Reviews tagging 'Gun violence'

Babel by R.F. Kuang

809 reviews

pruddle's review against another edition

5.0

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring 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

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Racism, Blood, Grief, Colonisation

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Gun violence, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Toxic friendship, Classism

Minor: War

palaris's review against another edition

4.25

adventurous emotional hopeful 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: Yes

---

What a wild book. I didn't really expect it to go the direction it went in, but was satisfied with the ending. It must have been very difficult to figure out how to easily explain this magic system, but it somehow worked! A lot of mystery throughout which was nice. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Murder

Moderate: Addiction, Drug use, Gun violence, War

alli_readz's review against another edition

3.5

challenging emotional informative reflective slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

---

I will start this review by saying the world-building and how the themes were portrayed throughout the book was beautifully written. R.F. Kuang reflects the past through magical realism in a way that was truly unique. The concept of silver making and how translation works was brilliant. It was so interesting to learn about and the way it was interwoven with the themes of class, race, and colonialism. 

However, the other aspects of this book made its rating bump down for me. My biggest gripe was the pacing. I kept reading and waiting for something to happen since it felt like nothing was for 2/3 of the book! And during that time, the events that did happen involved either acts of racism by the professors/other students toward the cohort or friendship drama between the cohort. I was honestly getting so sick of it and wanted it to get to the point. I thought Robin getting in with the Hermes Society was going to go on farther than it did. He gets caught by 1/3 of the book and drops out after arguing with his brother. It was so disappointing. Then when things get interesting after Robin kills Professor Lovell, the pacing goes into hyperspeed until the seige of the tower, where the pacing goes back to being slow. It was such a slog to get through the last 50 pages and even after all of that, the ending didn’t pay off. 

My next complaint were the characters. Besides Robin, I barely knew anything about the other characters. Letty was the second best written character after Robin, but I had really no connection with any of them. Griffin could’ve been delved into so much more, and his death was just so anticlimactic. I truly didn’t understand why the cohort was so close. Half the time they absolutely hated each other. 

Finally, I would call this a book you would read if you wanted to seem smart. The translations and footnotes were cool but it got to a point where it was too much. It is such a long book with lots of information thrown at you and seemingly no action happening for the majority, it was hard to get through at times.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Colonisation

Moderate: Child abuse, Racial slurs, Sexism, Toxic friendship

Minor: Gun violence, Misogyny, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Murder, War

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

---

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. 

---

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

estap95's review against another edition

5.0

dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Child abuse, Death, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Cultural appropriation, Gaslighting, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail

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

---

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?

---

Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Slavery, Islamophobia, War

gcampbell_741's review against another edition

5.0

challenging 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

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Gun violence, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Suicide, Death of parent, Murder, Colonisation, Classism

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

---

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

---

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

---

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!

---

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

oliviarleblanc's review against another edition

5.0

dark emotional 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: Complicated

---

Holy crap. This book was so good. I didn’t really know what to expect when I started the book. I had heard mixed reviews, but I loved “Yellowface” so I wanted to give it a try. While it’s nothing like “Yellowface,” it is absolutely amazing. I have heard people say the writing is dense, but I found that didn’t bother me. I thought all of the information was fascinating and I loved her perspective. The story was also heartbreaking and so intriguing. I loved this book. It covers language and colonialism in a way that I think was very digestible. I just loved it.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gun violence, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Islamophobia, Death of parent, War