These Violent Delights by Chloe Gong (review)

1926 Shanghai is no place for the faint-hearted, not when the streets run red as the Scarlet Gang and the White Flowers continue their endless turf war. Juliette Cai, heir to the Scarlet Gang’s control, is as cold-blooded as they come, and her ruthless ambition is bolstered by the fury she feels toward Roma Montagov, her ex and the next in line as the White Flower’s leader. Roma does his best to avoid Juliette, but then several of his men are found dead after having apparently clawed their own necks open; rumors swirl of a monstrous creature stalking the residents, a strange sickness spreads through the city, and the former star-crossed lovers are forced together to figure out how to take back their streets from an unexpected force. Romeo and Juliet is masterfully transformed from doomed teenaged love story to a thrilling blend of political intrigue, gruesome horror, race-against-the-clock mystery, and, yes, romance, set against a city that becomes a character in its own right. No one’s moral compass points north in this story, and Juliette’s is well near shattered, but many of the characters are compelling and even likable despite their criminal tendencies. Gong gives a respectful nod to Shakespeare’s original cast iteration before revisioning her own and bringing it into a setting rife with violence and vengeance. A legendary creature that infects its victims’ brains so that they brutally kill themselves is made to believably exist amidst the political upheaval of Shanghai, making a fascinating exploration of the various foreign interests in the city equally as enthralling as the book’s horror elements. Given the source material, readers may be surprised by the cliffhanger ending, but they’ll be anxiously waiting to see if a tragic fate comes for Roma and Juliette in the sequel, or if they’ll slay the various monsters to get to their own happy ending.