Reviews with content warning for Addiction - Babel: An Arcane History

It's an interesting story and I learned a lot while reading. Unfo tunately for me, as someone who enjoys reading more about characters, the book lacked some depth, especially in the beginning. The book is packed with historical and linguistic information, which slowed down the book too much for me and made it hard to read at times.

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scmiller's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense

Plot- or character-driven? Plot

4.5

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evelasco's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional 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? Yes

4.5

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rieviolet's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional informative 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

5.0

Honestly this book is like catnip for me. A historical setting (with a heavy focus on imperialism and colonialism) plus a sprinkle of fantasy elements, and above all so much about language and translation embedded into the storyline, just sign me up please!

It is not without flaws. At times the handling of its themes is very heavy-ended, everything is spelled out for the reader and you can see the author's hand very cleary, so much so that you feel a bit pulled out of the narrative. The portrayal of some characters could use some more depth and exploration, in places it felt a little surface-level and stilted.
The ending is maybe a bit too open-ended for my liking.

That being said, the book is still a marvellous feat of the dark academia genre. I loved the reading experience, it was fascinating and gripping, it kept me on the edge of my seat with its twists and turns and put me on a roller coaster of emotions. Just, why did you have to crush my heart like that, R. F. Kuang? My poor boys.

Language was just difference. A thousand different ways of seeing, of moving through the world. No; a thousand worlds within one. And translation - a necessary endeavour, however futile, to move between them.

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pobi's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional hopeful informative 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

5.0

Tragic and yet hopeful- a hard balance but God does she make it work. Kuang really knows how to raise the stakes until you think they're at the highest point, and then raise them again. A masterful introduction to the inherent violence of colonisation. The messaging is very on-the-nose but also I think perhaps it had to be- as it says people will take any excuse to avoid seeing what is uncomfortable. Subtext isn't strong enough for white people.

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