Our Violent Ends (These Violent Delights)

The sequel picks up several months after Juliette and Roma joined forces to defeat the Huangpu River Monster. The tenuous peace between the Scarlets and the White Flowers has been shattered, with Juliette being held culpable for the alleged death of Roma’s cousin.

Having addressed the cranial-boring insect threat in book one, I was skeptical of the direction book two would take. As the plot slowly unfolds, it follows a parallel storyline to book one but on a much larger scale. We are introduced to a blackmailer who is controlling not one but five monsters, the workers are rioting, the Nationalists and Communists are inciting a civil war, both gangs have spies within, and there is a poignant discussion about the distribution of a vaccine.

Although there were bigger events in book two, as a reader, I struggled to see both the connections within the chaos and the motivation behind the various sub-plots. I found myself having to re-read passages to figure out why something was being positioned as significant or why a seemingly simple action was being over-dramatized. With that said, if you enjoyed book one of this series, you will undoubtably appreciate book two.