Welcome back to another week of BookTok, the blog where I, an avid book reader, give you my review on which books on-trend are worth the read and which you can skip. This blog will go over recent book trends on TikTok and feature creators of all representations that have created book-related content that put specific titles in the spotlight. Today, the book is “These Violent Delights.”
Some important triggers to watch out for:
- Abuse
- Violence
- Drugs
- Racism
- Graphic Gore (gouging)
- Death
SUMMARY
The fourth book featured in this series is “These Violent Delights” by Chloe Gong. This story is a Shakespeare retelling of “Romeo and Juliet” featuring rival gangs set in Shanghai during the 1920s. Juliette Cai, the heiress to the Scarlet Gang, returns to Shanghai after a four-year absence to take her rightful place. The only rivals with as much power as the Scarlet Gang are the White Flowers, who are controlled by the Montagovs with the heir Roma. Not so long ago, Roma and Juliette were lovers, but a betrayal split them apart, and now all that remains between the two is hatred. Things start to change when both gangs have people dying left and right behind a madness, so Juliette and Roma begin to work together to find out who or what is causing this madness. Another strange thing is the people of Shanghai whisper in the shadows of a monster hiding in Huangpu River.
TIKTOK GOSSIP
“These Violent Delights” rose to stardom on TikTok towards the end of 2020. Many booktokers loved this book, it contained things so many YA (young adult) readers love. The enemies to lovers trope, the tension between the two main characters and gang rivalries.
Some TikTokers who loved Chloe Gong’s book include @caitsbooks. In her video, she first gives a brief description of the book and then compliments Gong’s writing and storytelling. “Everything about this book is amazing, from the writing to the setting and the characters,” she says. Caits continues to gush about the book, saying, “I will not be able to stop talking about it,” and recommends that everyone reads it.
Booktoker @ezeekat was another person who loved “These Violent Delights” but understood that this was “not the perfect book” and acknowledged where the writing fell short. He starts by criticizing the book saying, “It suffers from a bloated second act” and that the overuse of the shock factor no longer makes it “shocking by the end of the book.” However, these reasons didn’t affect his overall rating of the book as he later said, “there so many moments in the book in this book that made me gasp, made me want to stand up and cheer, made me want to cry. It’s just so much fun.”
However, like every book, some people on booktok couldn’t get into it. One of these examples is @mynameismarines, who gave this book a 2/5 star rating (please remember everyone has their own taste and she is allowed to dislike a book). She explained her dislike of the book mainly comes from the writing and how she feels like Gong couldn’t capture the main themes that were so prevalent in Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet.” She says, “The entire thing about Romeo and Juliet is the angst, and the longing and all of that was completely missing here.” Marines then went on to say how the rest of the “Romeo and Juliet” references were forced, explaining, “I wanted to hide. I wanted it to end.” Some good aspects she liked about the story’s setting and its attempts to address colonialism.
When searching the book’s hashtag, you can only ever see it associated with the words “Chloe Gong,” “enemies to lovers” and “Roma and Juliette.”
MY REVIEW
This review will try to be as spoiler-free as possible as we at Her Campus hate spoilers!
Sometimes retellings of past stories can go either way; it could be good or bad, and “These Violent Delights” did not disappoint. This book almost reminded me of Marissa Meyer’s retellings, except Gong’s story is more fantasy than sci-fi. I really enjoyed Gong’s debut novel of Shakespearean retelling; she gave us tension, gave us the mystery and gave us a girl-boss, woman main character of color. Yet, like every debut author, a book is not without flaws, so I’ll speak on what I like and dislike.
First, I speak on what I dislike about the story. Much of the plot of “These Violent Delights” was very repetitive. Sometimes, I felt that Gong was going around in circles with the mysterious “madness” affecting everyone and didn’t follow through with progression like other mystery novels. The novel also had a prolonged start. In the first few chapters, it felt as if nothing was happening. While many books may take a few chapters to establish the settings, characters, relationship and plot, Gong’s writing made it as if the plot was already established and there was no progression. It was like Juliette and Roma were at a standstill. I was forcing myself to continue just to get to the next part of the story, but when I did, I found myself adoring the story and craving for more.
Despite the book’s flaws, I really liked the overall story. Gong included many references from “Romeo and Juliet,” and unlike Marines’ opinion, I don’t think they were forced onto the reader. Gong used the classic red rose and white flowers to represent the Montagues and the Capulets, the put in the masquerade ball, she put in the famous balcony scene with a twist and even put in a classic scene of Shakespeare’s play at the end of her book.
Another thing I loved about Gong’s story is how she uses Shanghai’s setting, social climate, and Juliette’s experiences in America to talk about colonialism and racism. At the beginning of the book, when Gong shows us Juliette’s return to Shanghai, we see how it’s changed from when she was a little girl. The Communists, the French and the British have all made their way into the Scarlet Gang’s territory, and Juliette feared they were taking over her people’s land. Gong even references the Opium Wars, which destroyed China during the 1800s. We even get a back story to Juliette as she explains the racism she faced when she was in America due to her race and the pronunciation of her real name.
Later on in the book, we see how much the Europeans have affected Shanghai during the masquerade party and Gong uses this event to have Juliette’s father say one of the best lines in the story, “The most dangerous people are the powerful white men who feel as if they have been slighted.” The moments I talked about weren’t even the only scenes; there was so much more.
The last thing I loved about the book was the relationship between Roma and Juliette. While I would have liked to see more of their backstory. Gong did an amazing job replicating the longing and anguish that is famous within “Romeo and Juliet,” but instead of the anguish that comes from enemy families, she uses anguish in the form of hatred that came from betrayal. Seeing the characters, who were former lovers, attempt to work together to save their people, we see so much unresolved tension that ramps up the storytelling as we don’t know if Roma and Juliette plan to kill or kiss each other.
Overall, I rate this book a 4/5 stars. Booktok didn’t disappoint with this one, and I think many people would thoroughly enjoy this book if they got past the slow start. Add “These Violent Delights” into your TBR (to be read) immediately because there’s the sequel “These Violent Ends” that is already out and got popular on booktok. You can buy the book on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Books-A-Million or any local bookstore.