It isn't exactly a tragedy, for while many deeply sad things befall its characters, we never linger long upon them.

It makes These Violent Delights difficult to classify. Romeo and Juliet in 1920's Shanghai is an elevator pitch add in a mystery, a monster hunt, and the complexities of Western imperialism and you have almost more than the elevator can hold. Unless the plague is actually just one more weapon in the war for control of Shanghai. To make matters worse, Roma's the reason her loyalty is always slightly in doubt, because it was falling in love with him when they were only 15 that got her banished in the first place.īook Reviews 'Addie LaRue' Is Invisible - But Memorableīut the fact is, none of these petty power struggles will matter if everyone dies of a strange, violent plague. But when her people begin dying of a mysterious plague that causes them to rip out their own throats, and she hears whispers that a terrible creature in the river may be the source, she has no choice but to go against her family's will and team up with Roma, the heir to the White Flowers – sworn enemies of the Scarlet Gang. Now she needs to prove to everyone that she can be every bit as ruthless as her father in the quest to keep the Scarlet Gang in charge of Shanghai. Juliette Cai, the daughter of the Scarlet Gang's powerful head, has only just returned from America, where she was banished in the wake of a catastrophic romantic dalliance. Romeo and Juliet gets a hardboiled makeover in this historical drama set amid the turmoil of a city torn apart by colonialism: In 1920s Shanghai, where we lay our scene, two rival gangs must join forces to hunt down a monster.

Chloe gong these violent delights