“If you decided to run, you might as well keep running until you came to the edge of the world. That is what this city is. The party at the end of the world.”
— Chloe Gong, These Violent Delights
In a refreshing twist for contemporary young adult fiction, Chloe Gong brings readers a retelling of Romeo and Juliet in 1920s Shanghai, the glittering city partying into oblivion even as multiple forces threaten to send it buckling. The Scarlet Gang and White Flowers, rival gangs of equal proportions, have been embroiled in a decades-long conflict. Meanwhile, unruly local workers aim to topple the city and the foreign powers that have seized control, including France and Britain. As a contagious madness grips Shanghai, the heirs to the ruling gangs, Juliette Cai and Roma Montagov, must come together before the plague guts the city.
Leading the reader through the infinite streets and alleys of Shanghai, the author provides an intimate view of the epitomized eastern and western conflict, a tug-of-war not lost upon her protagonists. Chloe Gong primarily writes the story through the perspective of Juliette Cai, an heiress who liberally fires acerbic commentary as her people are ironically bothered and unjustly treated; the older generations are too engrossed in the power struggle to question the parasitic and unfair occupation. Juliette is dripping with resentment at this injustice, and it is indulgent and refreshing.
It is difficult to confine this novel into a single genre, as dismissing the story based on the youth-adult rating will lead you to miss out on the enthralling mystery plotline and science-fiction elements. These Violent Delights has a persistent will-they-won’t-they dynamic—and pining, so much pining between the protagonists—that will keep romance fans hooked to the end. It almost feels like the novel is indecisive, switching between various plot elements at a disconcerting pace, although this back-and-forth accentuates the plot’s breakneck progression.
Chloe Gong tends to tangle the plot at times, with the characters frequently flow in-and-out of flashbacks to the point of confusion for the reader. Flashbacks serve an expository purpose, clarifying the complicated relationship between the protagonists who continue to pine for one another although their families are sworn enemies. Sometimes the flashbacks are quite jarring, and the reader may wonder if there is no better way? Similarly, to make matters more dissatisfying, the author often plunges readers into painful episodes from the past that the characters themselves never dwell on long enough to create a real impact.
Author Chloe Gong makes up for this by completely transporting the reader into 1920s Shanghai. Her descriptions are so rich and detailed that you will find yourself marveling at the neoclassical glories of Shanghai Waitan, taking a stroll through the Yuyou Gardens, or simply immersed in ordinary life as you inhale the smells of vegetable markets and steamed dumpling. If you have been to Shanghai, you are likely familiar with these sights and experiences but potentially unfamiliar with the dark underbelly the author illustrates: as the facade of burlesque dancers and jazz music slip to reveal a city buckling under decades of gang violence and blood feuds.
If months upon months of social isolation have left you yearning for new sights and sounds, or a fresh spin to a place you are familiar with, These Violent Delights is the book for you.
Section Editor: Anisha Joshi
Section: Literature & Art
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