These Violent Delights

These Violent Delights is a young adult historical fantasy novel published in 2020 by the Chinese-born New Zealand author Chloe Gong. Loosely inspired by William Shakespeare’s play Romeo and Juliet, the book became a New York Times best seller and earned Gong a Sir Julius Vogel Award in 2021, when the author was still only 22 years old. This study guide refers to the 2020 Margaret K. McElderry Books edition.

Plot Summary

In Shanghai in 1926, there are two rival gangs: the Scarlet Gang, who are Chinese, and the White Flowers, who are Russian. One night, members from both gangs confront each other at the port. A monster attacks them, infecting them with a sickness that causes them to kill themselves.

Juliette Cai is the daughter of Lord Cai, leader of the Scarlet Gang. She is meeting with a potential business partner, Walter Dexter, at a nightclub when Roma Montagov tells her about the deaths at the port. Roma, who is the son of Lord Montagov, the White Flower’s leader, dated Juliette four years prior. They broke up after their gangs killed their loved ones—Roma’s mother and Juliette’s Nurse—deciding they could no longer trust each other. At the club, a man comes in with the sickness—referred to as “the madness”—tearing his throat out and dying.

Lord Montagov hears about the madness and sends Roma to investigate what happened. At the port, he finds strange dead insects. He takes the insects to a lab where the scientist Lourens inspects them and realizes they are linked by a hive mind. Marshall and Benedikt, Roma’s friends, inspect other victims of the madness and realize that the same insects they found at the port have burrowed into the brains of the people who died from the madness.

Juliette discovers that the Communist leader Zhang Gutai is rumored to be responsible for the madness, which is spreading rapidly across the city. She asks her cousin, Katherine, to find out where Zhang Gutai lives. Juliette and Roma both visit Zhang Gutai’s office to meet with him. He denies any involvement in the madness. Before the meeting, Juliette steals drawings of a monster from Zhang Gutai’s folders. She shows the drawings to her other cousin Rosalind, who has seen the monster and confirms it is the same creature.

Paul Dexter, Walter’s son, invites Juliette to attend a ball at the French Concession. Her parents insist that she go so she can secure an alliance between the French and the Scarlet Gang. At the masquerade, Juliette talks to Paul, who claims to work for the Larkspur, a mysterious figure who is distributing a vaccine for the madness. Juliette does not know that Paul is the Larkspur, and that he created the madness to profit from selling the vaccine. Roma shows up in disguise. He dances with Juliette and proposes a meeting between the gangs to cooperate to solve the madness. Tyler Cai, Juliette’s cousin, recognizes Roma and threatens to shoot him. Suddenly, people start contracting the madness at the ball. Juliette agrees to a meeting.

During the meeting, as Lord Cai and Lord Montagov argue, Roma’s younger sister Alisa exhibits symptoms of the madness. Roma restrains her and takes her to the hospital, where they tranquilize her. Juliette agrees to help Roma seek more information on the madness. They go to Zhang Gutai’s house where Qi Ren, Zhang Gutai’s personal assistant, greets them. Juliette finds correspondence between Zhang Gutai and the Larkspur. Meanwhile, Kathleen learns that Zhang Gutai supposedly controls the monster that causes the madness.

Roma and Juliette force their way into the Larkspur’s vaccine clinic and steal a vial of the vaccine. They take the vial back to Lourens’s lab. Meanwhile, Benedikt and Marshall find someone who is suffering from the madness, knock her unconscious, and take her back to Lourens’s lab. They all meet there and observe Lourens as he experiments on the unconscious patient. He cannot cure the woman, and when he tries to cut out the insects from her brain, she dies. He determines that the vaccine is made from the drug lernicrom, which Walter Dexter sells. While at Lourens’s lab, Juliette steals one of Lourens’s concoctions that makes the person who takes it seem like they are dead.

Upon witnessing the monster turn into insects, Benedikt and Marshall realize the insects causing the madness are also the monster. Meanwhile, Juliette goes on a date with Paul to try to learn more about the Larkspur. She finds a note in his father’s office addressed to one of the Larkspur’s contacts, Archibald Welch. Roma and Juliette seek out Archibald in a seedy bar and brothel that he frequents. He promises to give them information about the Larkspur but makes them take a drink of alcohol every time they ask him a question. They learn from him that the Larkspur already knew how to make the vaccine before the madness even arrived in Shanghai. The police raid the bar, causing Roma and Juliette to flee into one of the brothel’s rooms. Roma hides while Juliette intimidates the police. Afterwards, they kiss, but the moment sours when Juliette demands that Roma tell her why he betrayed her.

The next day, Juliette, not satisfied with his short answer, seeks out Roma in White Flower territory and asks him to explain to her what happened. He reveals that his father gave him an ultimatum: Either Juliette would die, or Roma could help to kill someone else from the Scarlet Gang. He chose to save Juliette.

Roma and Juliette find the Larkspur in a tea house, but he is hidden, so they cannot see who he is. He tells them that Zhang Gutai is the monster. Meanwhile, Tyler spots the couple together and thinks that Juliette has betrayed her family. Workers also begin to strike across the city.

With the help of Kathleen, Benedikt, and Marshall, Roma and Juliette assassinate Zhang Gutai. However, they realize immediately that they have made a mistake because the madness continues to spread. Juliette has a breakdown, feeling guilty for killing an innocent man. She and Roma reconcile and forgive each other for their past betrayals.

They determine that Zhang Gutai’s secretary, Qi Ren, is the actual source of the madness. They go to Zhang Gutai’s house to find Qi Ren. Paul is there; he vaccinates Juliette and reveals he is the Larkspur. He explains his plan to profit from selling a vaccine. Then he sends the monster out into the city. Roma and Juliette follow, trying to warn people in its path. Roma is infected with the madness and begins to harm himself. Paul tries to kill Juliette, but she shoots him. She then shoots Qi Ren and the insect infecting him, ending the madness. Roma survives, as does Alisa.

Tyler goes to Alisa’s hospital room and holds her at gunpoint. When Roma and Juliette arrive at the hospital, along with Benedikt and Marshall, Tyler threatens them and calls Juliette a traitor. Marshall shoots a Scarlet Gang member, and Tyler shoots him in the stomach. Juliette pretends to kill Marshall, but she actually gives him a potion to make him seem dead. She lies, saying that she was only using Roma for the information he provided. After everyone leaves, Juliette takes Marshall to a safe house. She learns from Katherine that Paul wrote a letter to an unknown recipient saying that if he died, the rest of the insects should be released into the city. The madness starts to spread again.