Title: These Violent Delights
Author: Chloe Gong
Series: These Violent Delights #1
Rating Out of 5: 3 (On the fence about this one)
My Bookshelves: Historical fiction, Mystery, Retellings, Young adult
Pace: Slow
Format: Novel
Year: 2020
I need to start this review by saying that I really, really don’t like Romeo and Juliet. I mean, other than Wuthering Heights, it may be one of my least favourite stories. They’re just so…. irritating. Which means that the fact that this is a retelling of that story put this on the backfoot to begin with. Not to say that I didn’t enjoy it, but I wasn’t mad about it like so many other stories I’ve been reading lately.
Although I couldn’t quite fall in love with the characters in this. I DID love the world building. And the story line. And pretty much everything other than Roma and Juliette. And the romance aspect. I’m just not a huge fan of the whole crossed lovers storyline. And the betrayal and such…
I would love to read more flappers stories. And the fact that this one is set in Shanghai just makes it all that much more intriguing and unique. I mean, the 20s aren’t an era that I’ve read much of… let alone the 20s in Shanghai and all of the politics that occurred there. Mix in teo rival gang heirs and the paranormal element… it was a pretty good sell.
Although I loved like 90% of this book, I found it incredibly hard to connect to the characters. And I do tend to find if I can’t connect to the characters, then I don’t hugely care what happens in the end. Which, ultimately is why I feel like this is a try again kind of book.
| <- More Chloe Gong | Our Violent Ends -> |
Earth and Skye 
I’ve recently finished this book and I found it hard to connect to the main characters too. I just felt this book tried to do too much in general so nothing got the development it needed. If you’re looking for more flapper books, I would heartily recommend the Diviners series. The world building is so much better and the main characters are all very easy to connect to.
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