These Violent Delights (Book 1), by Chloe Gong ★ ★ ★ ★ Loved it!

"These Violent Delights" is a retelling of the classic, Romeo and Juliet, but it’s set in the mid-20s in a tumultuous Shanghai.

These Violent Delights is a young adult, fantasy retelling of the classic, Romeo and Juliet, but it’s set in the mid-20s in a tumultuous Shanghai. The city is divided by two feuding gangs, while the Nationalists and Communists also vie for power. The White Flowers are run by the Russian Montagovs and the Scarlet Gang is ruled by the iron fist of the Chinese Cai family. When the two heirs of each warring gang, Roma and Juliette meet as children, they hope for a brighter future but their fate is already sealed.

Young love is torn apart by the blood feud, but years later the two are forced back together when a mysterious, rampant madness grips their beloved city. The two reluctantly join forces, scrambling for a future that isn’t promised, while also trying to outrun their past.

It’s exciting to read a retelling! You have that distinct sense of knowing what’s about to happen fighting for attention in your mind as you read. However, in reality, you’re just along for the ride like any other unknown plot, because, after all, a retelling doesn’t guarantee anything. 

Reading a new take on Shakespeare like this very much feels like connecting with the author on a personal level. You’re in the trenches of the plot and the characters, wondering just how far the author can take the original tale and how willing they are to throw it all out the window. It’s knowing without a doubt that your interpretation of a classic – even of this magnitude – is never the same as another’s.

A retelling like this with so many assumed judgments, set against such a uniquely combined modern and historical setting is pure genius. The cultural aspects of these warring forces alone, took the well-known story of Romeo and Juliet to an unbelievable level. There’s suddenly all of this much-needed reason and explanation behind their actions. The tension created by the legitimate political unrest, running parallel with the strictly prejudiced blood feud, had me invested and on the edge of my seat. In fact, I could have almost done entirely without the fantasy aspect and still would have loved it. What the East Asian and Russian cultures brought to the story alone, along with a backstory that fueled the desperation between the two main characters, was already an elevated version of Romeo and Juliette. The fantasy elements play off of some of the cultural myths and legends, but even without it, Gong executed These Violent Delights perfectly. 
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Click here to purchase These Violent Delights, by Chloe Gong.

She…hoped. And hope was dangerous. Hope was the most vicious evil of them all, the thing that had managed to thrive in Pandora’s box among misery, and disease, and sadness—and what could endure alongside others with such teeth if it didn’t have ghastly claws of its own?”
― Chloe Gong, These Violent Delights

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