Reviews tagging 'Cursing'

Babel by R.F. Kuang

52 reviews

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense medium-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: Complicated

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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

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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adventurous challenging dark emotional informative mysterious reflective sad tense medium-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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challenging dark emotional funny mysterious reflective 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: Complicated

If you're white and you're not deeply, horrifically uncomfortable while reading this book, I would question your ethics. On the Necessity Of Violence serves to remind us that sometimes there is no change except through blood and death. And it offers a cold, haunting reminder that colonialism and racism are the very foundation on which western civilization has risen regardlesss of the cost. We are simply Letty at the end of the day but I hope we do better. God, I hope we do better. 

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adventurous challenging dark emotional informative 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

"Translation means doing violence unto the original, means warping and distorting it for foreign unintended eyes" 

I liked this book, but I didn't love it. At times it felt very repetitive; I don't know how many times the author needed to say "colonialism bad" in basically the same way; at a certain point it was no longer advancing the plot or contributing to character development. it felt like the author didn't trust the readers to come to any conclusions on their own - about Robin's morality or about the justification of the British empire,
about the justification of Hermes or Letty's betrayal
. The pacing picked up in a meaningful way toward the ending - which in turn left me feeling downtrodden and heavy. But still there is hope - "History isn't a premade tapestry that we've got to suffer, a closed world with no exit. We can form it. Make it. We just have to choose to make it." 

A note on the formatting -- this book contains a lot of footnotes (which I thought overall served the story well) but I read the Harper Voyager paperback version and because of the font and size I often had trouble seeing the footnote indicator ( * ) which made the reading experience a little choppy. 

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adventurous emotional funny inspiring reflective sad tense slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I can summarise this book no better than the line from the inside cover/blurb: "Every act of translation is an act of betrayal".
A delicate balance of hope and revelation, this book cannot be recommended. It can only be experienced. 

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challenging dark emotional inspiring reflective sad 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: Complicated

This is a brilliant book! No questions about it. 
It challenged me, touched me deeply and is so well structured and written. 

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emotional hopeful 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

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative 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

"That's just what translation is, I think. That's all speaking is. Listening to the other and trying to see past your own biases to glimpse what they're trying to say. Showing yourself to the world, and hoping someone else understands." (pg. 535)

I don't even know where to begin. R. F. Kuang has done it again. She has rattled me, shaken me to my core and I thank her for it. Going into it - having read the entire Poppy War series - I knew I was not bound for a happy, carefree book. Coming from an anthropology background, the extent of human destruction and hatred of "the other" it not news to me but it continues to move me every time. 

I can already sense that I will return to this book over and over again in the future and will recommend it to everyone I come across, although not without warning. 

The book's alternate title "The Necessity of Violence" captures the journey this book takes one on while reading quite succinctly, althought the extent of this might not seem obvious upon first glance.

In the process I have learned a great deal about linguistics and am planning on dealving into that further. But first I am going to have to digest what I have become witness to by reading this book. 




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dark informative 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

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