These Violent Delights by Chloe Gong

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I heard all the hype about this book.
1920s Shanghai...Romeo and Juliet retelling...the author is literally a uni student as well as a bestselling author...Chinese Juliette and Russian Romeo...slow burn...enemies to lovers...
I heard it ALL.
I was convinced from the start really but my library didn't have a copy yet so I either had to wait ages for an e-book OR I could spend money and buy it.
I did the latter. And oh boy am I glad.
I was in a reading slump when I first started this book so it felt slow and tedious to read (at that point, all books did because despite reading books on and on, I still felt like I was just in such a slump) so I put it down temporarily and I focused on my other books.
Y'all I am going to scream about this book till the end of time.
First off, the White Rose gang. Something I am incredibly picky about are Russian characters in a book. These were perfect.
The reason I say this is the author used the correct last name ending for the different characters. Roma's, obviously a guy, last name is Montagov. Alisa's, his sister, a girl, last name is Montagova. The correct ending! And I cannot stress this enough!
I really loved the Russian words thrown in because I actually understood them haha. Re: the word "chudovishe" which means monster. Also Roma calling Juliette "dorogaya" had me in my FEELS. Dorogaya means dearest btw.
I can't exactly comment on the Chinese representation but I did enjoy Gong's representation of being Chinese (or simply Asian) in America/The West and then coming back home and feel alienated in a different way. I think, no matter where from Asia you are, that is something that Asians who come to "the West" all feel. That they are obviously different and are often made fun of, either for their looks, their language, their food or their name. And then if we ever go back home, relatives might make fun because you are now too "westernized". But I think that is a conversation for another time.
I loved the allusions to Romeo and Juliet even though the play definitely isn't my favourite from Shakespeare (Macbeth still remains superior) and I enjoyed guessing which characters from this book lined up with the characters from the original play.
I also got an ARC of Our Violent Ends which, I believe, comes out in November (not too long from now actually) and I read like the first two chapters and let me tell y'all...

YOU AREN’T READY