Reviews tagging 'Domestic abuse'

Babel: An Arcane History by R.F. Kuang

107 reviews

julieyael's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? N/A
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I hesitated to give a full 4 stars or a 3.75. 
What made me rate 4 is the world building around silverwork and the translations. 

I am naturally in love with languages, ethymology and linguistics. So to have them at the center of a fiction book was a dream come true. 

What I liked about this novel:
- the general theme
- the reasearch done by the author to give a good foundation and credibility to the world and story
- the academic settings, with lots of details
-the footnotes, which may seem too much explanation but actually give the reader a nice idea of the background and the events on the side, without adding to the actual text of the story. 
- the general writing (it was my first book by this author)

What I thought could have been improved:
- the characters are a bit shallow to my taste. It’s hard to relate and find a coherent personnality in any of them. I love a good character, but these all seem more like quick steches rather than full illustrations, if you understand what I mean. 
Some of them are just names thrown at you, and some important characters don’t seem to have a clear purpose. 
- the redundance of making the point that « white men are evil, colonization is bad, all people have rights ». Yes, it’s important and it’s a main theme of the novel. 
But once the author had explained that once, she could have been more subtle in the 500 other following pages. The point is made clear, but it’s the way she does it that feels redundant and sometimes a bit condescending. 
- there were some lengths in the middle of the book, but I am happy that the ending turned better. (Even if some things feel a bit too easy)

To conclude this rather long review: I am glad that I read this book, but not sure if I would read it again (it was more than 500 pages, and with some flaws)
I may have been slightly generous on the rate, so I might reconsider in a few days when the dust is settled😁
Anyway, I strongly recommend the reading, it’s worth the read, even with the imperfections😊

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Colonisation, Death, Gun violence, Death of parent, Slavery, Emotional abuse, Blood, Bullying, Domestic abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Murder, Physical abuse, Racism, and Sexism

Moderate: Police brutality, Suicidal thoughts, Drug use, Grief, and Toxic friendship

signeskov's review against another edition

adventurous dark informative reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Cultural appropriation, Classism, Xenophobia, Toxic friendship, Torture, Misogyny, Colonisation, Child abuse, Blood, Sexism, Racial slurs, Islamophobia, Forced institutionalization, Sexual harassment, Grief, Racism, Emotional abuse, Drug use, Domestic abuse, Death of parent, and Addiction

Moderate: Pandemic/Epidemic, Slavery, and War

norcana's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional inspiring sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Cultural appropriation, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Misogyny, Xenophobia, Toxic friendship, Murder, Racial slurs, Blood, Classism, Colonisation, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Racism, Religious bigotry, War, Violence, Torture, and Slavery

Moderate: Bullying and Addiction

Minor: Suicidal thoughts

cordiaelly's review against another edition

dark emotional inspiring sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racial slurs, Misogyny, Xenophobia, Racism, and War

Moderate: Death, Toxic relationship, and Domestic abuse

therealjessicaaustin_2002's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism and Colonisation

Moderate: Sexism, War, Violence, and Slavery

Minor: Domestic abuse

elisaviihde's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative mysterious reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

The magic system that lives drep within the colonial system and the feelings and effects of exploitation are all laid bare on Babel. I enjoyed the translation-based silverwork system a lot, it made the often unseen use of language as a tool of oppression into a literal one. However I did feel like the characterwork and diving even more into the group’s interpersonal relationships could’ve been beneficial - at times it felt a bit too tedious, even if they all are academics, to have everyone only ever discussing these grand ideas of justice and freedom and the reasonings. I felt there was a need for a few more interpersonal anecdotes to drive the point even deeper when the book came to a conclusion.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse and Violence

Moderate: Racism and Xenophobia

marthadude's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Gore, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Racial slurs, Sexism, Slavery, Suicide, Grief, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Torture, Violence, War, Colonisation, Xenophobia, Child death, Cultural appropriation, Genocide, Abandonment, Gun violence, Toxic friendship, Child abuse, Alcohol, Blood, Bullying, Emotional abuse, Racism, Body horror, Classism, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, and Gaslighting

mary_juleyre's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation and Racism

Moderate: Toxic relationship, Domestic abuse, and War

shaipanda's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I truly have no words to express how great this book is. it is simply an experience and despite it being dark and long and fairly academic, it is worth every last minute spent reading it. 
It got a lot darker in the last 200 pages which I didn’t fully expect so definitely be aware of that but this is just a masterpiece of a book.
R F Kuang is ridiculously skilled at writing about things that she has done incredible amounts of research and study on and this is a great example of that 
Just an amazing and incredibly impactful read that I will be thinking about for the foreseeable future

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation, Death of parent, Murder, Toxic friendship, Emotional abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Torture, Xenophobia, Child abuse, Grief, Violence, Domestic abuse, Racism, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, and Racial slurs

Moderate: War, Classism, Confinement, Suicide, Sexism, Kidnapping, Slavery, and Abandonment

Minor: Vomit, Alcohol, Drug use, Police brutality, Drug abuse, and Addiction

midnightgremlin's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Child death, Colonisation, War, Violence, Trafficking, Toxic relationship, Racism, Emotional abuse, Cultural appropriation, Domestic abuse, Gaslighting, Death of parent, Gun violence, Xenophobia, Death, Slavery, Sexism, Racial slurs, Physical abuse, and Murder