#How Chloe Gong used TikTok to turn her YA book into a bestseller

When Chloe Gong was brainstorming where to set her Romeo and Juliet-inspired YA book “These Violent Delights,” the answer seemed pretty clear: 1920s Shanghai. “My parents were always talking about it as a glamorous time in Shanghai, based on the stories they’d been told,” says Gong, now 22. “I knew I wanted to write a blood feud story. The more I did my own research and looked into what the time period was really like in Shanghai — it was lawless, with gangsters running the city — the more it seemed like a perfect setting for teens to be running around doing their own thing.” 

Readers evidently agreed. The book landed at No. 3 on the New York TImes’ YA bestseller list and stayed there for 18 weeks, no small feat for any author, let alone one who was a college senior when her debut novel was published during the middle of a pandemic. 

This fall, the sequel, “Our Violent Ends” picks up in 1927 Shanghai, with the city on the brink of a revolution.

Gong became a huge hit on BookTok, the community of users on TikTok that posts videos reviewing and recommending books. (@TheChloeGong boasts 106.3K Followers, 3.8 MM Likes).