Reviews tagging 'Animal death'

Babel by R.F. Kuang

4 reviews

angorarabbit's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad 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

---

Is it wrong to move a book up the TBR due to it being listed on a GoodReads challenge? I am glad I read this book but I feel like the challenges are manipulating the readers. Is a book popular on GoodReads because it is good or because I am reading it to tick off one more challenge? 

 

That aside, this is a very good book. The main four characters feel very real and I can empathise with the viewpoints of all of them. It is also an important book. While languages have not been used in the method the book describes with the silver working they have been stolen in a manner not unlike the onebbnn nn nn  h described in the book. The Opium Wars were very real wars that were fought to keep the opium legal in China for the benefit of European trading companies. 

 

We can learn from history and do better, but we have to actually do better. 

 

Stolen labour, stolen land, stolen language, stolen lives. 

 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Violence, Police brutality, Gaslighting, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, Classism

Moderate: Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Slavery, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Death of parent, Cultural appropriation, War, Pandemic/Epidemic

Minor: Animal death, Sexual assault, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol

lynxpardinus's review against another edition

4.25

adventurous dark emotional tense

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Drug use, Gun violence, Misogyny, Racism, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Police brutality, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, War, Classism

Moderate: Alcoholism, Animal death, Child death, Gore, Physical abuse, Slavery, Medical content, Religious bigotry, Car accident, Fire/Fire injury, Toxic friendship, Pandemic/Epidemic

athryn's review against another edition

2.5

challenging dark informative mysterious 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: Complicated

---

I mostly enjoyed this book, especially the first half. I really found the exploration of languages and translation to be good.

It ultimately ended up a bit stale to me, like the author had a really good grasp of the translation and language stuff, and yet wasn't all that great at actually writing historical fantasy. The characters at Oxford really didn't resonate with me as much as I'd like. The constant modern phrasing in the dialogue just felt off. Don't get me wrong, I love a "fuck the British Empire" and "fuck capitalism" book, but this just ... I dunno. It feels overrated.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Racism, Slavery, Violence, Xenophobia, Cultural appropriation, Gaslighting, Colonisation

Moderate: Bullying, Death, Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Hate crime, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Forced institutionalization, Police brutality, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Toxic friendship, War, Classism

Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Car accident

aseel_reads's review against another edition

3.25

challenging dark reflective tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

---

2025: 3.25 stars. so i agree with my first review, that social commentary is excellent and the author poses some interesting questions, such as should we fight colonial violence with more violence? how translation can be used to erase people/help carry on the colonial project. unfortuntately, the pacing/length of the book destroyed any positive feelings i have for this book. it was such a slog to read, super dense but not worth it. i couldn't care less about the characters because they were diluted from the sheer volume of random information. for example, there is an excellent section on grief but by the end, i couldn't remember caring about it. 

2022: 4 stars. i really enjoyed the social critique this book had on academia, colonisation, empire, knowledge etc. i actually really like the footnotes, there were not too many of them. it was definitely quite slow in the middle and the big thing that happened, i had been waiting all book for it to happen. i think it had a realistic ending and i like the blend of history and magic that the author managed. i do think i didn't care that much for the characters themselves, just their circumstances. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism

Moderate: Addiction, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Sexism, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Xenophobia, Grief, Religious bigotry, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, Classism