Reviews tagging 'Gore'

Babel: An Arcane History by R.F. Kuang

104 reviews

paperquilt's review against another edition

challenging dark informative reflective medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, and Colonisation

Moderate: Gore, Gun violence, Slavery, Alcohol, and Classism

Minor: Child abuse and War

jfield351's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious relaxing tense 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

It was a very compelling and easy to read book but the ending seemed cut off midway. does this mean there’s a sequel? it was a great read though, very dark academia. 

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Death, Gore, Death of parent, Colonisation, and Classism

Minor: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Forced institutionalization, Police brutality, Grief, Murder, Toxic friendship, and Deportation

educatorgams's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative tense medium-paced

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

3.75

This book is well written with developed characters and impeccable world building. However, it’s unvarnished presentation of the British Empire and the Empire’s motivations means it’s not for the faint of heart. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Violence, and Xenophobia

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts

mariadanna's review against another edition

challenging dark informative sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Slavery, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Police brutality, Trafficking, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Cultural appropriation, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

taryn_g's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional 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: Death, Gore, Misogyny, Racism, Sexism, Suicide, Xenophobia, Blood, Death of parent, Murder, and Colonisation

Moderate: Child abuse, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, War, and Classism

Minor: Cultural appropriation

laurenkimoto's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-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

4.75

This book is exactly what I wanted and expected of it. 
Kuang seamlessly takes her knowledge, history and blends it together to bring this world and characters to life. I wanted to join the characters at Oxford and their journeys and fights. How can she take their suffering and make a wonderful story of it????

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Slavery, Toxic relationship, Violence, Xenophobia, Antisemitism, Islamophobia, Grief, Religious bigotry, Murder, Cultural appropriation, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Colonisation, War, and Classism

jenmcreads's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective sad fast-paced

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

5.0

This book deserves all of the hype it is getting. I haven't picked up anything similar to this genre-wise in many many years (though now I hope to!), but I have always enjoyed language and thinking about the impossibility of translation, so the idea of this magic system intrigued me.

I am so glad I read this. I think Kuang has masterfully woven in her critiques of colonialism, academia, and academia's service to Empire. The messaging is not subtle, but these are some of the major wrongs of our society, so in terms of scale that did not bother me. I was very impressed by the pacing of this book, which managed to sweep through time when it needed to, but lingered sufficiently to build depth and attachment to the characters. The exploration of intersectionality was nuanced, and I felt Kuang was very honest and rigorous in her exploration of the different experiences these four characters would go through facing the same events. Kuang's ability to distill the essence of complex global challenges into a view concise and moving paragraphs is astonishing at times. I am not typically an annotator but found myself on more than one occasion reaching for a pen. 

The messaging is important, of course, but this is a 500+ page tome, and the message wouldn't get to nearly as many people if the story weren't compelling. The plot is well structured, tense, and exciting throughout (arguable the first half is a bit slow at times, but to me you can always feel the build). 

And then for me, there is the translation based magic system. I loved this, I loved the etymologies (that take is not for everyone I know, but it delighted me). Kuang is clearly a remarkable mind and the level of research here is awe-inspiring.

I don't feel I am able to do justice to my thoughts on this book, but in three words, it is a masterpiece.  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Child abuse, Death, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Islamophobia, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Cultural appropriation, Gaslighting, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Minor: Slavery

sarah984's review against another edition

challenging dark slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

1.0

I preordered this book and was so excited to read it, but found it hugely disappointing. A lot of the problems I had with The Poppy War are only magnified here, so maybe RF Kuang isn't for me.

Much like Rin, Robin is a complete non-entity as a character, and just absorbs the opinion of whoever the last character he talked to was. The book is very long but so much is glossed over - each friend has like one character trait and we barely see them interact so none of the emotional beats hit like they're supposed to. The writing is self consciously mimicking a "classic" style but characters often speak in a strangely modern vernacular (saying, "same," to agree with someone, a character's disparaging remark about "brain cells", the character who directly quotes the Caleb Gallo "sometimes things that are expensive are worse" sketch) and most of the language around race by characters we are supposed to like came straight out of 2020.

The book makes a huge deal about pointing out racism like you might miss it in a way that felt very YA to me (the footnotes that are essentially just "that's racist" in the smuggest tone imaginable made me want to scream) but the POV characters say unexamined misogynist stuff all the time and a major plot revolves around a woman consumed by romantic jealousy in a way that made me really uncomfortable. You can tell when the author doesn't like a character and those characters are excruciating to read. There's this absurd sort of Shakesville era privilege checklist thing going on over who is allowed to be sympathetic and/or correct that is so simplistic it's embarrassing. (Eg. Ramy is an Indian Muslim so he is almost always correct when arguing with Robin, who is a white-passing Christian. You can predict the outcome of almost every conflict in the book like this, like rock paper scissors)

The magic system was cool in theory but the world was somehow almost exactly the same except that the machinery of empire is clustered together in a really small space so characters can claim a victory that somehow feels super rushed even though it was foreshadowed 500 pages before.

The lectures on language were really interesting though.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Racism, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Death of parent, and Colonisation

Moderate: Addiction, Bullying, Confinement, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Racial slurs, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Vomit, Police brutality, Grief, Religious bigotry, Murder, Cultural appropriation, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Minor: Child death, Genocide, Slavery, Islamophobia, Medical content, Car accident, Fire/Fire injury, and Sexual harassment

marinamelanidis's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark fast-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

this novel is a tour de force. everyone should read it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Racial slurs, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Gore, Torture, Blood, and Death of parent

natnat_7's review

challenging dark emotional informative mysterious reflective sad tense slow-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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Sexual violence, Slavery, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Grief, Religious bigotry, Murder, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, War, and Classism

Moderate: Ableism, Child death, Drug use, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Vomit, Antisemitism, Car accident, and Alcohol