Book Review: Our Violent Ends by Chloe Gong

Our Violent Ends by Chloe Gong
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Once again, Chloe Gong KILLED IT in this book. I am still in emotional damage land, but it’ll be okay. I loved each and every moment of the book, and yes, I cannot wait for her next book in a new series, Foul Lady Fortune. The ending made me think about where Juliette and Roma now; did they actually die or did they fake their own deaths so they can go somewhere else and live their best lives?? Did they actually die??? What’s going to happen to them now??

And Benedikt and Marshall-how are they in Moscow?? Are they happy where they are??? I HAVE SO MANY QUESTIONS AND NOT ENOUGH ANSWERS.

But let’s get into the book review, shall we?

First off, Shanghai is going through a bit of a change. With the Nationalists and the Communists about to butt heads, every Scarlet and White Flower are killing each other in the streets, and Juliette and Roma are trying to find the monsters that were still in town. They don’t actually do that, with both Juliette and Roma keep trying to kill each other, especially when it comes down to someone blackmailing the gangs to give them a huge bunch of money.

They thought it was the Frenchmen doing what Daxter (I believe his name was) told them to do when he died, but in reality, it was something else. Rosalind had betrayed the Scarlet Gang and her punishment was bad, and Juliette and Roma, along with Benedikt and Marshall (yeah about Marshall…) found out who was the blackmailier and when the found that out, they found out a bunch of things as well.

For example, Juliette didn’t really kill Marshall. Marshall was hiding in a White Flower safehouse, alive and well, but has also watched out for Benedikt. Marshall is also the son of the Kuomoingtang General, General Shu, which shocked me and threw me off a bit, because I thought it was Seo for Marshall. But it turns out that it is, since Seo is Marshall’s mother’s name. Then when the Nationalists and the Communists are attacking each other, along with the Scarlets and the White Flowers, that’s when Marshall learns about his father’s order and knocked him out (ha ha).

For Kathleen and Rosalind, those two never seen each other, but then once the whole Nationalists/Communists attack happened, Kathleen dropped that name and went back as Celia, and helping the workers before they were viciously killed by the Nationalists, thinking that they were Communists (no). But Celia survived thanks to pushing down a body as he let loose a gunshot, and Rosalind pulled her out under those bodies.

Also the ending kinda shocked me and left me with a whole bunch of questions, and seeing Alisa at the end made me smile, and the short story was really good. Cannot wait for a really good reread of this series, because it was that good.

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Book Review: These Violent Delights by Chloe Gong

These Violent Delights by Chloe Gong
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

These Violent Delights by Chloe Gong...broke me in ways I never thought a book would. I thought that this was a nice, cute story about Juliette and Roma being all cute and stuff, BUT NO. Throw in a monster, and OH HELLO Y’ALL. This book immediately sucked me in the moment I read the first line in the book-In glittering Shanghai, a monster awakens. If that sentence doesn’t pull you in, I don’t know what will.

This fantastic book is about two gangs-The Scarlet Gang, ran by the Cai family, and the White Flowers, ran by the Montagov family. A madness is going around Shanghai, and it’s affecting the gangs, and both Juliette and Roma work together to stop all of this...if one can stop trying to pull out guns and knives at one another, this would be a perfect book. But nope. Add in the communists, a monster, a French gentleman who reminds me WAY TOO MUCH of Dex Dexter from Dynasty, and you have one hell of a story.

I loved the action so much in this book, and the monster and how it seemed like the Communist Zhang Gutai was behind it all. I honestly believed that it was him after all, summoning the monster to get rid of nearly half the workers and the gangsters on both sides-but at the end, they were wrong. So, so wrong. It wasn’t Zhang Gutai like they thought.

No, no, no.

It was actually his assistant, Mr. Qi Ren, who turned into the monster and sent out all those bugs after everyone-and I think he was controlled by Paul Dexter, that scheming son of a gun. But the shocker was the truth about what happened at that bombing with Juliette’s Nurse, and then Juliette getting her revenge on the White Flowers by telling them where Lady Montagova was. BUT WHEN JULIETTE SHOT MARSHALL...I went “Juliette WHY” and thought he was dead, but then it was all a rouse to show her cousin, Tyler (whomst I hate with a passion), but at least Marshall is okay.

BUT THE SIDE CHARACTERS. Kathleen, Benedikt and Marshall, Alisa, Tyler-ALL OF THEM WERE SO, SO GOOD. They were so fleshed out that I liked and loved all of them-all except Tyler, he can go to hell. And the secrets that came out...OMG. I was hanging on to my seat while reading them. I give this book a five out of five stars because of how good it really is. A Romeo and Juliet retelling? Sign me up PLEASE.

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