Our Violent Ends

Our Violent Ends Book Review by Chloe Gong 

Well, this book is certainly aptly named. Our Violent Ends is the sequel to the popular and innovative These Violent Delights, a 1920s rendition of Romeo and Juliet set in Shanghai. 

Our Violent Ends marks the conclusion of the successful duology, an end I actually didn’t see coming as the YA genre is so bereft of duologies that genuinely the only one I can think of off the top of my head, is Leigh Bardugo’s Six of Crows. 

I actually don’t think I’ve read a duology since then, so that makes my opinion of Gong’s novels go up slightly. Just a bit. 

Our Violent Ends picks up quite quickly after These Violent Delights concludes and gets the ball rolling right away. Where I found the first book innovative, inclusive, historical, and interesting, the second book I actually found to be a little…lackluster. At least at the beginning. 

Maybe this is just me, but I found the start of Our Violent Ends to be really boring. This was mainly due to it feeling very repetitive. Roma and Juliette are pretending to hate each other when they actually love each other, the White Flower gang and the Scarlet gang are in a blood feud, and there are mythical monsters come to life and dangerously roaming the streets amongst a pandemonium of political and social upheaval with the Communists, the Nationalists, and the foreign imperialists. 

This has the exact same origins as These Violent Delights. 

I found it extremely unvaried from the first book. Almost the exact same circumstances are happening all over again. Roma and Juliette have to team up to try and take down the monsters, but don’t have any information or any leads, Benedikt and Marshall have feelings but don’t want to admit it, Rosalind is unimportant, Kathleen feels out of place unless she’s at a Communist meeting, and Alisa is plot fodder. 

Frankly, the book isn’t interesting until maybe the last third because that’s when something new starts occurring. 

Additionally, the whole Marshall-Seo-Being-Dead-is-a-secret-shhhhh is preposterous to me. I didn’t see any reason for him to be locked up for so long or to keep it from Roma and Benedikt in any kind of way that made logical sense. 

I understand it’s to build tension in the book, but I found the reasons for his captivity and secrecy flimsy at best which is aggravating, especially as when his secret does come out, it doesn’t even really seem to matter in the first place. 

The last third of the book is good. In J.K. Rowling-esque plot twist style, revelation after revelation occur chapter after chapter, while at the same time massacres, revolutions, and protests are happening in succession. The last couple of chapters are action-packed, fast, and punch hard. 

It redeemed the book slightly for me, but the bulk of the book still stained my memory with its repetitive nature and unimportant scenes. In the first book, I genuinely liked all of the side characters. In this installment, I still liked them, but I found their motivations lacking and their stories not as interesting. 

In terms of the true ending of the novel, read on at your own risk as I will be spoiling details. 

The fact that Marshall’s father is General Shu is amazing, the fact that Kathleen becomes Celia is good, Rosalind joining the Nationalists doesn’t make any kind of sense to me, but it is dramatic, so okay, Marshall and Benedikt escaping the city is good, Dimitri being in charge of the monsters is exciting, and Juliette and Roma dying is excellent. 

Too often in YA, authors are afraid to kill off main characters. The fact that both Juliette and Roma die is actually a satisfying ending in terms of paying homage to the original Shakespeare play, the book itself with all of Roma’s talk of finding Juliette’s soul even in death, and their sacrifice to protect the city they both love and hate. 

It sounds callous to say, but I kind of loathe that the last page hints that Alisa sees them on a boat and that their bodies are never found, indicating that Roma and Juliette survive and are off just…living their life and kissing on a fishing boat?

 I get that it’s supposed to be ambiguous and hopeful, but I actually would have preferred a more clear cut understanding that they both agreed to die and they did it together. 

Also, the fact that Alisa ends the book, arguably the most useless and unimportant character, is slightly annoying to me, although the fact that she’s now a Communist spy with Celia is an interesting twist. 

I’ve mainly been very critical of this book and while I still enjoyed it and while the ending exploded with a bang, the whole first two-thirds are bulky and uninteresting to me.

 I still enjoy the characters and the historical background, but I wanted something a little more different and challenging than a rinse-and-repeat of the first book but instead of one monster, now there’s five. Wow. So crazy. 

Frankly, the monsters are so insignificant in this book I’m not even sure why they’re still around. 

Lastly, I’m genuinely surprised by the violence and brutality of this book. For YA I was actually a little shocked by how graphic some of the scenes were depicted. It’s even more ruthless when you consider that a lot of the scenes Gong writes about are actual historical events that took place, like the White Terror. 

I personally didn’t mind all the violence, but I can see how it could be upsetting to some people who weren’t expecting it. 

Overall, this was an enjoyable duology. I do think Gong could have done something a little more different and intriguing for the first portion of the book, but the ending is satisfying and the series as a whole is a wild adventure riding both the coattails of history and William Shakespeare. 

Recommendation: Yeah, read it. I guess. For completion’s sake, definitely read it. The book has merit and the ending is one doozy after another which makes it entertaining and levels the series off on a good note. If you can get past the clunky beginning, the pay-off at the end will be worth it and the dramatic showdown of the star-crossed lovers will stick close to your heart for a long time to come.

 Or, at least until Gong’s next novel. Taylor Swift’s Love Story will never sound the same again. 

Score: 6/10