Reviews tagging 'Alcohol'

Our Violent Ends by Chloe Gong

21 reviews

cemeterygay's review against another edition

emotional fast-paced

• Loveable characters? Yes

3.5

I thought this was a pretty okay and satisfying conclusion to the duology. I think the plot had a lot less direction than the first book which made me enjoy quite a bit less than the first book. However, I still adored the characters and the attention given to the political backdrop, and the ending was pretty great.

I really enjoyed it; however, I don't think I will be re-reading it any time soon.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Gun violence, Torture, Violence, Blood, Murder, Alcohol, and War

Additional CW: Insects, Mass murder, insects, parental abuse

packedjam's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense 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

4.25

😵‍💫😵‍💫😵‍💫😵‍💫😵‍💫

it’s better than the first book. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Torture, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Suicide attempt, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexism, Xenophobia, Trafficking, and Alcohol

Minor: Homophobia and Transphobia

kate_woollams's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense fast-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? It's complicated

3.75

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Self harm, and Violence

Moderate: Blood and War

Minor: Sexual content and Alcohol

claudiamacpherson's review

dark emotional hopeful sad tense medium-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

3.0

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Gore, Gun violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Grief, Suicide attempt, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Colonisation, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Child death, Cursing, Drug use, Sexual content, Kidnapping, and Alcohol

kindra_demi's review against another edition

adventurous dark fast-paced

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

5.0

 You want to know what I hate? I go into this book KNOWING it is a Romeo and Juliet retelling (I literally started the series when I was in the mood only for Romeo and Juliet retellings), BUT I STILL HOPE THEY END UP ALIVE AND TOGETHER AT THE END… AND ESPCIALLY WITH HOW BEAUTIFUL CHLOE GONG’S WRITING IS. I didn’t write a review for These Violent Delights (which shame on me), but the way Chloe Gong writes this duology is one of my favorite parts of the book. It reads like a play where there are times you’ll have the perspectives of the certain characters and other times it’s a narrator point of view. And it’s not set up so that it’s one chapter in totality is one person’s pov, but it’s not confusing when the pov jumps around. 

 

The way the characters are written also makes it so easy to get sucked into the entire storyline. You love characters. You hate characters. You will hate that you still love characters. 

 

As mentioned earlier, I went into the series last year already wanting to read a Romeo and Juliet retelling. Then book one felt like it was good. It wasn’t my favorite, but it was definitely an above average book. Our Violent Ends will definitely be a favorite of mine though and I cannot wait to see where Chloe takes her writing skills from here!! 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Blood, Medical content, Fire/Fire injury, and Colonisation

Moderate: Alcohol

writingcaia's review against another edition

adventurous emotional tense medium-paced

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

4.5

Roma Montagov from the White Flowers Gang and Juliette Cai from the Scarlet Gang have been thorn apart by bloodshed in the past, but four years later, after being exiled in NY, Juliette is back to Shangai. And, just as things heat up in the blood feud and when a creepy monster that sheds hundreds of horrid lice-like ones to infect people into tearing their throats out prowls the streets of their town. It is this common threat to both their people that will have Juliette and Roma come together again, now with not but resentment in their hearts, or so it seems, but they’ll have to put their hatred aside and team up to take down their mutual threat. However, nothing is made easy for these two, love and hate runs close to the skin, the blood feud always in the path of their love, and the monster not as easy to deal with as they hoped especially when they have to run against time to save their loved ones.
This a slow to medium paced story, anchored both in the historical events of the 20/30’s in Shangai, revolution, communists, nationalists, foreign invaders, gangsters all making the streets of the town run red with the blood of the people, and it’s also a retelling of the famous Shakespearean love tragedy Romeu and Juliet. 
I’ve to say it wasn’t the easiest book to dive into, thankfully there’re the Montagov and Marsh who were all so endearing and made me keep going, eventually I came into syntony with the story albeit dreading how close to the original it would stick to.
Soon it became a riveting read and continued until the end, with plenty of bloodshed, monsters, hate, betrayal, murder, and of course love to conquer all odds.
I can’t say how close it cut to the original tale without spoilers, I can only say there’re a few plot twists related and unrelated with the Shakespearean tragedy.
Overall a 4.5⭐️ duology and if you like YA retellings, with dark mystery, gangs, history and tragedy this is for you.

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Body horror, Death, Drug use, Gore, Gun violence, Racism, Self harm, Suicide, Torture, Blood, Grief, Murder, and Alcohol

Minor: Transphobia

molly_rose's review against another edition

dark hopeful mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.75

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Genocide, Suicide, Blood, Kidnapping, Murder, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

kbairbooks's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.25

(Spoiler review) oh my gosh. Once again horror and politics are SO not my vibe when I’m reading. BUT. There’s just something about Chloe Gongs writing that ensnared me. I HAD to know what happened and I HAD to know if Roma and Juliette ended up together! I still wish she had killed her parents, and as with a couple other things I’m not entirely sure what the ending meant so I feel… fulfilled but also not. It’s been a long time since I read something that left me with that feeling at the end of a book. I will be very intrigued to see what this author comes up with in the future.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Mental illness, Misogyny, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Alcohol, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

kaetheluise_nckl's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful sad tense 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

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Torture, Violence, Blood, Mass/school shootings, Murder, Alcohol, and War

Moderate: Confinement, Grief, Suicide attempt, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Police brutality and Colonisation

insects

ava_books's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-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

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Blood, Grief, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Kidnapping, Fire/Fire injury, and Alcohol