Full of history, action, and romance, These Violent Delights is four hundred and fifty pages of fun with a lot of very eerie parallels to the world we are living in right now.

Her take is an entertaining and thought-provoking update that features a meticulously-crafted setting and a lovable and diverse cast of characters. Author Chloe Gong based the story on Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. If this story sounds familiar, that’s because it is. Chloe Gong (born 16 December 1998) is a Chinese-born New Zealand author of young adult fiction. I fell in love with the other characters too and Gong does a good job at making them come to life.

I also enjoyed the backstory and the development of the relationship between Roma and Juliette. Gong does a really great job of world-building. But when a mysterious and deathly pandemic takes Shanghai by surprise, they choose to set aside their differences in order to save their beloved city. The premise is fun and sexy, the whole Romeo and Juliet with gangs in Shanghai and a badass fmc. Though their families have warred for decades, Juliette and Roma were lovers until a painful rift tore them apart years ago. Then there’s Roma, son of the rival gang, the White Flowers. There’s Juliette, returned from abroad to reclaim her place as eventual leader of the Scarlet Gang (a criminal enterprise run by her family). This buzzy YA novel set in 1920s-era Shanghai is actually about two heroes. When I first picked up this book I thought, this is wild, and then I couldn’t put it down for 3 days. The stories and the worlds can vary widely-from The Lord of the Rings-style epics to dragons fighting in the sky-but each time, without fail, you’ll find a classic tale of a young, untested hero fighting forces of evil and maybe finding love along the way. I’ve always been the kind of person who roots for the underdog, which is one reason why I love young adult fantasy books so much.

Chloe gong these violent delights