"Paul Dexter had thought himself to be a puppeteering god commanding the city. But he knew nothing. He controlled little save for coincidences and terror. He was the hand gripping a barely controlled mass of chaos. 

This time the chaos will take shape, grow jaws and sharp teeth, prowl the corners for any opportunity to attack. 

And it will have the city dance on its strings." 

"Lovers turned to strangers, and it cut deep enough to bleed." 

"...She would rather die at Roma's hand than be the cause of his death." 

"...No one learns to fight in one day." 

Unsurprisingly, I enjoyed Chloe Gong's Our Violent Ends just as much as the debut These Violent Delights. In this sequel, Gong continues the riveting enemies-to-lovers (back-to-enemies, back-to-lovers) storyline, with a similar slow-burn. The downfall is the length - while I didn't mind it so much with These Violent Ends, I feel like it didn't need to be as long as it's preceding novel. Some seemingly unnecessary details made it a bit harder to follow, and therefore a tad less enjoyable than These Violent Delights. However, Gong still did a brilliant job of keeping the plot interesting. While I was able to anticipate the circumstances in regards to Rosalind, I did not expect the twist involving Marshall Seo at all. I was quite impressed when that was revealed. Though the deterioration of the relationship between Juliette and her father was expected, I was still disappointed because I had some false hope that her father would follow her in whatever she did. And while I did not much enjoy the ending, I do understand that it ended the way it did to allow for more to be written on the story. Roma and Juliette's tale is compelling, one that you don't ever want to conclude entirely. If Gong can continue her heated writing style in her next books, then I will be delighted to read them, even if I have to skim over some of the irrelevancies. A longer book doesn't make it a better book...but again, a decent, enjoyable read.