Books like Our Violent Ends

Our Violent Ends by Chloe Gong reads as epic, tragic. These 12 books share its genome — matched by how they actually read, not just their shelf label.

What Our Violent Ends is like to read

A fast-moving conclusion to a Shakespeare-inflected feud saga, blending gang rivalry, monster-hunting, and doomed romance under mounting political pressure. Best for: fans of the first book who want the star-crossed tension resolved amid rising city-wide stakes.

These Violent Delights

Chloe Gong · 2020

A lush 1926 Shanghai retelling of Romeo and Juliet where rival-gang heirs must set aside a bitter betrayal to hunt a contagion-monster stalking the city.

creepy, not gorycliffhangerdeep cut

The Poppy War

R.F. Kuang · 2018

Starts as an academy underdog story and detonates into brutal grimdark military fantasy drawn from real 20th-century Chinese atrocities — feverish, punishing, and morally unsparing.

creepy, not gory

Serpent and Dove

Shelby Mahurin · 2019

A witch-and-witch-hunter forced marriage sets up an enemies-to-lovers slow burn against a backdrop of Church-vs-coven war.

mildly eeriedeep cut

Days of Blood and Starlight

Laini Taylor · 2012

Shares the romance + vornate thread

A Noite do Tigre

Yangsze Choo · 2019

A moody historical mystery blending 1930s colonial atmosphere with a supernatural quest, moving between a dance-hall girl and a houseboy bound by superstition and danger.

mildly eeriedeep cut

Iracema

José de Alencar · 1886

Shares the romance + vornate thread

Salomé

Oscar Wilde · 1893

A single-act biblical tragedy of obsession and beheading, its brief span heavy with incantatory language and doomed desire.

mildly eeriecomplete storydeep cut

Maria (Colección Literatura Universal Alba)

Jorge Isaacs · 1800

An elegiac, lyrical romance steeped in the pastoral landscapes of 19th-century Colombia, where doomed love unfolds slowly against currents of class and destiny.

complete storydeep cut

Ruy Blas

Victor Hugo · 1838

A sweeping theatrical tragedy of forbidden love and class transgression, where a servant's impersonation of nobility at the Spanish court ignites a passionate but ultimately self-sacrificial affair with the queen.

deep cut