Reviews tagging 'Pandemic/Epidemic'

Babel by R.F. Kuang

126 reviews

rock_gnome's review against another edition

5.0

challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Bullying, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Self harm, Sexism, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Blood, Police brutality, Islamophobia, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Religious bigotry, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Cultural appropriation, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, Deportation, Pandemic/Epidemic

doctorbrew's review against another edition

5.0

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative reflective sad tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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what the fuck rebecca 🥲

(returning after a night to process this)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gun violence, Racial slurs, Racism, Violence, Xenophobia, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Cultural appropriation, Colonisation

Moderate: Misogyny, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Injury/Injury detail, Pandemic/Epidemic

raptorq's review against another edition

5.0

challenging dark emotional informative 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: Complicated

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I would give this 10 stars if I could.

Frankly, required reading.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Islamophobia, Medical content, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Cultural appropriation, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, Classism

Moderate: Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, War, Pandemic/Epidemic

Minor: Body horror, Child death, Drug use, Gore, Sexual assault, Suicide, Religious bigotry

obsydian's review against another edition

5.0

challenging dark emotional 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: Complicated

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Body horror, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Blood, Police brutality, Islamophobia, Death of parent, Murder, Cultural appropriation, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, Pandemic/Epidemic

drcheshirecat's review against another edition

4.5

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective sad tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Unapologetically intellectual in its critique of empire, academia, and colonization. The decision to root this story in the role of language in relation to power is brilliant. I’ll be thinking about this novel for years to come. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gun violence, Racism, Xenophobia

Moderate: Child abuse, Racial slurs, Slavery, Death of parent, Toxic friendship

Minor: Panic attacks/disorders, Suicidal thoughts, Islamophobia, Grief, Murder, War, Pandemic/Epidemic

am2195's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring mysterious sad tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: N/A

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Misogyny, Racism, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Bullying, Hate crime, Physical abuse, Slavery, Religious bigotry, War

Minor: Stalking, Pandemic/Epidemic

doogle's review against another edition

4.0

dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

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When you're born into a cruel world that prides itself on exploiting others for gain, you eventually will be forced to choose where your loyalties lie — the place with whom you share a blood connection with, or the place that gave you everything you could've wanted, for a price?

Sometimes, though, you don't have to choose at all if you've lost enough. And maybe a little bit of silver will help you along the way?

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Hate crime, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Suicide, Violence, Murder, Classism, Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Slavery, Islamophobia, War

denningg123's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative 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: Complicated

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Yeeeeeesh. This is one of the books of all time. Read it, but take content warnings very seriously

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Colonisation, War

Moderate: Addiction, Confinement, Drug abuse, Drug use, Sexism, Slavery, Medical content, Trafficking, Death of parent, Cultural appropriation, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Pandemic/Epidemic

_david_'s review against another edition

4.0

adventurous challenging emotional slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

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Beautiful story. I find it hard to explain why. It's strong how colonialism and capitalism is incorporated into a fantasy story. You have to give in and accept some of the personalities a bit but then you'll be revealed a great story arch and character growth. Kuang makes academics and translation plus its ethics & nuances easy to understand. It's clear she's got experience in the field. I'll remember everything regarding the nuances in the field for a long time. All in all, an awesome read!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Misogyny, Racism, Xenophobia, Blood, Murder, Classism

Moderate: Drug abuse, Drug use, Racial slurs, Slavery, Colonisation

Minor: Islamophobia, Religious bigotry, Alcohol, War, Pandemic/Epidemic

Opiods are mentioned

thegreatnoodles's review against another edition

5.0

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative mysterious sad 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: Complicated

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A tremendously powerful and beautifully written book about the struggles of inequality, the crushing might of colonialism and the violent, all consuming nature of capitalism. All mixed together in an alternate history, magically laced story about academia and language.

I cannot express how much I enjoyed reading this book, and how strongly I felt for all of its characters.

The only fault I can think of is that this’ll make so many future reads pale in comparison to Babel.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Grief, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, Classism

Moderate: Alcoholism, Child death, Chronic illness, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Genocide, Slavery, Police brutality, Medical content, Medical trauma, Cultural appropriation, Deportation, Pandemic/Epidemic

Minor: Ableism, Addiction, Self harm, Fire/Fire injury