Skip to main content

Teen Book Review – Our Violent Ends by Chloe Gong

Our Violent Ends - Gong, Chloe

**this review contains spoilers for These Violent Delights (book 1) so beware!!

I absolutely loved These Violent Delights by Chloe Gong (read my review here) and I was very excited when a friend got me a signed copy of Our Violent Ends (thank you, Sophie!). The sequel to this duology picks up only a few weeks after the ending of the last book, so everyone in the city is still reeling from Marshall Seo’s death at Juliette’s hand. Now, the monster that has supposedly disappeared is sending blackmail notes to the Scarlet Gang and Juliette knows she has to find a way to stop the city (and her family) from ripping itself apart again… all of this while nursing her broken heart and secretly keeping Marshall alive. Meanwhile, Roma is struggling to reconcile the idea of Juliette, his former lover, cold-bloodedly shooting his best friend. Still, every time he tries to exact revenge Roma is unable to kill her, which drives a wedge between him and his cousin, Benedikt. While the White Flowers and Scarlet Gang’s rivalry turns bloodier and bloodier on the streets of Shanghai, the political beasts awaken alongside the real monster. Will Roma and Juliette be able to save their city and each other?

My two gripes with These Violent Delights was 1. the main romance and 2. the ending. HOWEVER, Our Violent Ends gave me everything I wanted and more. It is definitely a 10/10 for me, so I’ll just go ahead and say that now. First of all, the romance. Roma and Juliette had barely any chemistry in the first book, but they knocked this one out of the park. There was significantly more banter, and a lot of tropes that–despite being cliché–I completely fell head-over-heels for. Second of all, I won’t say much about the ending, and I know it might not be for everyone, but I actually loved it a lot.

Then, the PLOT. As intricate as the first book was, the sequel raised my standards even higher. The historical setting was astoundingly well-incorporated into the story, and if you know anything about Chinese history or the Shanghai Massacre, it is a joy to read about. The back-stabbing betrayals, the plot twists, the high-stakes action scenes, the emotional realizations… some of it was a little overdone. After all, how many times can you play the ‘faked my death’ trope? But still, overly dramatic scenes WORK in this genre, and Our Violent Ends was just so much fun to read. I would fully recommend. Again: 10/10!

(P.S. this book review is dedicated to Ms. Chung, who I want to thank for all the encouragement and support 🙂 )

Teen SRC 2021 – #murderfunding by Gretchen McNeil

#MurderFunding - McNeil, Gretchen

A fast-paced creepy book with many gory murders, #murderfunding by Gretchen McNeil makes up for its poor characterization and cheap tropes with action scenes and suspense. 6/10 for incredibly poor representation (POC especially, watch out) and cringe-worthy teenage slang. Seriously, I don’t know how editors approved the “teen” slang in this book–I’d rather hear teenagers speak like any regular adult than speak like they did in this book. “For reals” made an appearance, and an attempt to say that a character was “salty” (see: frustrated, annoyed) resulted in “less salted”. I LAUGHED SO HARD.

Anyway, I didn’t love this book much, but it was fast-paced and emotionally bland enough to get me out of a reading slump, which is great. There was some attempts to be political in this book, but they failed incredibly hard–resulting in an almost conspiracy-like feel. I did enjoy the formatting of discussion forums/articles on the Internet, but once the Russian meddling plot line was added, that began to feel cheap, too.

Overall, if you’re looking for a quick, creepy thriller, this is it. Otherwise, find something else.

P.S. This is the sequel to #murdertrending, which I read but then forgot mostly about. It is possible to read #murderfunding (2nd book) without having read the first (which got better ratings than this one, btw), but there is some confusing vocabulary to get through at the start. My suggestion: pick up #murdertrending first, then this one if you enjoy it. Happy reading!