.
Juliette, heir to the Chinese Scarlet gang, and Roma, heir to the Russian White Flowers gang, are the ex lovers who must decide if overcoming their past betrayals, broken hearts and buried feelings are possible in order to save all people living in their city….no matter what side they affiliate with.
This book is not light on blood and violence (although neither is the original Romeo & Juliet) so if that type of thing bothers you, I would stay away.
I mean…the title IS “These Violent Delights” 🤷♀️
(BTW the title is a nod to an original line from the play that Friar Lawrence says to Romeo “These violent delights have violent ends.” The author does randomly weave some other original lines from the play throughout the story too, mostly in dialogue…just a few here and there…so that is a neat tidbit for theatre nerds to notice!)
I will say I am not typically a fan of violence as a form of entertainment…but sometimes I don’t mind it as much as other times. It’s the context for me, yall.
I know that sounds pretty damn weird but whatevs….
This book I could handle just like the Hunger Games or Maze Runner books….
But like Stephen King level violence….that is a big giant NO for me.
While I could handle the violence, I did not particularly enjoy THAT aspect of the book, I still REALLY liked it as a whole overall. The creativity this author possesses is astronomical.
I really liked how Ms Gong wove in pieces of Chinese culture (such as language, food, and customs) as well as certain pieces of Shanghai’s history during that time. (You know I was up on Google after I finished to read and learn more about it…….and you should too!)
The one big annoying piece of this book for me was that it ended on a big cliffhanger and the last words were “To Be Continued”. It was at a VERY frustrating part in the plot too! 🙄 DEFINITELY not a stand alone book so be prepared going into this book that if you read it, the sequel will be a MUST.
The next book will be released sometime this year and I will be pumped to read it because I HAVE to know what happens in the end….even though I’m pretty sure I can guess because I know how the ORIGINAL ends…but STILLLLLLLL…..I have GOT to see what her enormously imaginative mind creates next!
I guess it IS possible she may take it a TOTALLY unexpected turn…I mean, Romeo & Juliet plus a monster in Shanghai in the 1920s is already pretty far fetched from the original story…
Whatever she comes up with, I can’t WAIT to see where her creative artistry takes us next.
ALSO….
Chloe Gong wrote this book while she was a COLLEGE STUDENT, yall….she is currently finishing up her senior year right now!
That is all kinds of impressive and gives her even MORE amazingly cool writer points for me.