A review by sergek94
Our Violent Ends by Chloe Gong

adventurous emotional funny medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

 

Chloe Gong's fictitious and alternate interpretation of Shanghai continues its descent into chaos in this second and final installment of These Violent Delights. The monster that was terrorizing the city by releasing swarms of insects that crawl inside their victims and force them to violently kill themselves has been defeated, however, we end the first book with the terrifying discovery that more of these creatures exist. After the tumultuous end of the previous book, Juliette and Roma, two heirs to two opposing gangs in Shanghai, who have a lot of power on their hands, have switched from lovers to arch enemies,after Roma believes that Juliette murdered her cousin's friend/lover. This retelling of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliette continues, and despite not having been a fan of the first book, I had a sudden craving to read something light and easy, so I picked this up, having forgotten how much the first book had frustrated me. Unfortunately, not much has really changed in this one, except for it being longer and hence more frustrating to get through.

The same problems that plagued the first book for me continue to persist in this one. The writing is quite redundant, with the same concept of the city of Shanghai being a broken, divided and dangerous place being repeated over and over again throughout 500 pages, in an attempt to give the book a dark and gritty atmosphere but ultimately ending up taking away from its quality for me.I was left wanting to get to the point of the plot but instead having to read several paragraphs explaining how dangerous and divided Shanghai was. The relationship between Roma and Juliette continued to be quite infantile to read about,and the chemistry was very bland and not impactful for me. Interestingly enough, the side characters, especially Benedikt and Marshall and Kathlynn, were more interesting to read about than our main couple.

There were slight improvements in this book when it came to plot, with more action-packed scenes, but they were unfortunately dulled out by the incessant unnecessary descriptions about how dangerous the city was, and a writing style that didn't do a great job in getting me hooked to the story as much as I would have liked. Roma's character was underdeveloped and lacked a backbone in the first book, but he was better written in this one. Juliette was still her intense violent self, but she wasn't as intense and as irrational as she was in the first book. There was definitely an improvement to the side characters, and if they weren't there, this book would have been even more difficult to read for me.

I'm not sure how I feel regarding the ending, since the open-ended nature of it didn't really have the intended effect on me and left me more frustrated than satisfying. I was left thinking "is that it, after all the effort I've put into reading this book?".

I'm giving this one a 2.75 just like its predecessor. It just didn't do much for me and I wasn't feeling the compulsion to get back into the world every time I put the book down. Important to note that this had even less fantasy elements than the first one, so don't go into this expecting heavy fantasy.


 “They had always been two mirrored souls, the only ones who understood the other in a city that wanted to consume them whole, and now they were joined, mightier when together.”

You can also read my thoughts on:

#1. These Violent Delights (These Violent Delights, #1) by Chloe Gong.
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