Chloe Gong’s best books demonstrate subtle shades of urban fantasy blended with Shakespearean plots and historical fiction; her new bookVilest Thingsis among thebiggest fantasy books coming out in September 2024.Gong’s career started withThese Violent Delights,the bestselling retelling ofRomeo and Julietwhich she wrote and published while studying at the University of Pennsylvania. With this book and its spinoff, Gong claims two of thebest fantasy book duologiesamid this structure becoming more popular in young adult literature.
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Flesh and False Gods
2024
Gong progressed to adult fantasy with the subsequent release ofImmortal Longings,introducing a fascinating new history-inspired setting and a tumultuous story based onAntony and Cleopatra. Gong’s entire career is alengthy fantasy book series worth committing to, engaging with Shakespearean and historical themes. Gong’s books are also among theBookTok books that deserve their hype, withThese Violent Delightsbeing lauded by the platform’s users when it was released. Through these captivating stories, Gong prompts readers to think more about the tropes Shakespeare popularized and the relevance of the historical events depicted.
Gong has a new book titledColdwirecoming out in 2025, the first in a dystopian trilogy. More information can be found atthechloegong.com.
7Foul Heart Huntsman
The Epic Conclusion To Secret Shanghai Rushes Through Some Subplots
Foul Heart Huntsmanis the second half of theFoul Lady Fortuneduology,theAs You Like It-retelling spinoff ofThese Violent Delights. It is also the conclusion of Gong’s Secret Shanghai saga, comprising five books total, set in early 20th-century China and characterized by organized crime and espionage plots.Foul Lady Fortunetransitions the light-hearted story ofAs You LikeIt to the landscape of agents on the opposing sides of the Chinese Civil War surprisingly well, but it also sets up a lot of subplots to be addressed in the sequel.
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Foul Heart Huntsmanrushes through some of these subplots,with much less dramatic endings than people might have expected. The twist ending of the first book seemed like it would be a bigger deal, but the matter resolves itself quickly. Other supporting characters like Jiemin and Dao Feng aren’t completely given their due, while the overall narrative moves from one sub-adventure to the next at a rapid pace. However, likeAs You Like It, it all comes to a bittersweet ending of reconciliation, finishing off Gong’s impressive genre blend of comedy and historical drama.
6Last Violent Call
Comprising Two Fun Side Adventures With The Cast Of These Violent Delights
Last Violent Callcomprises two novellas —A Foul ThingandThis Foul Murder— each following one of the main couples ofThese Violent Delightsas they are reintroduced to play supporting roles inFoul Heart Huntsman. It is a gift to the fans who want to see more of these couples being romantic and working together on new criminal undertakings, finally free of the divisions that dominate the first two books. This is especially needed for Benedikt and Marshall when their storyline inThese Violent Delightsonly sees them get together near the end of the duology.
Last Violent Callfleshes out these characters by showcasing what their lives after Shanghai look like, delving into their daily activities and interactions and mixing their contentment with coping with lasting trauma.The nature of theLast Violent Callcollection means that it isn’t very weighty,as it’s mostly a fun in-between book to set up the series' finale. However, it is something that fans who have made it this far in Secret Shanghai will absolutely love, with an air of finality as the old fan-favorite characters are called in one last time.
5Immortal Longings
San-Er Is A New, Even More Complicated Setting For Gong’s Adult Debut
Gong’s first adult fantasy novel is the first set in a fictional setting, although the cramped twin cities of San-Er are inspired by Kowloon Walled City in 1990s Hong Kong. Against this backdrop, the fugitivePrincess Calla Tuoleimi and exiled aristocrat Anton Makusa are both fighting to win the city’s annual battle to the death among 88 players.The key to winning is the ability to"jump"into different bodies, which Anton excels at and Calla refuses to do. True toAntony and Cleopatra, Calla and Anton’s personal and political goals soon conflict with their passionate attraction to one another.
Immortal Longingsexplores complex themes about power and rulership,asking what needs to happen for the system to change and how much the characters are actually willing to do. The core relationship showcases how power balances are even more disastrous in a relationship between two people who are both major players in the kingdom’s struggles. The characters are so obviously in a relationship that no one would want in real life and a political situation few people would ever find themselves in, that they are less resonant than the cast of Secret Shanghai.
If less relatable, the characters demand further analysis because of the complicated concepts they represent.
However,Immortal Longingsis as intriguing a book as there ever was,blending danger with lust seamlessly. If less relatable, the characters demand further analysis because of the complicated concepts they represent. Yet the true highlight of the first book in Gong’s planned trilogy is arguably the setting itself, which is characterized as a living thing full of realistic people who cannot plan a revolution so easily. None of the typical tropes of a corrupt fictional government are at play here, resulting in a deeper story more akin to real life.
4Vilest Things
The Sequel To Immortal Longings Amps Up The Romantic & Political Intrigue
Vilest Thingsmakes Calla and Anton’s dynamic and attraction even more volatilethrough the depiction of Anton’s desire for power and revenge and Calla’s solo operations. This sequel is even stronger than the first book when it shows more of how Prince August’s plans to ascend the throne are just as corrupt, despite his noble intentions. Things are made even more precocious by Otta Avia, Anton’s former sweetheart, and August’s half-sister, who recently awakened from a coma and is making wild, unpredictable moves at every turn.
Otta colors the story with jealousy, which anyone familiar withAntony and Cleopatraknows is important to how the title lovers’ relationship is inherently manipulative. Also prevalent in this plot is how they convince each other that they deserve to be revered, translated intoVilest Things’game-changing finale where the couple launches themselves into a new campaign.Vilest Thingssets up the yet-untitled third book in the trilogy to be an explosive conflict between several people who seek power for supposedly good reasonsbut may be forced to question if this was ever true.
3Our Violent Ends
These Violent Delights' Sequel Is Angst & Action That Never Lets Up
People who go to YA literature for the angst will find what they are looking for inOur Violent Ends,where there are so many secrets and misunderstandings keeping lovers apart after the betrayals and heartbreak at the end of the first book. Some book readers might criticize it for too much angst and miscommunication, but Gong shows how much of the personal conflict comes from young people stuck in an impossible situation. Roma and Juliette are stuck on opposite sides of a turf war, which only becomes more dangerous as historical conflicts take shape.
YetOur Violent Endsdelivers the main pair’s painstaking inner conflictsabout what they owe their families, their city, and each other. The second of Gong’s bestsellingbooks blends romance and fantasy, as well as history. The stakes are higher than ever, and the emotions are gut-wrenching, with one of the biggest themes being the unchecked hatred that is tearing apart the city, keeping the reader at the edge of their seat. It all ends with cathartic reunions and devastation, as the characters emerge from the destruction and head into the next phase of their lives.
2Foul Lady Fortune
As You Like It Meets Historical Fiction Espionage With Stunning Results
As You Like Itis an indulgently pastoral Shakespearean comedy, showcasing variously clueless aristocrats taking to the Forest of Arden to escape the politics of court.Gong ambitiously takes this and recasts it into 1930s Shanghai,where her various main characters are working as spies and assassins on opposite sides of the conflict in China. Juliette’s cousin Rosalind (Rosaline in Shakespeare) turns out to also be the comedy’s protagonist; in Gong’s story, Rosalind is also the result of a scientific experiment that left her with enhanced healing abilities and stopped her aging.
Yet Foul Lady Fortune pulls off a playful story borrowing elements from As You Like It, such as fake marriages and false identities complicating burgeoning romances.
YetFoul Lady Fortunepulls off a playful story borrowing elements fromAs You Like It, such as fake marriages and false identities complicating burgeoning romances.Gong’s YA books quote Shakespeare more often than her adult books,and someAs You Like Itlines are perfectly incorporated into the dialogue.Foul Lady Fortunealso picks up the familial themes of the inspirational material, showcasing different relationships with neglectful fathers and more attentive father figures, as well as enduring bonds and fraught relationships between siblings.
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The“melancholy Jacques”character has never been more relatable than when he is cast as a deadpan 18-year-old spy who has more going on than anyone realizes. Additionally,Foul Lady Fortunecontinues whatThese Violent Delightsstarts by illustrating the fallout of European colonialism in Chinaalongside the original story of the main characters’ love lives, regrets, and conflicting loyalties. Rosalind’s moniker“Lady Fortune”is another nod to Shakespeare that illustrates her cunning nature — but underneath it all, she and the rest of the main characters are just doing their best in dangerous times.
1These Violent Delights
Romeo & Juliet Like You’ve Never Seen It Before In 1920s Shanghai
YetRomeo and Julietoffers the strongest foundation for a retelling, with more important story markers to be translated into a new setting.These Violent Delightsis the razor-sharp, tightly-paced introduction to Juliette Cai and Roma Montagov,their heirs to Shanghai’s two rival gangs. Juliette is a glamorous and riveting heroine who is determined to keep Roma out of her life, but they are forced together when a mysterious supernatural threat descends upon the city. The Secret Shanghai series’ fantasy elements are minimal and contained, adding just the right amount of dark magic to the story.
The supporting cast of the Mercutio, Benvolio, and Rosaline characters (plus Celia, Rosalind’s sister based on theAs You Like Itcharacter, and Roma’s sister Alisa, an original character) fill out the story, making it a dynamic setting with many perspectives. Shakespearean Easter Eggs are included in funny and intense moments, while incredible historical research also went into the depiction of Europe’s presence in Shanghai during this period.These Violent Delightsis still the sharpest of Gong’s books,incorporating themes of romance and history, free of the burden of all sequels to do better than before.
