Reviews with content warning for Sexism - Babel: An Arcane History

Reviews tagging 'Sexism'

Babel: An Arcane History by R.F. Kuang

1061 reviews

phillym00's review against another edition

4.75

challenging dark emotional informative reflective 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: Yes

I loved this book so much. It was fascinating and magical and heartbreaking all at once. The character relationships and personalities were so complex. I think it will stick with me for a long time.

Content Warnings

clever__username's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative inspiring mysterious reflective 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

Content Warnings

kshertz's review against another edition

5.0

challenging emotional informative sad tense slow-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

Wow this is an incredible book. It starts with colonization and we follow this small boy and there’s some magical realism. But really there’s so much more. There’s history, coming of age, revolution, the realism of change, power, and corruption. I was enthralled and couldn’t put it down. Absolutely a beast of a book but one I will be highly recommending often.

Content Warnings

funcabbage's review against another edition

4.5

adventurous dark mysterious 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

Content Warnings

iseeorionsbelt's review against another edition

5.0

challenging dark emotional informative reflective 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

Content Warnings

rsohail's review against another edition

3.25

dark informative inspiring slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Content Warnings

tarrnation's review against another edition

5.0

challenging dark 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

This book... man. The ending... it — all of it. This was a very interesting read and I really like the concept of silver. I do feel it took too long to get to the end, and in a way, it was unsatisfying. ——— Which I now realise how purposeful it is. This is astounding.

Content Warnings

bloodbrooxv's review against another edition

4.5

challenging dark emotional reflective slow-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: Complicated

Rebecca did it again.

I loved this book from the very first page: you can see how much the author cares about the subject, and the way she manages to reconcile and express her love for the academic setting with an honest, raw and unfiltered critic about colonialism is masterful. As in tpw, Kuang addresses these issues in an extremely deep way, without neglecting the most brutal details.
I really liked the characters, even if sometimes I’ve found the co-protagonists a bit flat. Robin, on the other hand, is characterized beautifully. His motivations are clear and evolve naturally during the course of the story, and its inner change is as inevitable as necessary.
I especially loved the second half of the book, mainly because I think that the first half has some pacing issues. Probably the only narrative choice I didn’t appreciate was the way the author used footnotes: they contained very interesting information, but in my opinion they were far too fundamental for the complete understanding of the story, and they compromised the flow of the story.

Content Warnings