These Violent Delights plot summary
Roma and Juliette are on opposite sides of a war. The Montagovs and Scarlet Gang fight over their territories in Shanghai, leaving a pile of bodies in their wake. But now a mysterious monster is bringing new trouble to the people of the city. When the stakes get personal, can Roma and Juliette work together to save the city?
Content warnings
- Violence, including murder, some quite gory
- Character deaths
My thoughts on These Violent Delights
These Violent Delights is the debut novel by author Chloe Gong, and a twist on Romeo and Juliet. Set in 1920s Shanghai, it follows Juliette Cai and Roma Montagov. Heirs to rival gangs engaged in a bitter blood feud, they nonetheless met and fell in love. Unfortunately, it didn’t go well. Juliette is back in the city after a stint away, still seething over the betrayal that ended their relationship.
In an ideal world, she’d be able to keep a comfortable distance from the boy she loved. But this isn’t an ideal world. A terrible madness is causing the people of Shanghai to tear out their own throats, and danger to the people is the only thing that can still unite the two heirs. Roma and Juliette must set their feelings aside and work together to find and eliminate the cause of this madness.
There are quite a few characters to get your head around
The main characters of These Violent Delights are obviously Roma and Juliette, out star-crossed lovers. Juliette is ruthless and single-minded, quick to violence when necessary and devoted to her family. Roma is slightly softer, although you wouldn’t necessarily know it from watching him. He doesn’t relish the violence of the life he was born into. He’s also less inherently attached to his status as heir to the White Flower gang than his Scarlet counterpart. I warmed quickly to both of them, and they’re both compelling enough to hold up the story.
There are also a substantial number of side characters to keep track of though. Roma and Juliette each have a couple of close friends or relatives who we see a fair bit of. Juliette has Rosalind and Kathleen, sisters to each other, her cousins. Kathleen was the more engaging sister, what she wants more than anything is a quiet life, but her loyalty to Juliette trumps all.
Roma spent a lot of time with Benedikt and Marshall, who bring a lot of banter to the table. He also has a younger sister, Alisa, who likes to spy on the rest of the family and has a habit of getting into mischief.
But this isn’t even scratching the surface of the cast of characters. Roma and Juliette’s parents have some important moments within the story, and there are some other key gang members who come up a lot. Both Roma and Juliette have somebody poised to oust them as heir, although the specifics around each case are quite different. Then there are the politicians and key people of interest outside the gangs… it’s a lot!
How does These Violent Delights compare to Romeo and Juliet?
I’m not setting out to make a quality comparison between the two, to be clear. They’re completely different in so many ways that it’s not really a relevant comparison. But when something is setting out to retell a classic, I think it’s interesting to look at how it’s doing that. There are always going to be points of similarity and points of divergence.
In this case, the first thing that comes to mind for me is that the scope of These Violent Delights far exceeds that of Romeo and Juliet.
I’ve already talked about the characters, but there’s also a lot more to the plot. The madness, for one thing! Roma and Juliette are being forced to work together to try to work out what’s causing people to rip their throats out. As an aside, if you struggle with gore, you might need to skim over some of the descriptions of this happening. While it isn’t gratuitous, it was definitely difficult for me to read.
Back to the plot though! Madness aside, These Violent Delights also introduces a whole set of story threads around Shanghai politics. This was objectively interesting, but it did make for a seriously busy story.
Much like in the play, the romance is a major feature
Despite there being so much going on, These Violent Delights doesn’t sideline the central romance. The tension between Roma and Juliette is palpable, and as you read you learn more about their history. From how they met, to how they fell in love, to how it all fell apart.
Watching them struggle against the pull they feel towards each other was one of the highlights of this story for me. The romance is definitely paced out very slowly over the course of the book. Also, this is a duology, so you have to anticipate that you won’t get everything resolved in book one! The romance is one of those things, although I won’t go into any specifics about how that’s left at the end of the book.
As painful as it was in parts to watch them come so close to each other, only for circumstances or their baggage to get in the way, I think the romance was great. It felt believable and kept me invested.
I did have some nit-picks while reading These Violent Delights
This is probably a personal preference thing, but I found some of the writing frustrating. Some of the description was absolutely beautiful, but some felt overwrought and unnecessarily complicated. There was also a tendency for certain phrases to get used over and over again, which can start to really wear on you over 430 pages.
Also, for two intelligent and skeptical people, Roma and Juliette could be weirdly credulous at times. There were a few moments where they took something at face value that I thought sounded like an obvious stretch, or that could have easily been a complete lie. The fact that this caused so few problems for them made it feel like carelessness in the writing rather than a deliberate choice.
The book is complex and can be a lot to follow
The inclusion of Shanhai’s tense political situation at the time both enhances and hinders the story. It adds a fascinating dimension, and definitely makes the world feel more alive and anchored in reality. On the other hand, between the monster, the romance and the politics, it can be difficult to feel like anything’s getting enough space. And that’s even in a pretty chunky book.
Additionally, with so many characters, it’s inevitable you won’t get to spend as much time as you’d like with your favourite. I came out of the story wanting more of almost all of them! Although I guess that’s what book two is for.
I’m glad I read it, and although I don’t think it entirely lived up to the hype I thought it was a solid story. It’s definitely massively ambitious! It actually brings to mind some of the complexity of The Poppy War – although the two stories are quite different in tone.
Have you read These Violent Delights? I’d love to know what you thought! Let me know in the comments.
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