Reviews with content warning for Islamophobia - Babel

Reviews tagging 'Islamophobia'

Babel by R.F. Kuang

272 reviews

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

_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

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

chels_ro's review against another edition

4.75

challenging dark emotional informative slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Content Warnings

tyeshaamber's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative 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

Content Warnings

danielledeal's review against another edition

4.0

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.

Content Warnings