Thank you to netgalley and the publishers for an advanced readers copy of Our Violent Ends!
I am honestly speechless, if you thought the first book was incredible just wait until you see what Chloe has done with this one.
This series is a Romeo and Juliet fantasy retelling set in Shanghai in the 1920s and I highly recommend you check out the first book in this series before this one comes out in November.
After I finished the epilogue, I sat and stared at my wall for a solid 5 minutes before I could even move and when I did, I just went back and reread all my highlights (I highlighted pretty much every page THE QUOTES IN THIS BOOK ARE INCREDIBLE) because I just couldn’t get enough of romajuliette, benmars and every single character in this book, they all had me hooked.
These characters all hold such a special place in my heart and I could feel all their struggles, pain and happiness Chloe's writing is truly beautiful
The amount of parallels to the first book had me yelling every time I caught one, I would just pause, pick up TVD, look for the quote, scream then go back to reading OVE. I’m pretty sure I experienced every single emotion reading this book and I can’t recommend it enough.
All I can say is if you haven’t read TVD yet this is you sign do it right now you will not be disappointed and I can't wait to see what Chloe has in store for us in Foul Lady Fortune!
Ps. Chloe pay for my therapy bills after this please.

Chloe Gong’s growth from her first book to second is profound. There were moments in the first book that left me bored where with this book I was hooked from the first chapter til the end. I was holding my breath through the whole book and deeply invested in all the characters. This book is a great end to this duology and I can’t wait to see what Chile Gong writes next. My heart might still hurt but it was worth it to read this masterpiece.

Monsters return to 1920s Shanghai. Tension is heating up between Communists and Nationalists, and the blood feud between the Scarlet Gang and White Flowers rages on. Roma hates Juliette for killing Marshall, but as readers learned, Juliette is always one step ahead. Everything she does is not for the Scarlets, it is for Roma. He just has to catch up and see that.

To keep power, the White Flowers and Scarlet Gangs will do anything they can. Who is controlling the monsters this time? Who will have the vaccine? Is it better to back the Communists or the Nationalists? Time will tell as Our Violent Ends comes to a close.

I enjoyed this book SO MUCH more than These Violent Delights. I liked that this one was more character driven, and I felt more of the plot was cohesive. Don’t get me wrong, TVD was beautifully written, but Our Violent Ends is even better. You can see how Chloe Gong has grown as a writer.

Readers see more of the romance between Roma and Juliette, which is a plus and crucial to this retelling of Romeo and Juliet. However, my favorite part was seeing more of the side characters of Benedikt, Marshall, and Kathleen. Their storylines seem like this world Chloe Gong has created could go further. (Fingers crossed!)

All said, this book is definitely for older teens/high school students. I didn't find it as gory as TVD, but there is still a lot of violence and blood-- it is rival gangs after all- and some suicide ideation.

What a fantastic follow-up to a great historical fantasy/romance. This story marvels in beauty at the realism it creates; you can tell Chloe Gong has done adequate work making this world as realistic as possible. I also like that she pays homage to the source material, but also doesn't shy away from flipping tropes on their head. Knowing that there is more coming from Gong and this world, I am very, very eager to see what's in store. Thank you for the e-arc!

ABSOLUTELY AMAZING. everything i was hoping for in the conclusion and more. a perfect blend of retelling and originality. i will read anything chloe gong writes from here on out.

All I can say is that this book truly is an end both as violent and as beautiful as 1920’s Shanghai.

Our Violent Ends balances tragedy and warmth, betrayal and passion, lies and love in a beautiful and compelling dichotomy. From Roma and Juliette’s complicated conflict, to Benedikt and Marshall’s dynamic, to the sisterly relationship between Kathleen and Rosalind - Chloe Gong delivers in every way possible. She paints a stunning portrait of a city lusting for change.

If you’re like me and found yourself drawn to the secondary protagonists in These Violent Delights - Benedikt, Marshall and Kathleen - then you are 100% in for a treat. OVE is more character driven, so you get to see the secondary characters follow their own paths throughout the novel and get time to shine on their own. I found myself falling deeper and deeper in love with the ensemble.

This book was everything I wanted - a crossover from hell that played into my favourite tropes, spoke of issues close to my heart and played with my emotions like putty. I read it obsessively - Chloe stole every hour of my spare time. I’m sitting here barely suppressing a whole barrage of feelings because. Oh. My. God. This book really did it to me. It had me crying, yelling and aww-ing. There’s this one quote that’s been living in my mind rent free, day and night, and it’s slowly killing me that I can’t tell anyone what it is.

This second instalment also dives deeper into the sociopolitical dynamics within 1920’s Shanghai. It paints a thrilling, brutal picture of revolution and its price. The addition of societal analyses and political turmoil alongside fantasy elements, romantic drama and character conflict added depth to the read.

For others like me who are currently in love with Leigh Bardugo’s Six of Crows and Cassandra Clare’s Last Hours and Infernal Devices Trilogies: This will, I assure you, deliver on everything you’ve been craving.

Chloe’s writing is poetic and powerful - Our Violent Ends is a perfectly imperfect conclusion to a gorgeous duology.

I'm always a little nervous when I start reading a sequel to a book I really liked. So often the story takes too long to catch you back up and repeats itself, or it doesn't catch you up and you need to remember. But #OurViolentEnds by #ChloeGong lives up to its 5-star rating. I didn't feel like I missed a beat catching up where These Violent Delights left off--Roma and Juliette still battling a blood feud between their rival gangs after the events with the monsters in the first book alongside the rising developments between the Communists and the Nationalists in 1920s Shanghai. The story continues to build with Roma and Juliette's feelings for each other overlapping the complexity of their family name; this provides an emotional connection throughout the story on the backdrop of the rise of new monsters as well as the violent outbreaks on the streets. With a balance of action and emotion as well as a mix of some fantasy and historical fiction, this book will prove an excellent purchase for any library. Many thanks for the publishers and #NetGalley for this ARC.

If you thought the first book was incredible just wait until you see what Chloe has done with this one. This series is a Romeo and Juliet fantasy retelling set in Shanghai in the 1920s and I highly recommend you check out the first book in this series before this one comes out in November.
After I finished the epilogue, I sat and stared at my wall for a solid 5 minutes before I could even move and when I did, I just went back and reread all my highlights (I highlighted pretty much every page THE QUOTES IN THIS BOOK ARE INCREDIBLE) because I just couldn’t get enough of romajuliette, benmars and every single character in this book, they all had me hooked.
The amount of parallels to the first book had me yelling every time I caught one, I would just pause, pick up TVD, look for the quote, scream then go back to reading OVE. I’m pretty sure I experienced every single emotion reading this book and I can’t recommend it .

Every single character was so well developed and not a single one was one dimensional you're bound to connect to half if not all the characters and it made my experience reading it so much better.
All I can say is if you haven’t read TVD yet this is you sign do it right now you will not be disappointed.
Ps. Chloe pay for my therapy bills after this please.

Thank you to Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing and Netgalley for giving me an eARC copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Our Violent Ends was a masterpiece and Chloe Gong has proven herself to be a compelling storyteller. This thrilling and emotional conclusion to the These Violent Delights duology takes place in 1920s Shanghai, where Roma Montagov and Juliette Cai are enemies. Or at least, that’s what their families want them to believe. Roma and Juliette are on two opposing gangs in a blood feud that has lasted for decades, but no one even remembers why it started.

This beautiful twist on the story of Romeo & Juliet adds in other themes as well. Filled with historically accurate political concepts, Roma and Juliette must maneuver this political minefield while also stopping the monsters from attacking again. A new “larkspur” is in control of the monsters now that Paul is gone and both gangs are being threatened. Working together this time proves to be trouble, especially when Roma believes Juliette murdered one of his best friends. It had to be done to prevent her cousin, Tyler, from taking her place as the Scarlet Gang’s heir and killing Roma to do so. Juliette will do whatever is necessary to keep Roma alive, even if it means losing a relationship with him forever.

Wow. Just wow! I cannot believe Chloe Gong is the same age as me and has written one of my top 10 books I’ve read (counting series as one book)! Oftentimes I find retellings to be worn out, after all it’s the same story with different settings, but Chloe made this her own. This book is a beautiful homage to Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet, while also being separate enough to leave me on my toes. I found myself thinking one thing would happen, only to be thoroughly surprised when it did not.

I cannot express my love for this book enough, and I will definitely be rereading this for years to come. Not once did I feel like the pacing dragged! The prose was beautifully done and even when something made me sad, I found myself saying “Yes, Chloe, yes!” I cannot wait to read her spin-off duology in 2022. I expect great things from Chloe Gong in the future and she is an automatic buy author for me.

I really enjoyed how the author was able to retell the story of Romeo and Juliet in this way. I will say that the first half of the book was a little slow going for me but once it picked up, it was hard to put down. Even knowing the story and how things are supposed to play out, I still had no idea how this version would go. Some of the twists and reveals I found predictable but the way the story plays out was still enjoyable. Definitely the one of the best retellings of Romeo and Juliette I have read.

(4.5, rounded up)

This book was just--wow. Probably one of the most stressful books I've ever read, but in the best way possible. When reading These Violent Delights, it took me a good chunk of the book to get into the story, but Our Violent Ends had me utterly hooked from the start. The writing made me feel as though I was in 1920s Shanghai right along side Roma and Juliette.

One of the things that truly sets this book apart from other Romeo and Juliet retelling is its unique ability to reshape the borrowed characters and make them anew. While this book maintains a high stakes conflict, the characters still drive the book. The balance of plot and character development was extremely well done, and if I thought I loved the characters after reading the first book, I was proved completely wrong. Our Violent Ends had me so insanely invested in this characters I was holding my breath every time something seemed to go wrong.

In a way, Our Violent Ends felt like a completely different book then These Violent Delights. The author's substantial growth as a writer became abundantly clear from the get-go. Our Violent Ends truly takes you into the heart of Shanghai, and the switch in point-of-views was utilized much more effectively, giving the reader a greater understanding of each side involved.

The ending of this book just absolutely crushed me. Chloe Gong threw my heart down the garbage disposal and ran away. This book was more than just a retelling, it truly managed to create an entirely new narrative that is both as beautiful and heartbreaking as its source material.

It is now time for me to sit and wait--laughing maniacally--for you all to get a chance to read this show-stopping sequel to These Violent Delights. Our Violent Ends was an amazing conclusion to new top duology of mine. It won't disappoint.

Be aware that like the source material, Our Violent Ends does feature suicidal ideation and actions. As always, be kind to yourself.

Thank you to Simon and Schuster Publishing for providing me with an eARC of Chloe Gong’s “Our Violent Ends” for me to read and review honestly.

“Our Violent Ends” provides an action-packed conclusion to Chloe Gong’s debut “These Violent Delights” duology. The book had me on my toes the entire way through, keeping me turning pages and unable to set down the book for even one moment. This “Romeo and Juliet” retelling set in 1920s Shanghai explores the complications faced by the direct heirs and overall next generation of two ruling gangs. It has a perfect mix of historical politics and added fantasy aspects carried over from its prequel and then magnified into a finale that explores the truth of the reemergence of the monster threatening the world that Roma and Juliette have always known as well as their constantly shifting forbidden romance. While the infection being spread by a mysterious monster was the true antagonist of “These Violent Delights”, “Our Violent Ends” cultivated this idea of a “monster” as its own source as an opponent into more of a weapon within a world where politics are always on the edge of change. Interspersed throughout this revolution-filled, whirlwind of a novel was beautiful character development that truly had me shedding tears at some moments, smiling big at others, as well as holding my breath and crossing my fingers not knowing how things would end up for Juliette and Roma, Benedikt and Marshall, and Kathleen and Rosalind. With this debut duology, Chloe Gong has truly established herself as a force to be reckoned with when it comes to YA fantasy, and I cannot wait to see what she does next.

Thank you so much to Simon and Schuster Children's Publishing for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Where do I find the words to describe how I feel after reading Our Violent Ends? I’m filled with so much emotion after everything that happened in this book (and in this duology as a whole, tbh) that I don’t even know where to begin. I’ll keep this completely spoiler-free and thus this review may sound super vague, but I truly believe that you’ll enjoy this book the best without hearing even a smidge of anything that happens.

First off, I will say that Chloe Gong’s writing and storytelling has MAJORLY improved from These Violent Delights to Our Violent Ends. I remember reading These Violent Delights in the beginning of this year and noticing that her writing was a little awkward at times and definitely resembled the writing of most debut authors creating their first-ever novel. But in Our Violent Ends, Chloe is really able to bring her story to life and evict visceral emotions out of her readers through her storytelling. I was genuinely captivated by each sentence and I actually caught myself holding my breath several times throughout this book because of all the harrowing plot-twists popping up left and right.

I also felt so much more connected and invested in these character’s stories than I did in These Violent Delights, which I think is also a testament to how well Chloe was able to convey their feelings and motivations in Book 2 compared to Book 1. For example, regarding Roma and Juliette’s relationship in These Violent Delights, I remember not being that interested in their relationship and feeling like I couldn’t even root for the two. We knew Roma and Juliette had history, but since their actual romance takes place four years prior to the start of These Violent Delights I never felt the genuine chemistry between them. In Our Violent Ends, the tension and chemistry between Roma and Juliette is so palpable that I was literally clinging onto every shared dialogue or individual thought each character had on each other whenever they were in the same scene. This book definitely made me appreciate them so much more. I also felt just as invested in all of our favorite side characters--Kathleen, Marshall, Benedict, Alisa, and even Rosalind. These characters are truly the best aspect of this duology and they provided some incredibly funny and sweet moments in Our Violent Ends.

I feel like that’s all I can really say about this book without spoiling what happens. Be warned that each chapter is one rollercoaster after the other, so be prepared to have your heart dropped, squeezed, and yanked out of your chest before you pick this up. I’m so excited for everyone to read this in November, and for Chloe Gong’s future works!

rating - 4.5 stars

Our Violent Ends is the heartstopping sequel to These Violent Delights by Chloe Gong, and i’m using the word ‘heartstopping’ because there were parts of this book where my heart. literally. stopped. This was probably by far my most anticipated release for this year and i’m so grateful to have gotten the opportunity to read it early.

How can i summarise this in the most vague way possible? Imagine These Violent Delights, but with more angst, more romance, and a lot more heartbreak and violence. It’s almost as if Chloe Gong took everything I loved from the first book and multiplied them, fourfold. I gasped, I cried and overall, was mesmerised. I absolutely love how Chloe Gong spun her own beautiful version of Romeo and Juliette, all while staying true to it’s origin.

Going into this book, the main thing i was hoping for was more focus on the characters and their relationships. Definitely an A+ on that front. These Violent Delights didn’t have as many interactions between the main characters as I was hoping there would be but this one was basically centred around them. Probably my favourite part of the book.

The only complaint I have is that for me, personally, the plot felt a little too predictable in some places which is the only reason I reduced the rating a little. But other than that, I can easily say that it is one of my favourite reads of this year!

This sequel is edge of your seat , nail biting action from the start. Our Violent Ends is jam packed with adventure and dangerous schemes that will have you second guessing everything you thought you knew. This story has soo many twists and turns that I was never sure who could be trusted. The tension between Roma and Juliette was so thick, and there were times I just wanted to scream at them and tell them they were being stupid and to kiss already. I was beside myself with all of the back and forth with these two. The monsters take on a terrifying twist leaving more death and carnage not to mention mounting terror from the communists trying to take over. Between the political restore and the monsters I honestly was not sure which was worse. This all builds up until an absolutely heartbreaking and beautiful conclusion completely wrecked me in the best of ways

I highly recommend this series but read lightly.. terroir and got awaits.

Firstly thanks to Simon and Schuster for providing me with an ARC of Our Violent Ends in exchange for an honest review.

Simply put no one is ready for this book. It broke my heart! I was bawling throughout, I just love Juliette and Roma. Not to mention Marshall and Benedickt! Every single character in this book is just pure perfection and I want to commend Chloe Gong on writing a masterpiece of love, duty and honour.

I read the first novel when I was recovering from COVID in January and fell in love. I read this sequel after getting my first vaccination. These books honestly hold such a special place in my heart. I cannot wait for everyone to read this and fall in love with it like I did.

these violent delights was a five star book for me so i wasn’t sure how our violent ends could compare, but it ended up exceeding every expectation! would give this 500 stars if i could. this is an amazing conclusion to an incredible duology!! i will never stop recommending these books. will post my full reviews closer to pub date.

i cried. chloe this was rude. but also i absolutely loved it and chloe has became an instant buy author for me. i love her writing so much and can’t wait to see what she does next

Thank you so much to Simon and Schuster & Net Galley for providing us an eARC to review.

Wow, what an incredible ride and fitting ending to this gorgeous duology. We will be publishing a full review on our website, GateCrashers, closer to publication and will update our link to the article at that time. Absolutely fantastic work, we can't wait to read what's next from Chloe Gong, a new leading voice in the YA industry. It is also the official stance of GateCrashers that secret Taylor Swift references in literature are our new favorite. This is sure to be another bestseller, and we'd love to interview Chloe if possible and spread the word on this painfully beautiful duology.

Super violent, less mystical, still satisfying end to the duology. Readers may want to brush up on their Chinese history before beginning this series, as the political maneuvering will be more interesting if you have some background on the history of colonialism in China. Juliette's POV is my favorite and this book (and its predecessor) are a well written duo from a young author.