These Violent Delights Book Review

“Astra inclinant,” he would whisper into the wind, so heartachingly sincere even when quoting in Latin, “sed non obligant.

The stars incline us, they do not bind us”

Chloe Gong’s debut Young Adult novel, These Violent Delights, was a glittering gem of a book. The book oscillates between the historical fiction, fantasy, and romance genres. My good friend and fellow senior English Major, Emma MacKinnon, recommended this book to me, and I loved it. Gong’s novel is a retelling of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, with Juliette Cai, heir of the Scarlet Gang and Roma Montagov, heir of the White Flowers gang in Shanghai during the 1920s. They belong to rival gangs where murder and betrayal run rampant. They fall in love when they are fifteen, but terrible events, the result of miscommunication, secrecy, and loyalty, occur which drive them apart. And four years later, their paths cross again, but the seared memories of pain and hurt, drive them to resent each other. However, a river monster emits insects (or “Little black specks”) that ensnare individuals into a trance where they tear at their own throats, bleeding to death (4). Juliette and Roma muster up every ounce of willpower to put aside their differences to work together, evading the eyes of both their families, to discover the root of the problem. It’s a story about love, violence, friendship, family, imperialism, and orientalism.

I love Gong’s writing because her descriptions are glowing, and I loved how the city was another character breathing and judging from a bird eye’s view. In the “Prologue,” the descriptions of the monster paired with the glittering, yet grim Shanghai are compelling: the monster lurks, slithers, and hunt, eyes fixed on those who come close to the river. The city also known as “the Paris of the East, the New York of the West” is described as being “filthy and deep in the thrall of unending sin, so saturated with kiss of decadence that they sky threatens to buckle and crush all those living vivaciously beneath it in punishment” (1-2). In comparing the two, Gong equates darkness and sin in the monster and the city. The opening foreshadows the destruction and downfall waiting to occur. The imagery of suspense in the beginning was set up well and captivated my attention.

Set in Shanghai during the 1920s, Gong draws on historical events through incorporating civil unrest and multiple languages into the narrative. In Caitlyn Paxson, NPR review of Gong’s book, she states that Shanghai is a “city pulled in many different directions as the consequences of historical events spill into the streets – the Opium Wars, the rise of communism, the ongoing supremacist battle between the French and English – it’s all here on the page, tangled up and complicated” (Paxson 1). The historical contexts are important to pay attention to because Gong touches on orientalism with the foreigners like Paul Dexter who believe they can waltz into the city and make racist declarations, such as “For a Chinese woman, your English is extraordinary. There is not a trace of an accent to be found” (317). Additionally, Paul fetishizes Juliette as Chinese woman, but Juliette stands her ground and plays her role in extracting information from him. Previously, she studied in New York City where she experienced discrimination: people gawking at her and judging her for being in America, and she continues to face microaggressions being thrown at her in Shanghai. In scholar Julia H. Lee’s article about the commodification of Asian American women and motherhood, she mentions the Page Act of 1875, which brought on the “association between the Chinese and sexual immorality—and Chinese women and prostitution,” justifying the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882 (64). The over sexualization of Chinese women occurs in this book not only in Juliette’s character, but with Rosalind who “under contract here [burlesque club] to dance” dressed in the “fashionable qipao sweeping through Shanghai like a wildfire. With the outrageous slit down the side revealing ankle to thigh and the high collar acting like a choke hold, the design was a blend of Western flamboyance with Eastern roots” for foreign merchants (8-9). The description of the qipao reveals how much Western culture has infused into Shanghai, and the equating of the “high collar” to a “choke hold” denotes the Western’s desire for power and sexualization of Chinese woman. She also includes multiple languages in her book: English, Russian, Mandarin, Cantonese, and French to name a few. The inclusion of multiple languages displays how people have immigrated there for refuge and a new life, while others come in pridefully for mercenary and imperial power. Many of the characters are compelled to learn different languages because of the presence of other countries attempting to assert power and garner auspicious profits.

She also writes biting, sitting-at-the-edge of your seat action and swoon worthy romantic scenes. Juliette and Roma have a complicated slow burn romance, with both characters despising, yet loving the other. Enflamed moments of tenderness burned with anger reveal the depth of pain that Juliette and Roma harbor in their souls. Gong writes the balance between hate and love closely: “Roma had told Juliette that her anger was like a cold diamond. It was something she could swallow smoothly, something to be placed upon other people, gliding along their skin in glitter and glamour before they realized far too late that the diamond had sliced them into pieces” (208). In using a simile of a cold diamond to encapsulate Juliette’s anger, Gong depicts Juliette as unexpected and cunning. A lot of the novel has to do with deception in the appearance of beauty with dark undertones. Roma’s anger contrasts Juliette’s: “an uncontrollable wave of fire that knew no subtlety” (208). The polarity of Roma’s and Juliette’s anger places them at odds with each other but also as complements—they can work together and destroy each other. Anger is a prominent theme, anger that is transferred from their parents onto them.

One of my absolute favorite Juliette and Roma moments is when they have to embrace in order to distract a British man who has a gun concealed behind his newspaper, aimed directly at them.

“Untie your coat and embrace me,” Roma said.

“You’re kidding,” she said.

“No, I’m not,” Roma countered evenly. “Do it, so I can shoot him” (259-260).

The juxtaposition of the calm and tender pause of embracing before the looming, dangerous and violent moment captures the paradoxes of their relationship. Love mixed with fear, violence, survival skills. The next moment reads, “She wrapped her arms around Roma’s neck” (260). The line is alone in its own paragraph. The still of them embracing displays how well they work together because they do care about each other. The sexual tension soars in that pause when they are touching.

The secondary characters of Juliette’s friends, Kathleen and Rosalind Lang (paternal twins), and Roma’s cousin, Benedikt Montagov, and Roma’s friend, Marshall Seo were all fascinating to read. They each play a role in uncovering the mystery of the pervading disease. I also loved the subtle, budding secondary romance between Benedikt and Marshall. I thought Gong’s crafting of the ending was brilliant. It was an intriguing twist on Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet because Marshall is the one who drinks the potion that makes him appear dead, and Juliette has to hide in a safe house because of the feud between the gangs. Marshall says to Juliette one word, “Benedikt” (438). He longs to let him know, but Juliette states that it is too dangerous. I hope we see more of Benedikt and Marshall’s relationship in the sequel, Our Violent Ends, stated to be released this month. The novel ends on a cliffhanger with the culprit, Paul, despite being killed, sending out his grim message, “In the event of my death, release them all” (439). The ominous tone builds suspense, and I’m looking forward to reading the sequel and seeing what the stars have in store for all the characters.