Thursday, January 13, 2022

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Our Violent Ends by Chloe Gong

 




Our Violent Ends is the second half of Chloe Gong's YA* fantasy adaptation of Romeo and Juliet set in 1920s Shanghai, which began with last year's "These Violent Delights" (Reviewed Here).  Shifting the two protagonists - now Juliette Cai and Roma Montagov - to leaders of gangs in 1920s Shanghai, which is controlled in large part by foreign powers and also faces rival Nationalist and Communist Chinese factions, the story felt incredibly fresh even as it hit familiar plot beats.  So you had your classic Romeo and Juliet plot points (your balcony scene, your fake death) to go along with themes of colonialism, what it means for a place to be a home and a family to be a family, of love and of being one's self and more.  Oh and Juliette here is a ruthless heir to the gang more at home with garotte wire than a dress too, just to mix things up, and she and Roma worked so well, right up until the cliffhanger of the last book split them apart.  

*This duology is marketed as Young Adult, but other than the two leads being nineteen, there really isn't anything young adult about it, just as the original Romeo and Juliet isn't considered young adult.  I would easily recommend this series to adults, as it's just as serious and contemplative of real historical events and serious themes as any adult work, and similar books in the genre have been marketed specifically not as YA*

Our Violent Ends picks up months later and forms a very impressive conclusion to this duology.  1927 Shanghai was a volatile place that resulted in a horrific tragedy, and that forms the backdrop to this book, as Roma and Juliette are forced back together, as they try to save the ones they care about.  Their love is tested by a situation both fantastical - the monsters from the last book sort of return - and historical, as they find themselves caught up even worse in a conflict without any good sides or good answers, leading to an explosive conclusion.  I loved these characters in book 1, and I loved them again here, and this is a hell of a conclusion, once more dealing with serious themes as it challenges its protagonists' loves.  

Spoilers for book 1 below:  


---------------------------------------------------Plot Summary------------------------------------------------------
Months have passed since Juliette and Roma stopped the monsters' reign of terror, and since Juliette appeared to kill Roma's best friend Marshall Seo, tearing the two apart, with Roma swearing vengeance.  But secretly, Marshall is still alive, as Juliette faked his death to prevent her cousin Tyler from killing Roma and her both.  Not that it's seemed to do much good, as Tyler is still testing her at every moment, even as the blood feud between the Scarlet Gang and White Flowers gets deadlier and deadlier, and Juliette's father seems to be more and more willing to give in to the demands of the Nationalist forces marching through the country.  

But when someone begins to blackmail both the Scarlet Gang and the White Flowers by claiming to have control over five more monsters, Juliette and Roma find themselves tasked by their fathers to work together once more to figure out the culprit.  And as much as Roma wants to hate Juliette, and as much as she still insists she wants to kill him, he still can't put aside his feelings for her, and can't stop noticing how she reacts to protect him all the same - even as the White Flowers and Scarlet Gang begin murdering each other, and their two families, more and more.  But is there really hope for them to love each other after what each has done in the past?  

And even if there is, can their love survive a Shanghai on the brink of outright communist uprising, one which the Nationalist forces are determined to put down by any means necessary?  
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These Violent Delights was set and dealt in significant part about the effects of colonialism and foreign influence in Shanghai, as Juliette and Roma had to deal with French and British sectors of the city as they attempted to find the monster terrorizing both their gangs, and had to deal with how those foreigners acted like they were inferior all the while.  The story also set up the conflict between the Nationalist and Communist Chinese factions, but those were largely simmering underneath.  Here, except for one part early, things reverse, as this story, moving into 1927, takes place near entirely in the Chinese sectors of Shanghai, where the conflict between the two factions is simmering to a breaking point.  And while Juliette and Roma would prefer to take no part in either faction's plans, their fathers don't give them that choice, and nor does fate, as the conflict spreads into a bloody conflict that will tear everything and everyone they know apart.  Gong writes this incredibly well, using real historical events and tragedies as the backdrop for her tragic romances to go over the edge.  

And oh boy those romances.  Juliette and Roma are terrific, as they struggle between their attraction to each other and their reasons they should absolutely not get together - for Roma because Juliette seemed to kill Marshall and Benedikt wants her (logically dead); for Juliette, because she faked Marshall's death to prevent Tyler from killing Roma as a way to get at her, and for her to get close would be to betray that.  Juliette would rather she die hated than see Roma die, and refuses to hope that their could be happy ending for either of them, especially while she still cares about her family in the Scarlet Gang and Roma cares about his in the White Flowers.  But they can't quite pull it off, especially as they reveal moments of trying to protect the other, and they each find themselves more and more frustrated when the other puts themselves in harms way for a city that seems determined to explode into chaos and bloodshed with or without them.  

And then there are the other romances and relationships.  Benedikt and Marshall were not so subtly hinted to love each other in the last book, and that relationship eventually blossoms for real here (I guess minor spoiler about Marshall coming back, but you should see that coming) and it's done really really well.  I loved them both so much.  There's Roma's younger sister Alisa who is adorable as she tries to help her brother, sneaks around like a spy, and tries to push him and Juliette together like a charming brat know it all.  And then there are Juliette's cousins Celia/Kathleen and Rosalind, who are more of a mixed bag.  I love Kathleen/Celia's loyalty towards Juliette until she sees the Scarlet Gang as a lost cause and buys full into the Communist cause, emerging as a strong leader for them against impossible odds.  The only weakness in the cast is Rosalind, whose story arc feels like it didn't really mesh (although some of this may have been planted in the first book which I didn't reread prior to reading this novel), with her motivations often seeming to come out of nowhere.  

But otherwise this is so good, a great character story, which still has some of the structure if not the outright moments of the original Romeo and Juliet, but now set in the background of a different historical tragedy (I'm not mentioning it specifically here in case you don't know it and want to learn about it through this book and the author's note, but you can look it up) to give it a whole new flavor that works really well, and to end in a near perfect way.  I definitely recommend this duology for sure.  

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