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4.34 AVERAGE
4.34 AVERAGE
adventurous
challenging
emotional
hopeful
reflective
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
dark
hopeful
informative
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
challenging
dark
hopeful
reflective
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:
Yes
As someone who has studied several languages, I connected with this book so deeply. Incredible prose, masterful arcs. I need everyone to read this book, and I mean E V E R Y O N E
challenging
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Apologies to the Babel fans but this book was not for me.
As much as the writing was beautiful and the message important, I could not stand Robin as a character. I found him annoying the whole way through. As well, the pacing of this book felt all over the place and it was hard to stay engaged.
I’ve read yellowface and also didn’t get the hype so maybe Kuang isn’t for me ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
adventurous
informative
sad
extremely well-written and well-researched. colonialism and exploitation is bad, obviously. the main theme itself is not tough to grasp. but there exists the strange dissonance of the characters who have benefited from the empire, but only because they were snatched and stolen from their homelands simply because of their tongues, their ability to speak languages that will allow the empire to expand. of course these non-white characters all experience the horrors of contemporary racism - people simply avoiding them, being actively hostile, or treating them like zoo animals, or all of the above - all very typical of what likely happened in 1830s oxford. and letty’s character adds nuance to the story - while she doesn’t understand her friends’ struggles because she just refuses to see that it’s actually that bad, she does see that what the empire is doing is genuinely horrific. however because of her upbringing and privilege she just simply won’t give up all of that to engage in this fight. i didn’t exactly predict her betraying her friends, but it didn’t come as a surprise at all.
i liked that this was more of a magical historical fiction rather than entirely a fantasy. it felt a lot more genuine to me that way, and i like that!
i do think r f kuang is a little heavy handed and tends to overexplain things to the reader - like i said, the main theme is not difficult to grasp. often i would read something and come to a natural conclusion in the background of my mind only for it to be explained a few sentences later, when i didn’t need that. and: i guess this is maybe just how the author wanted to write it, but this book kind of acts like britain is the only empire ever. don’t get me wrong, i get that britain was the reigning empire at this time, and especially during industrialization, they thought they’d be unstoppable. and they were literally evil. but it felt weird for there to be really only few and scattered mentions of the atrocities of the american empire (still more up and coming at this time, but absolutely concurrently committing atrocities via genocide of native americans). also there wasn’t much to be said about the contemporary chinese empire, the spanish empire, etc. britain was definitely the world center at the time, but like there definitely had to be silver used for other exploitative reasons in the hands of all the aforementioned empires.
those are really my only two complaints. aside from that, this book was captivating; definitely my favorite r f kuang book. don’t think i’ll be reading the poppy war because it doesn’t interest me much but i’m excited for katabasis.
adventurous
challenging
dark
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:
N/A
adventurous
challenging
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
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
dark
mysterious
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
adventurous
dark
emotional
inspiring
reflective
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
I had great fun reading this. The story is very well-planned, and written in a subtly dramatic way that fitted just right with me. The historical architecture of the 19th century Oxford in the story represents the author’s rigor towards a balance between history and fiction.
adventurous
challenging
informative
mysterious
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