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Graphic: Murder
Moderate: Physical abuse, Racism, Death of parent
Minor: Child death
Graphic: Death, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Slavery, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Police brutality, Grief, Murder, Cultural appropriation, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, Deportation
Moderate: Child death, Drug abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Trafficking, Mass/school shootings, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual harassment
Graphic: Misogyny, Racism, Sexism, Xenophobia, Grief, Death of parent, Cultural appropriation, Colonisation
Moderate: Gun violence, Racial slurs, Slavery, Suicide, Violence, Trafficking, War
Minor: Child death, Police brutality, Islamophobia, Toxic friendship, Pandemic/Epidemic
Graphic: Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Hate crime, Physical abuse, Sexism, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Toxic friendship, Sexual harassment, War, Injury/Injury detail
Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Hate crime, Infidelity, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Sexual assault, Slavery, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Vomit, Islamophobia, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Cultural appropriation, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, Dysphoria, War, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, Deportation, Pandemic/Epidemic
Graphic: Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Slavery, Violence, Murder, Colonisation, War
Moderate: Child abuse, Child death
First of all, the dark academia aspect was done very well. It felt atmospheric, grand, with a hint of mystery. It felt gloomy in a really fun way. The settings outside of the tower itself were less immersive, but the majority of the story takes place inside the tower anyway so it wasn't too distracting. The dark academia vibe was a genius way to explore a story about decolonization and racism. The magic system was inventive and interesting, and I liked how it stood as a metaphor for the industrial revolution.
The characters were just okay. We get to see Robin, the main character, the most, and I felt really attached to him by the end. The other characters had interesting stories that I felt didn't get explored enough. I understand this book leans in to its literary side, and the characters and arguably the entire plot are just allegories for bigger issues, but I think this made the character work suffer and it made the explosive ending pack less of a punch. Don't get me wrong, I loved the ending, and I still cried, but some of the other moments that were meant to be heavy-hitting fell flat because I didn't feel the connection to the characters. The found family aspect didn't feel fleshed out enough because of this as well.
I think the character work is a side effect of Kuang's tendency to overexplain things rather than actually have things happen. Some of the messaging was so on the nose that it felt pedantic and almost condescending at times. I wanted to read this book to challenge my thinking, and I hoped it would leave me with lots of thoughts to reflect on afterward, but everything gets explained to you so plainly that it completely ruins the amazing research and work Kuang put into telling the story of racism and colonization in academia. I mean, there were literally times when something racist or sexist would happen, then the narrator would have a whole paragraph to say something like "Robin wonders if this white person realized how racist they were being". It got irritating... I felt like I was on Sesame Street. I will say the writing itself was done very well, the prose was accessible despite the scientific, historical, and literary references used, and I appreciated a lot of R.F. Kuang's comments and her sarcastic footnotes.
The last issue is the pacing, which I think is also a side effect of this "telling not showing" issue. This book only gets good around the 60-70% mark. It had an extremely slow start with very little intrigue. We spent a long time in lectures and I felt not enough time was dedicated to furthering either the charcters OR the plot. It was a lot of sitting around and waiting. I don't mind books that have a hill into a snowball second half, but I almost put this book down multiple times because nothing was happening, then one minor action would happen and I would finally think we were going somewhere, just for it to slow down again.
All these issues made for a really weird reading experience where I absolutely dreaded picking the book back up, then when I started reading it was just fine and I wanted to know more, then it would get boring and the cycle repeated. I expected more from the rave reviews but left feeling like its potential got wasted. I still do think it's a good read overall, but it could have been better.
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racism, Sexism, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Vomit, Police brutality, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, Classism
Graphic: Death, Racial slurs, Racism, Violence, Xenophobia, Colonisation
Moderate: Sexism, Murder, War, Classism
Minor: Child death, Death of parent
I also think that oftentimes there were too many repetitions of some concepts, such as the magic and world building, still I think that on those topics the book is utterly amazing and bring forward a charming and shocking portrayal and a clear critique that should definitely be read by everybody as it also brings forward future and present concerns and I am not going to lie, as a translator and expert of latin and Ancient Greek, this book did feel like a love letter to the act of translating and languages, although at times the linguistic reflections could be a bit boring and useless for the plot.
Overall, I think it's a good book albeit not worth the hype around it and that while in spirit it has good intentions, the actual writing of it could have been worked over so much better.
Graphic: Child death, Gore, Misogyny, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Xenophobia, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, War, Pandemic/Epidemic
Graphic: Racial slurs, Racism, Xenophobia, Colonisation
Moderate: Addiction, Child death, Death, Gore, Misogyny, Sexism, Slavery, Torture, Islamophobia, Death of parent, Murder, Sexual harassment, Classism