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inkandplasma 's review for:
These Violent Delights
by Chloe Gong
Full review available on my blog from 25/01/2021: https://inkandplasma.com/2021/01/25/these-violent-delights/
Thanks to Hodder & Stoughton for the eARC of this book. It has not affected my honest review.
Trigger Warnings: This book contains mentions and descriptions of blood, violence, gore, character deaths, explicit description of gouging self (not of their own volition), murder, weapon use, insects, alcohol consumption, parental abuse. Taken from author's Goodreads review.
I really liked the way that Chloe Gong approached the Romeo and Juliet retelling in These Violent Delights. It was unconventional and that made it really interesting. Rather than seeing the naive lovebirds section of the Romeo and Juliet story, instead Roma and Juliette have a fierce and fractured relationship instead. I won’t go into the reasons why because it’s so beautifully explored in the book. But it allowed for their incredible characterisations, Juliette in particular, to be fully explored.
Juliette is a raw, harsh character, and I absolutely adored that. She had her soft moments and a gentler side, but mostly she was exactly as tough and vicious as the daughter and heir to a gang leader would need to be. She’s cool. Absolutely the kind of character that I’d let step on me. I loved the way she was described, always noticeable in her distinctive flapper dresses and ’20’s hairstyles. It was super visual, even for me, and I loved it. Roma is a softer kind of character and equally loveable, and I adored the way that they both had their softer sides – but were capable of all the brutalities that gang war demands.
For some reason I wasn’t expecting the fantasy elements to this book. I have no idea how I missed that in the promotion, but for some reason I was expecting a standard Romeo and Juliet retelling so the monster in the first chapter was an immediate page-turning hook. I loved it. It had truly gory body horror moments (BUGS!!!) and was a lot of fun overall, with the fantastical mystery threaded through the emotional character driven moments really well.
I did find that it was a bit of a slow start. It took me a while to get into this book despite the good prose and gorgeous settings and characters. I’m not entirely sure why, but I’m glad I persevered with it. Once I’d gotten past the first third of the book, it picked up momentum and built to a fantastic ending that left me desperate to read more. I can’t wait for the final part in this duology to find out what happens next.
Thanks to Hodder & Stoughton for the eARC of this book. It has not affected my honest review.
Trigger Warnings: This book contains mentions and descriptions of blood, violence, gore, character deaths, explicit description of gouging self (not of their own volition), murder, weapon use, insects, alcohol consumption, parental abuse. Taken from author's Goodreads review.
I really liked the way that Chloe Gong approached the Romeo and Juliet retelling in These Violent Delights. It was unconventional and that made it really interesting. Rather than seeing the naive lovebirds section of the Romeo and Juliet story, instead Roma and Juliette have a fierce and fractured relationship instead. I won’t go into the reasons why because it’s so beautifully explored in the book. But it allowed for their incredible characterisations, Juliette in particular, to be fully explored.
Juliette is a raw, harsh character, and I absolutely adored that. She had her soft moments and a gentler side, but mostly she was exactly as tough and vicious as the daughter and heir to a gang leader would need to be. She’s cool. Absolutely the kind of character that I’d let step on me. I loved the way she was described, always noticeable in her distinctive flapper dresses and ’20’s hairstyles. It was super visual, even for me, and I loved it. Roma is a softer kind of character and equally loveable, and I adored the way that they both had their softer sides – but were capable of all the brutalities that gang war demands.
For some reason I wasn’t expecting the fantasy elements to this book. I have no idea how I missed that in the promotion, but for some reason I was expecting a standard Romeo and Juliet retelling so the monster in the first chapter was an immediate page-turning hook. I loved it. It had truly gory body horror moments (BUGS!!!) and was a lot of fun overall, with the fantastical mystery threaded through the emotional character driven moments really well.
I did find that it was a bit of a slow start. It took me a while to get into this book despite the good prose and gorgeous settings and characters. I’m not entirely sure why, but I’m glad I persevered with it. Once I’d gotten past the first third of the book, it picked up momentum and built to a fantastic ending that left me desperate to read more. I can’t wait for the final part in this duology to find out what happens next.