Imagine Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet but set in 1920s Shanghai, with a fantasy element, and you’ve got debut novel These Violent Delights by Chloe Gong.
Before I start, I want to say that I knew that I’d love this book from just reading what it was about. I was intrigued about the spin on the original Romeo and Juliet, and I have always been interested in the 1920s.
The book definitely didn’t let me down one bit. Before I had even finished reading, I had to search if there was a sequel. There is and it comes out this November.
The story focuses on the heirs of two rival gangs, The Scarlett Gang and The White Flowers. These heirs Juliette Cai and Roma Montagov have a deep history with each other but were ripped apart by a betrayal years ago. Now, they are forced to work together in order for the survival of their gangs.
“You can easily picture 1920s Shanghai and the complete chaos that is happening in the city”
Previous to this book, I had no knowledge of Shanghai and have never been there myself. However, Chloe Gong throws you into this setting and does it in such a fascinating way. You can easily picture 1920s Shanghai and the complete chaos that is happening in the city from the first page. You know that you’re in for a rollercoaster ride.
The very first line, “In glittering Shanghai, a monster awakens”, expresses this chaos, compelling you to keep reading. It defines the overall fast pace of the book and the tone. There is a dark atmosphere and many violent themes explored throughout the book. These violent themes include a lot of trigger warnings, such as violence, blood, gore, death, weapon use, alcohol consumption and parental abuse.
“Gong takes the story of Romeo and Juliet to a completely new level”
The book is a retelling of the original Shakespeare play, therefore, there is a sense of familiarity when reading because you know the base story. However, Gong takes it to a completely new level and in some ways, it feels like a completely different story. I found myself not knowing what was going to happen and who was going to survive. The stakes felt high and unpredictable.
Although it did feel different, there were many nods to the original play. For example, the famous quote, “A plague on both your houses”, had me squealing when I read it. In these moments I was reminded that I was reading a retelling. All these nods were done in a fun way and didn’t feel like they were being forced into the story.
“Juliet was portrayed as intelligent, cunning, ruthless and fought for what she believed in”
The way in which the characters were written was amazing. I adored Roma and Juliette and their relationship. It never felt as if one of them was written more strongly than the other. Juliette for example had so many layers. She was portrayed as intelligent, cunning, ruthless and fought for what she believed in, whether it was right or wrong. I loved how she wasn’t perfect and had faults, this made her feel more real. It helped make certain events feel like the stakes were high and anything could happen because you didn’t know what she would do.
The book showed how both of these characters were products of their upbringing. The way they were brought up caused them to act in certain ways and do certain things. They both have this cold exterior but below that they both just want love.
The side characters really shined too, especially Marshall and Kathleen. They were there mainly to drive the plot along but at the same time provided great friendships especially with the main characters. Also, the side characters provided great representation. For instance, there was trans representation and a possible LGBTQ+ relationship which, hopefully, will be further explored in the upcoming sequel.
“The book explores sociopolitical issues such as race, romance and gender expectations”
Overall, I enjoyed the book and found the twists and turns throughout unpredictable and exciting. Even though the themes of the book are very dark, it wasn’t a hard book to read. Instead, it was enjoyable. The book explores sociopolitical issues such as race, romance and gender expectations. The ending definitely shocked me and left me craving to read more of Chloe Gong’s magical writing in the future.
Chelsea Bailey
Featured image courtesy of Chelsea Bailey. Permission was granted by the author for the use of this image.
Chelsea Bailey
I'm Chelsea, I'm currently in my third year studying Journalism at The University of Salford.