Review: These Violent Delights

These Violent Delights by Chloe Gong
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

"Without the monster, there is no madness. With no madness, he goes out of business." 

I gotta thank Jaroda for loving that line so much that he screenshotted my Insta post quoting it, and thank Blake for getting me to put this book in my library ebook queue. And boy was it worth the time it took to savor. Take Romeo and Juliet to 1920s Shanghai, sprinkle in the critique of early 20th century geopolitics of The Gilded Wolves and the particular focus on Chinese history of The Poppy War, all with a fresh fantasy twist...yeah, I'm putting this one up as another book that I didn't get to review until the year after it came out, even though most of it I technically did read in its debut year...but still, I didn't get to finish it till the following calendar year. And that's okay, but if I'd done the Pinecone Awards post on my blog for 2020 rather than just limit it to a brief Twitter thread, this one would've merited a Special Salute had I finished it in time, due in large part to its lush prose, intriguing plot, and historical context that isn't explored nearly often enough in literature. And thank God we're already waiting for a sequel after the way this one ended...

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