Our Violent Ends is a bittersweet ending to the duology started in These Violent Delights. This sequel pulls readers back in from the first page and takes them on an emotional rollercoaster starting a few months after book one's end. The romance is full of chemistry. The action is ramped up. The ending is highly satisfying. If you haven't picked this series up yet, what are you waiting for?

Great writing, great storytelling, and a unique take on a classic. After the way book one ended, I was eager to jump back into Roma and Juliette's story and find out how it all ends. The middle seemed to drag on for awhile but the last 1/4 of the book had me on the edge of my seat. One of the things I loath about The Bard's story is the miscommunication between R&J that ends in a completely avoidable disaster. I enjoyed the way Gong took that element and weaved it into something far more believable, and this ending, though bittersweet, was fantastic.

I'm looking forward to reading what Chloe Gong writes next!

Overall I really liked this duology, but Our Violent Ends feels like it runs around in circles, and doesn't have much upward growth. The ending was fantastic and heart wrenching, and I did have to keep reminding myself that I was reading a Romeo and Juliet retelling. Just plunge a dagger into my own heart already.

What really made this book standout was the historical basis, I feel like the world Chloe Gong created on the page so expertly captured the time period and the combination of a Civil War and Cold War. The desire to preserve life mixed with a never ending blood feud, set during a deadly pandemic, felt very timely in our political sphere and overall societal adjustments we've made over the last few years. The unity required in the face of mortal peril is not one that can be felt often, but we've been feeling it every day for the past two years.

Our Violent Ends is a love letter to 1920s Shanghai, young love, and the days we find ourselves living in.

This author has done it again. An amazing conclusion to a series that leaves you wanting more. I love how realistic this love story is, it makes it so believable. Absolutely recommend this title to everyone. Great memorable characters and plot twists that you will not see coming!!

The end of any duology is bittersweet so I expected lots of emotions going into These Violent Ends. As usual, Gong captivates the reader with plot twist and heart tugging character development.

Chloe Gong has done it again. Our Violent Ends is a glorious return to the decadent 1920’s Shanghai she crafted in These Violent Delights, only this time the stakes are higher.

From the very first chapter, this book had me captivated. Gong’s writing is beautiful, as are her lush world and engaging characters. The entire cast is full of so much beautifully written nuance and she gives every character so much substance that you can’t help but want to fight for them, too.

Gong’s commentary through the political battles on top of the preexisting gangster feud gives this duology so much rich subtext that it would take several reads to unravel it all. There is so much complex interwoven intrigue that many authors would be biting off more than they could chew with this concept, but Gong executes it flawlessly.

One of my favorite things about this duology is how Gong exploits the power play with her reader through multi-POV. Her use of dramatic irony gives the reader vital information the other characters don’t have, making the reader feel smart while Gong pulls enough strings behind the scenes that she can pull off plot twists the reader never sees coming. It truly had me living in fear the entire book.

Gong definitely knew what she was doing in this one. She knows the power she has to break her reader (it is a Romeo & Juliet retelling, after all) and she definitely toys with it. The tension she creates with her creative take on Shakespeare’s original is what keeps the reader tearing through the pages, and I loved the choices she made in when to stay true to the original material and when to deviate and take liberties to tell her own story.

This book has the power to make the reader feel like another character, watching the events unfold as they run the streets of Shanghai with Roma and Juliette in a rival gang of their own. It’s so bittersweet to see the final curtain on such a masterful duology, but I am thrilled to see what feats Gong pulls off next.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go cry into my pillow some more.

It's taking me a while to process this book because I was so emotionally invested in it! I'm genuinely broken inside because this book completely ripped me to shreds. I'm still not even sure how to write about this book, not going to lie!

What I truly loved about this book was how Roma and Juliette's story continued and grew. While we didn't get as much of their chemistry and romance in the first book, this one made their relationship even stronger and created even more angst and emotion which I definitely needed and really appreciated. The "forced proximity" trope was so well done and it made the story really cohesive.

Of course, Ben and Marshall's story was also really well done, especially at their climax. However, I wish we could have gotten more near the end even though I absolutely understand that this wasn't even their book! I do think I needed more about the other side characters and their motives because at certain points in the story, I just felt like I didn't have as much of an emotional connection to them as I would have liked to really feel the impact of the story. That being said, I still loved the turn the plot took especially because so much was done in what feels like a short amount of time even though this book is thick!

I gotta be honest. I didn't really understand the full scale of all the politics but I did enjoy following the plot!

Now the ending is what truly solidified my five stars because the more I think about it the more I loved it. It was exactly the kind of ending that captured the whole story and took me by surprise in the perfect way. I'm still emotional! I can't even properly talk about it because it's too spoilery! But let me just say that I can't wait to talk to more people about it! I especially just really want this to be adapted because the ending by itself is a cinematic experience.

I meeeeean this is one of my most anticipated releases of the year and TVD was one of my favorites of 2020 so I'm completely biased here but this was phenomenal. I think I enjoyed TVD slightly more but the tension and politics was just so strong. The writing was as beautiful as ever and the ending destroyed me. There were twists revealed in such great ways that I literally jumped. I think it's just as much of a slow burn as TVD but part of me feels like more people will like this one.

THESE VIOLENT DELIGHTS was easily on of my favorite books this year, and the sequel does NOT disappoint. Gong's writing is as beautiful as ever, crafting a world that's full of tension, plot twists, and schemes left and right. Next to that, the characters and banter is so good From the beginning of the book you're able to recognize the complexity this sequel is going to have, but it still continues to come across in a clear-cut manner and never confuses the reader.
Yes, it is stressful to read. Yes, you will be a mess by the ending.
BUT it is so rewarding to reach the end of a truly remarkable retelling of a story. Chloe Gong has captured the essence of Romeo & Juliet and taken it into her own hands to warp the story into something nearly new.
The cast of characters are as complex as ever, and throughout this book we're able to dig deeper into their personalities and perspectives to truly understand them better.
Nothing in this sequel felt rushed or incomplete. The story came to a thrilling and heartbreaking ending, but one that made sense with who the characters were and who they'll become.

Our Violent Ends is a heart wrenching, fast-paced conclusion to the duology and I couldn't ask for any better. Chloe Gong is officially one of my favorite authors of all time.

WHAT AN ENDING. I cannot believe that this duo is Gong's debut. Truly mind-blowing. I teach Romeo & Juliet to my freshmen every year, but I'd love to use these two in a retelling unit with my AP Lit kids. The ending of book one left me frustrated because...HOW was that the ending. This one swept me right up and kept me on the edge of my seat until the end. Gong's writing is immersive and the world she's placed this classic tale in is so fun. I've learned so much about the time period and things that actually happened (crazy) while reading this fictional book and that is honestly one of the coolest parts for me. So, so good.

huge thank you to Simon and Schuster for providing me a digital ARC of this book, all thoughts and opinions are my own.

I am so happy that I am finally able to share my thoughts on this masterpiece of a book with you all. First of all, it is not often that a sequel surpasses my love for the first book in a duology. With how much I adored These Violent Delights, my expectations were unnaturally high for Our Violent Ends.

Somehow this book surpasses those expectations.

I could rant for a mile on end on how much I adored this book, along with how much it destroyed me. I love these characters with all of my heart and within this story we got to see a much deeper level to their relationships with one another, along with getting many different plots that had be on edge the entire time. I am someone who gets very confused with a lot of politics or complex worldbuilding in books, but there was never a moment when I was lost in this one. Chloe Gong's writing is something that can only truly be described as addictively beautiful, and Our Violent Ends is proof of that.

Roma and Juliette's relationship will always be one of my favorites. As someone who hated Romeo and Juliette, this book is proof of a retelling well done. Forget Shakespeare, this book is where it's at. The tension between these two characters and their gangs was written so well, and it always left me wanting more. There was so many nights that this book kept me up, leaving me squealing because seeing these characters with each other again, and happy, is something that makes my heart ache so deeply.

Finally, the ending. This book has one of the best endings I have ever seen written. Chloe Gong is able to provide readers an ending that leaves us both with the right amount of closure and longing. It is completely up for interpretation, which is something I loved. I cannot wait to see what comes next for Chloe Gong and these characters.

review will be a little bit shorter to avoid spoilers btw.

this is by far one of my favorite books of all time and for sure one of my favorite books of this year. When I first read These Violent Delights, I was scared for how one could possibly top such an amazing book. But surprising no one Chloe Gong did it in the sequel.

I was terrified the entire time I read this book. For pretty obvious reasons that I don't think need an explanation. And you can tell that the book is aware of your fear. It keeps placing your favorite characters in spots where you are on the edge of your seat until you are 100% positive that they are making it to the next chapter.

My heart was ripped out of my body finishing Our Violent Ends. But trust me people, it doesn't end how you think it will, just wait. That's really all I can say without giving away too much. The ending also sets up Gong's next book Foul Lady Fortune perfectly. I didn't know I could be more excited about that book, but I somehow am.

Amazing novel. Read this as soon as you can. And then feel free to cry to me about it.

A well paced follow up to the first book! These characters are delightfully written with amazing pacing in an action packed and love packed story.

Our Violent Ends was a beautiful finale to this duology that I have enjoyed every second of. Chloe Gong's stunning writing makes reading her work feel like looking at a painting in a museum. If you enjoyed These Violent Delights then Our Violent Ends will not let you down.

Our Violent Ends/The Violent Delights duopoly is definitely in my top 10 reads of this year.

I'm struggling to put into words how much I have loved Our Violent Ends. I have never loved a sequel more than the first book like I love OVE. It had me enraptured from the first page and held be captive until the very last. Chloe Gong is a fantastic writer, her retelling of Romeo and Juliette is incredible. She won the game, we will need no other R&J retellings because I am confident no one can beat this one.

I can't recommend this book enough. I will be screaming it's praises from rooftops until I am able to convince everyone I know too give it a chance and put it on their TBRs.

OMG, this book. Y'all, I'm being honest here, I wasn't a huge fan of the first book, but the ending had me waiting for the second one. I remember not really loving Roma and the main romantic relationship, and other few point on the plot. But this book, I was 2% in and I already had everything I had been missing on the first one.

This one blew my mind.

I have to start somewhere so I'll get to the writing first: Chloe Gong made something amazing here. She knew how to make me feel every scene, and every new thing during the story was surprising and had me SCREAMING. I was really scared for like half of the book, and the other half had me crying over the romance. But yeah, the writing, a ten out of ten. And the plot in this book was driving me crazy, because it's a mix of different things happening at the same time. I have to say, I was confused, since I'm not the most informed about the Chinese situation during the '20s. But wow this book made me learn a lot. It has politics, yes, but they're not boring nor overwhelming, they become part of the story and actually makes you understand the reason why everything is happening, and why the characters are who they are. On the other side, the *fantasy* part of the book was driving me crazy the whole time, and the final resolution is just *chef kiss*.

Now, the characters. So, in the first, I wasn't a huge Roma fan, but in this book I fell in love with him so deeply that I felt so scared for him from the first page. Juliette was amazing since the first book, this book just makes justice of her greatness. She's amazing, every scene with her presence was full of power. Kathleen is amazing and my total favorite character of these books, and Benedikt Montagov, my full heart was with him. I need to say more but that would be spoiler, so take this: I LOVED ALL THE CHARACTERS IN THIS BOOKS. THEY'RE MY BABIES NOW. And the fact that you just know by the end of this book what <i>Foul Lady Fortune</i> will be about...Chloe Gong, just take all my money now. Like, forever.

The romance was much better this time, it was driving me crazy and OMG I just love them so much. RomaJuliette has my whole heart for now and forever.

Also, the ending. I think I was emotionally destroyed and actually cried. That's all.

No matter what you thought of the first book, read this one, because I'm sure you'll love it.

OMG?!?! I loved TVD, I loved this even more. A masterpiece, I am in love with Chloe Gong''s writing. These two are worth the hype- and more.

this was more than what I anticipated going into this book. I got everything I asked for an more. I honestly love how Chloe Gong wrote this sequel. I finished it in one day and COULD NOT put it down. As someone who loves history, she really portrayed the imperialism aspects correctly and in a way that makes sense to the average reader. I cannot wait for her next books.

This sequel was FANTASTIC! Chloe Gong smashed all my expectations, and as somebody who was a huge fan of the first book in this duology, I don't consider myself somebody who is easy to please! The interactions between Juliette and Roma were so sacred, so well written, and so fluid despite the transition from one book to the other.

The characters have interesting developments that stay true to the original in terms of realism; the new dynamics, relationships and twists that crop up in this book are surprising, delightful, and well thought out. Gong did a great job veering in new paths from the original while staying true to the story's core.

I will say I lost interest about 3/4ths of the way through due to the slow buildup shift to fast pacing, which felt very clunky. As somebody who likes reading character > plot when the plot kicked in I started skimming the pages as opposed to actually reading, because I wanted to get back to the heavy character work. I would've enjoyed this more if the action and character work was spread throughout equally, instead of getting a huge burst of it at the end. I also feel the ending would've been more impactful if we got more drawn out character work during that last quarter of the novel.

Despite this, I immensely enjoyed this book. I found it to be a satisfying and thrilling conclusion to the Roma and Juliette duology, and definitely recommend this series to all.

Wow. Wow. Wow.

This book did NOT disappoint.

Bravo!!

I absolutely loved the open ending so you can decide what happened to them!