Wow. That took a lot longer than I thought it would.

So I bought These Violent Delights by Chloe Gong back in 2020 when it got released, got Our Violent Ends for Christmas 2021, but both sat on my shelves until earlier this year when I sold them. I don’t know what it was, but I just couldn’t bring myself to read it. Well, I do know. The answer is simple the hype.

I don’t do well with reading books when there’s a whole lot of hype surrounding it. I had to throw myself into Fourth Wing without a second thought just to get through it, knowing the building hype would leave me unable to read it for years. There was so much about These Violent Delights that I was anticipating – A New Zealand YA Author making her big break, a Shakespearean retelling of Romeo and Juliet amidst a historical fiction setting, and all the talk that comes with a highly anticipated YA release. I started it, maybe getting to chapter five, and could not continue.

That gets us here – early August 2023 where I’ve finally, finally, read These Violent Delights and I am pleasantly surprised by the depths and layers to this novel. We have the Shakespearean element and the funny references, intentional to the characters or otherwise, and the subliminal understanding of what will befall the characters. We have the 1920s Shanghai setting involving natives and foreigners and all the social conflicts that come with that. We have a scientific element which creates its own challenges amid the eastern-centric practices the Scarlets stand by and the progressive practices the White Flowers support. We also have the political conflicts with the Nationalists and the Communists battling it out to gain a solid foothold in a rapidly evolving city like Shanghai where everyone is flocking to. There is also an underlying current of nuance with social and personal conflicts involving gender and sexuality, though it is not outrightly stated.

This novel carries within its pages a lot more than I expected of a Romeo and Juliet retelling. Chloe Gong has done a wonderful job of establishing a window into the late 1920s Shanghai we see; the shifting foundations of the city during a time of great social, political, technological and scientific development. We get those issues sewn into the fabric of this novel and within the creation of these characters. We are also given a landscape where the conflicts and issues are more intertwined and basic prejudice and blood-feuding within the gangs restrict the paths characters can investigate the truth of the matter plaguing the city.

I don’t normally do well with Shakespeare retellings, much like how my tolerance for fairytale retellings has dwindled. The more an author relies on the original text within their recreation that more I feel compelled to DNF the book. I’m glad this wasn’t the case here. Not only do I feel like I should read Our Violent Ends but I feel like continuing with Chloe’s works – the Foul Lady Fortune duology and Immortal Longings have made it onto my tbr list.