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62.2k reviews for:

Babel

R.F. Kuang

4.34 AVERAGE

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring 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
adventurous dark emotional informative 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

a book where the author shoves her opinion at you quite patronizingly at every chance and not let you think and form your own opinions on the characters or what is happening

Toda traducción conlleva a la pérdida de parte del significado original. En Babel, la labor más importante de los traductores es recoger aquello que queda en el aire y plasmarlo en barras de plata, herramientas empleadas por el Imperio británico.
Robin es arrancado de los brazos de la muerte para pasar a formar parte de esta institución, donde no podrá evitar el sentimiento de no pertenecer a Oxford, de haber sido arrancado de sus raíces chinas.

Un libro denso pero increíble, con un trabajo de investigación detrás que no puedo llegar a imaginar siquiera. En lo personal, me ha supuesto un poco de flasbacks de la guerra, pues estudié filología clásica, y eso ha hecho que no termine de disfrutar la primera parte del libro.
challenging dark 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
adventurous dark tense medium-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

Fascinating premise but I didn’t love the writing or the characters. Parts of it meandered or felt repetitive while other parts felt sparse. I wanted to love it.
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Wow, what an incredibly well done book. Silver-working was such a brilliant set up to make comparisons to our world. It can be a bit heavy handed, but honestly, it feels necessary given how little most people actually explore colonialism, racism, classism, sexism, and their impacts. I am heartbroken and I will not see the world around me the same. 

“'But that's the great contradiction of colonialism.' Cathy uttered this like a simple matter of fact. 'It's built to destroy that which it prizes most.' “

“Robin wondered then how much of Anthony’s life had been spent carefully translating himself to white people, how much of his genial, affable polish was an artful construction to fit a particular idea of a Black man in white England and to afford himself maximum access within an institution like Babel. And he wondered if there would ever be a day that came when all this was unnecessary, when white people would look at him and Anthony and simply listen, when their words would have worth and value because they were uttered, when they would not have to hide who they were, when they wouldn’t have to go through endless distortions just to be understood.”
challenging dark reflective sad 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: Yes
challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense 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
challenging emotional inspiring sad 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

 This. This is one of the most beautiful tragedies I've ever read. I have so many thoughts and emotions surrounding this book, but ultimately, all that I could say about it is boiled down to:
1) this is stunningly beautiful prose and maybe the most poetic work of fiction I've ever read
2) Babel deserves every ounce of hype it receives
3) reading Babel when I did has led to one of my timeliest reads

I would have appreciated the commentary and the importance of this book less had I read it any earlier than this year. Thankfully, I read it when I needed to read it, and isn't that how all great books find us? 
adventurous challenging dark emotional funny informative 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: Yes

This reads like a classic, the writing and storytelling is so expertly done and the ending while bleak felt like a realistic ending and perfectly complimented the situation if not the tone of the entire book. Might be one of the best books I've ever read.