Book Review: Last Violent Call by Chloe Gong

‘Last Violent Call’ by Chloe Gong was released in early 2023. It contains two novellas that offer insight into the lives of Roma Montagov and Juliette Cai, as well as Marshall Seo and Benedikt Montagov from her original duology: ‘These Violent Delights’ and ‘Our Violent Ends’ in the four years that follow the conclusion of ‘Our Violent Ends’ to the conclusion of ‘Foul Lady Fortune’, these two novellas provide what can only be assumed as an essential bridge between the original duology and Gong’s second duology, where these characters are likely to make another appearance.

‘Last Violent Call’’s first novella follows Roma and Juliette in their new home, living in domestic bliss under false names in Zhouzhuang, where the couple runs an underground weapons smuggling business, keeping their hands clean, but maintaining contacts where possible with family and friends from the original duology.

This novella, ‘A Foul Thing’, looks at the implications of bizarre pharmaceutical experimentation, not dissimilar to what Rosalind is subject to in ‘Foul Lady Fortune’. Roma is solicited by a young man, Yulun, begging for this infamous husband-and-wife team to protect his fiancée, Mila, who was being hunted down. This story not only answers some lingering questions about whether or how Roma and Juliette could have possibly survived the explosion at the end of ‘Our Violent Ends’, but also offers a softer, sweeter, more romantic and more comfortable glimpse at these former gangsters. Roma buys Juliette roses! Roses! It’s cute, and self-indulgent, tooth-rotting fluff! I had no complaints!

Gong utilised the introduction of a new pair of young lovers in order to draw parallels to Roma and Juliette’s original story, young lovers that would tear the world asunder to protect the one they love. It was lovely to see both Roma and Juliette acknowledge the similarities, despite the different circumstances.

I really enjoyed seeing Roma and Juliette in mentor roles, guiding Mila and Yulun to be capable of fending for themselves, should something happen to the pair in the future, since they couldn’t safeguard the pair forever. The novella offered a great sidestep into the grey space that exists between the events of ‘Our Violent Ends’ and ‘Foul Lady Fortune’, confirming reader suspicions about circumstances due to befall poor Rosalind in ‘Foul Heart Huntsman’, whilst not feeling like a clunky stepping stone. Instead, this glimpse into their lives feels like a smooth segway, unspurred on by a gloomy end-of-the-world level-overarching plot, and thus enjoyable for the sake of wanting to indulge in characters’ joy for a change. I’m eager to see what happens next, and can’t wait to see Roma and Juliette among their friends and family in the next book.

Alternatively, the second novella, ‘This Foul Murder’, provides into the relationship between Marshall and Benedikt, who, after the White Flowers were declared enemies of the nation, fled Shanghai, and moved to Russia, where they were married, although, not legally – but, in a world of fake names and murder plots, the rings and the promises are enough.

They received a summons from Roma, asking them to retrieve the illusive mad scientist Lourens after he vanished, slipping through the Nationalists, the Communists, the White Flowers, and Rosalind’s fingers throughout the events of ‘Foul Lady Fortune’. Like ‘A Foul Thing’, ‘This Foul Murder’ offers a glimpse into their lives post-‘Our Violent Ends’. As the reader, you become privy to information that wouldn’t have been indulged by a third-person limited narration focused on Roma and Juliette, because their minds do not wander in the same ways Marshall’s and Benedikt’s do.

Since they are on a mission of their own, Benedikt and Marshall are caught unawares on a cross-country train when a man in the neighbouring carriage is murdered in his room. Aware that they can’t risk their mission falling through and the subsequent implications, the pair turn from career criminals to private detectives, seeking out the answers to who killed this passenger, and why.

I loved Benedikt and Marshall in ‘These Violent Delights’ and even more so in ‘Our Violent Ends’ because Gong made the nature of their pining and closeness subtler in the first book, while in the second, circumstances exacerbated their emotions because it isn’t better to have loved and lost when you don’t realise that your beloved best-friend-slash-crush is actually alive and in hiding. With the romantic tension, the aching, the grief etc. that we as the reader are privy to in ‘Our Violent Ends’, and seeing how little care Benedikt has for his life anymore is a painful echo of dramatic irony and the ending of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliette, faking ones death thus making the other seek death too. When they were reunited, I was squealing, and kicking my legs like a child. I was so excited about the love confession, so to see them settled, comfortable, happy, and married was amazing. I was happier for them than Roma and Juliette – though that might be because, unlike Roma and Juliette who informally wed in the original duology, Marshall and Benedikt do not have the same cookie-cut ending.

What I loved especially, was how the implications of Benedikt’s grief for Marshall in ‘Our Violent Ends’, manifested in ‘A Foul Murder’, panicking that Marshall had been stolen away and killed because he let Benedikt sleep while he went to the bathroom. I loved seeing the aftershock of the cataclysmic events that befell them originally, and how it impacts their lives, and how they conduct their business.

On a whole, ‘Last Violent Call’ was a fantastic and indulgent read, which carefully balanced the plot and fluff for easy, sweet reading, where the stakes aren’t as high, but trouble is brewing. It was an enjoyable read, and I reckon it will be an essential bridge between the two duologies in Chloe Gong’s written universe.