Reviews tagging 'Fire/Fire injury'

Our Violent Ends by Chloe Gong

61 reviews

jessiereads98's review against another edition

adventurous dark medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

This was a great ending to the duology. It strays enough from the original Romeo + Juliet while maintaining the themes to create the perfect balance for a retelling. 

Chloe Gong once again nailed it with the setting and atmosphere of 1920s Shanghai. I loved how she tracked the shifting the politics and atmosphere of change. The pacing in this book is great. I also just love a fantasy novel set in or based on 1920s East Asia.

The characters were well done and compelling for the most part. I feel like we got a good amount of time with all the side characters to experience the world outside the view of the two main characters, without it feeling like it detracted from the story or was a waste of time. I actually wish we had gotten more time with Rosalind. I think the story would’ve felt more complete, and she would’ve been a great counterpoint to Juliette had she been more fleshed out. I was left with questions at the end around her character and motivations.

I know she’s the focus of the next duology in this universe. However, her character and POV still should’ve been explored more in this book, especially given the important role she plays here.

Once again, this book is a bit overwritten. There’s metaphors and heavy handed setting descriptions that are unnecessary. Some of the dialogue feels forced rather than natural for the characters and their setting. There are a few moments of cringe, but it isn’t enough to make the entire book off-putting.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Gun violence, Violence, Blood, Murder, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Body horror, Confinement, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Grief, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Homophobia, Sexism, Suicide, Medical content, Kidnapping, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Abandonment, War, and Pandemic/Epidemic

dianaschmidty's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful informative mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Homophobia, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Colonisation, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Confinement, Suicide, Kidnapping, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Police brutality

hnagarne's review

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Kidnapping, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Classism

Moderate: Deadnaming and Homophobia

namenotimportant's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

"Why do you pause?" "Because even if you hate me Roma Montagov, I still love you."

"In the end, this was all that they were. Two hearts pressed as close as they dared, shadows melding into one by the flickering candlelight."

Wow, I'm in awe. This book had me in a chokehold for the last 100 pages. No scratch that, at least the last 200 pages.

Although I wished for a different ending for them, it fits. A bittersweet ending for a bittersweet love. I love that at least Marshall and Benedikt have a chance together now.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gun violence, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Mass/school shootings, Murder, Colonisation, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury

rexpostfacto's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Violence, Xenophobia, and Murder

Moderate: Death, Blood, Mass/school shootings, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, Colonisation, and Classism

sydneyluxford's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

THE WAY I KNEW EXACTLY HOW IT WAS GOING TO END AND I STILL HAD THE NERVE TO CRY. I AM LITERALLY BROKEN RIGHT NOW. I really don’t get why Miss Chloe Gong had to put me through that? I don’t know if I did something to offend her, but it was truly uncalled for.

Juliette and Roma have my whole heart, for real.

Gong better have a trick up her sleeve and they better not have actually died because I am too sad. I actually don’t know why the ending shocked me when it’s literally a Romeo and Juliet retelling.

Despite the ending, the moments between Juliette and Roma were so fucking good. It was definitely a step up from the first book, which I felt was lacking. I don’t know how I’m going to recover from this. The way they always found their way back to each other despite being literal gang rivals and having all odds against them 🥲😞.

Bro, Benedikt and Marshal are SO CUTE. The love confession from Ben at the end had no business being that cute when the stakes were so high:

“I’ll say it however many times you want. I’ll romance you until you get sick of me. I am horrendously, horrendously in love with your dreadful face.” 

I actually don’t know how I’m going to be able to read Foul Lady Fortune KNOWING that Rosalind was the cause of all of this. She better redeem herself.

Juliette and Roma are literally The Great War by Taylor Swift.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Hate crime, Suicide, and Colonisation

jhaneveauguste's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Police brutality, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Colonisation, and War

nehanaomi's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

screaming, crying, throwing up 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Suicide attempt, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, War, and Injury/Injury detail

ye_li's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Cursing, Death, Genocide, Gun violence, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Police brutality, Fire/Fire injury, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Misogyny, and Sexism

Minor: Death of parent

takarakei's review against another edition

dark emotional slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

I am honestly pretty apathetic about this series. I really really wanted to like these, but ultimately I really struggled to get through both books.

I did not like the writing style or pacing of these books. The way the story is written makes it hard to follow, and I found the writing to be repetitive and boring. I found myself having to constantly re-read paragraphs but at the same time not really caring about what I was reading. Ultimately I did not care for Juliette and Roma’s relationship. After finishing the first book I found myself wondering why it is I just didn’t seem to really *get* their relationship - supposedly this is enemies to lovers (which is my favorite trope btw) but beyond this giant familial rivalry which is described over and over again I honestly did not feel enough tension or hatred between them to build up and make me care about them ending up together. I did not find either Juliette or Roma to be very complex and therefore their relationship was not impactful. 

Throughout both books I was way more interested in the secondary characters: Benedikt and Marshall and Kathleen in particular. I found myself wishing for more time spent with these characters and their journey, struggles and development. To me, Kathleen is the real intriguing character of the series - she is way smarter, complex and ultimately I think more badass than Juliette. I would have rather been reading her story and POV solely. 

 

In both books the monsters that plague the city and the entire plot-line there did not really intrigue me. Even less so in Our Violent Ends since it’s an even smaller part of the second book, and seems very in the background of everything else going on politically in this world. 

 

Did I feel like the second book was better than the first? maybe a bit, but since it’s longer than the first book the pacing was even more of an issue for me. There were parts of the second book that I did enjoy reading but they were too far and fewer between (and were pretty much solely the parts from the secondary characters' POV). 

 

I pushed myself to finish the books because I did want to see how it ended, but I was left feeling unfulfilled. The “climax” of the story feels like it drags on for too long, and I kept thinking “ok is this IT yet?”

I honestly think that it would have been more impactful to not leave the ending open the way it is and stick more to the source of Romeo and Juliet dying - because in Shakespeare’s tragedy them dying is what teaches those around them that violence, power struggle and hatred between people are the evils that corrupt our world. They die for love and for each other, and without that the ending fell flat. Perhaps it is intentional that the author will continue the series and eventually bring these lessons around to this world and those living in it? but I likely won’t be reading on.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gun violence, Torture, and Violence

Moderate: Gore, Blood, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Colonisation