Our Violent Ends: Book Review

by lauralizbuckley | Jan 29, 2022 | Book Reviews

Our Violent Ends plot summary

It’s safer for Juliette to let Roma hate her, even if it hurts. She knows she needs to let him think the worst of her to protect him from the blood feud that consumes both their families.

Roma is furious with Juliette. He may still love her, but he hates her just as much. If killing her is the only way to start healing from her betrayal, he knows that’s what he must steel himself to do.

Unfortunately, the two are going to have to set their differences aside once again. A new threat is emerging in their city. Between the monsters and the political upheaval, the heirs to Shanghai’s biggest rival gangs may be so distracted that they forget they’re supposed to be enemies.

Content warnings

Blood and gore
Death
Murder
Torture
Grief

My thoughts on Our Violent Ends

Our Violent Ends, by Chloe Gong, is the sequel to These Violent Delights. As such, spoilers for These Violent Delights are pretty much unavoidable! But, as usual, this review will be spoiler-free for Our Violent Ends.

At first I thought Our Violent Ends was going to reset us to square one

These Violent Delights ended on what felt like a big reveal. Although the immediate enemy was defeated, they had only unleashed a greater horror. The impression we were left with was that this new threat was immediately making itself known, so when Our Violent Ends started without reference to this, I was a little bemused.

I was also wary of Roma and Juliette being right back where they started. Having spent book one learning that they could trust each other again and getting closer, I was afraid we were just going to re-hash that whole arc.

It didn’t take long though to see that the book was building on These Violent Delights in some interesting ways.

Both Roma and Juliette have been changed by the events of the first book

Juliette found her limit in the first book. Despite her ruthlessness, she made clear that there are things she’s not prepared to do, and people who matter to her. More people than she might have initially let on, in fact. I loved seeing her drop in to take care of Marshall, hiding out in one of her safe houses.

She’s also much clearer on her feelings about Roma, which made for one of the crucial changes to the romance dynamic.

Roma, on the other hand, has been hardened by the events of book one. He still thinks Juliette killed Marshall, and his rage and guilt are overwhelming. Benedikt, almost as furious with Roma as he is with Juliette, isn’t speaking to his cousin, and the schism is hurting both of them.

While Roma thinks he’s determined to kill Juliette, he still struggles when he actually gets an opportunity. The habits of loving her turn out to be hard to break, even as he hates himself for it.

The love story remains central, of course

The main thing keeping Roma and Juliette apart is this deception, Juliette refusing to tell him that she saved Marshall. Given that this sort of thing normally annoys me, I actually thought Chloe Gong did a great job in Our Violent Ends to make that feel reasonable. Juliette isn’t just being overdramatic; she has good reasons to keep this secret.

In some ways, Roma’s feelings towards Juliette mirrored her feelings towards him from the first book. It was interesting to see how differently that played out in him though, as a generally softer character.

The two are forced to work together, like in These Violent Delights, but in this book their parents are aware of it. Not just aware, they essentially force them into it. That adds another fun point of difference to the way things worked in book one. And, of course, eventually they have to give in to their feelings!

Once again, I think the pacing of the romance was great and felt completely believable for the characters. Definitely a highlight of this book.

There are still a lot of other characters in the cast

Kathleen and Benedikt were great, and I loved getting to spend some more time with them. Benedikt’s mourning for Marshall in particular was beautifully illustrated. It was also interesting to see a little more of Juliette’s main rival for the position of heir to the Scarlet gang.

Some of the characters around Roma and Juliette seemed not to be handled as well. The main one who felt off to me, particularly compared to the first book, was Rosalind. I felt like her character was all over the place, and the way she behaved towards Kathleen and Juliette was inconsistent. She seemed to be building up to some kind of conflict with them in book one, and this felt like it vanished into thin air in Our Violent Ends.

The plot is a tangled, complex beast

If anything, things have become even more complicated since book one. Chloe Gong continues to weave in historical events around the political tensions in Shanghai, and these events take on even more plot relevance in book two. This means more characters and loyalties to keep track of.

There are also new monsters on the loose, which means Roma and Juliette have to track down their origin and figure out how to neutralise the threat they pose. There are a lot of investigative threads to follow as part of this.

Additionally, there’s a traitor in the Scarlet Gang. This was touched on in the first book, of course. At one point it looked like the hunt for this spy was going to be made more central, but then it got largely forgotten. At least until it could tie into another plot thread.

Personally, I’d have liked to see more emphasis on the traitor storyline and less on the main characters’ relationship to the political side of things. I know not everyone will agree with me on this! But although I thought the citywide tensions helped to add texture to the plot and were interesting in abstract, I thought they overcomplicated the central story. Bringing the hunt for the spy forward in place of the more large-scale political side of things would, I think, have helped to keep the stakes more personal.

I enjoyed Our Violent Ends, possibly even more than These Violent Delights

Despite some of the confusing or less-engaging elements, it was a great read. Once I was fully immersed in the story I got through it pretty quickly, despite it being a chunky book! It’s fun to read through with an eye out for nods to Romeo and Juliet, but I don’t think you’ll enjoy it any less if you aren’t familiar with the play.

It can be difficult to stick the landing on a duology, especially one as complex as this one. I think the Our Violent Ends ending does a great job of bringing things to a satisfying close. Although if you’re wondering whether the author has stayed true to the original as far as the ending goes? You’re going to have to read it to find out!

Have you read either of the books in this duology? Do you agree with my take? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!