Reviews tagging 'Torture'

Babel: An Arcane History by R.F. Kuang

458 reviews

savvy999's review against another edition

adventurous challenging mysterious reflective fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

Really immensely readable and exceptional storytelling.  razor sharp and incisive, yet intentionally blunt in moments. Many places for you to ponder the morality of the world we live in and how the choices of characters are both aligned and distant in regards to questions of what are we willing to sacrifice.  Philosophically invigorating and engaging. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Xenophobia, Murder, Violence, Suicidal thoughts, Racial slurs, Colonisation, and Racism

Moderate: Islamophobia, Slavery, and Torture

bababookmatt's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring mysterious 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

5.0

Harry Potter 1-7 meets the politics, economics, history of English academia, colonialism, and imperialism. I hope this book has a large influence on the conversation of racial injustice. Just when you’ve fallen in love with the student life at Babel and Oxford, the story’s intensity ramps up and never stops. The mystical characteristics endowed to silver working and translation is a well crafted symbol for the power behind language and communication. Further, this approach made linguistics and etymology, which I always found scholastically intimidating, comprehensible and fascinating. The characters are absolutely fantastic throughout and so well developed. They become your friends. I found myself picking sides during their disagreements, celebrating their achievements, and mourning their hardships. This is a book that will stick with you and influence the way you view social injustice historically and at present. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Bullying, Drug use, Gaslighting, Slavery, Child abuse, War, Physical abuse, Murder, Addiction, Colonisation, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Misogyny, Police brutality, Racial slurs, Racism, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Classism, Cultural appropriation, Death, and Domestic abuse

megnut's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

This book is not for everyone.

It's philosophical about languages and tactics of struggle... while also anchoring them all in (modified) history.

There's a lot going on, but it's one I'd like to read again to really consider what is shared. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Toxic friendship, Confinement, Grief, Racism, Sexism, and Torture

Moderate: Alcohol, Colonisation, Drug use, Racial slurs, War, Classism, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, and Suicidal thoughts

jo_johanna's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative tense slow-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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Xenophobia, Colonisation, Racism, and Torture

Moderate: Cultural appropriation

Minor: Toxic friendship

koiolee's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I was teetering on the fence about giving this book 5 stars or not, but I decided that it rightfully deserves that 5th star. 
I love how symbolic the book is, and how soon the events are foreshadowed. This is an incredibly literary book. This book is about language and the nuances between languages and it challenges the space between language so masterfully. This book tackles the art of writing, translation, and the life beneath what is seen. And we haven't even got to the actual plot and story contents. 
Each character felt fully fleshed out and incredibly real. Oh my boy Ramy, poor Ramy. Robin, the main character, makes so many mistakes in all the best ways. I love how he overanalyzes every opportunity he's given, weighing the pros and cons only to uncharacteristically act on emotion and impulse, the very thing he's been taught not to do. In a book where words are everything, Robin tends to give himself away in his mind, yet never quite says the words that give away what he truly means. Victoire and Ramy probably had the best setup to be the best revolutionaries. They had their brains and wits about them, and the ability to rally the crowd, but Robin was the best choice they could've made. Robin was the one with the most and least self-control, and they bet on that. Victoire is the moral compass of the group and they all respect that. Ramy a fearless leader. Letty was the unfortunate sacrifice they needed to make. The one who couldn't hear what the world truly looked like, what didn't confirm what she knew about her world. Robin described her best, if she couldn't have the world, no one could have it. To be loved is to be heard, and she was deaf to their pleas.
As for the story, it's very neatly organized and linear, there were the climaxes that have you on the edge of your seat mixed with the wonderful lulls of normality. I felt like I was with them with the way Kuang described their second and third years. It reminded me starkly of my third and fourth years respectively (and the fallout that occurred around that time as well), it's good to know that it's a common experience (minus revolution of course).
My only qualm thus far is that all the villains are white people. We could've realistically had some brown people turn their backs on their own like what happens in real life, and given how realistically based this story is, I'm surprised there were no brown traitors. I guess you could say that Robin filled that role actually, but he came back so?
The Dark Academia I was looking for to satisfy the itch fr.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racial slurs, Sexism, Colonisation, Abandonment, Misogyny, Injury/Injury detail, Domestic abuse, Islamophobia, Body horror, Toxic friendship, Violence, War, Murder, Death, Classism, Gore, Xenophobia, Torture, Suicidal thoughts, and Racism

Moderate: Gaslighting, Death of parent, Confinement, Cultural appropriation, Suicide, Trafficking, Forced institutionalization, Sexual harassment, Slavery, Mental illness, Alcohol, and Gun violence

polaris1117's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative inspiring mysterious reflective 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic friendship, Racial slurs, Police brutality, Toxic relationship, Physical abuse, Misogyny, Death of parent, Xenophobia, Torture, Slavery, War, Violence, Suicide attempt, Suicide, and Racism

Moderate: Child abuse, Colonisation, Hate crime, Grief, Gun violence, Bullying, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Physical abuse, and Gaslighting

teabrewer's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative 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? No

5.0

I've felt like this about a book and never this intensely. I cried when I closed it for the last time, after reading the last word of the last line of the acknowledgements. I felt like something was being taken from me. Like my skin streched and ripped as the story got farther and farther away. I couldn't let go of the book. Like a mother and her child holding each other after birth, but I didn't feel like a mother, maybe like a child. I feel like my molecules are now organized diferently. I didn't want it to be over, but I don't know if liking would be the correct word for the experience.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Emotional abuse, Classism, Child abuse, Physical abuse, Murder, Blood, Grief, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Colonisation, Racial slurs, Torture, and Racism

Moderate: Addiction, Drug use, Drug abuse, Death of parent, Islamophobia, Medical content, Alcohol, Cultural appropriation, Slavery, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Trafficking, War, and Genocide

lydia_reads's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Racial slurs, Death, Murder, and Death of parent

Moderate: Sexism, Torture, Physical abuse, Violence, Gun violence, Blood, and Slavery

Minor: Cancer

rainbowalcremie1995's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful informative reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Overall, this was an enjoyable book for people who want to read a fantasy story about academia that acknowledges the ways academic institutions can be both helpful and harmful to the societies they’re a part of.  

I really enjoyed the magic system that was introduced in the book.  Although the characters in the book may have to study for hours on end to master it, it wasn’t too complicated for a reader to understand.  

I don’t really have an individual favorite character in this book, but some of my favorite parts were whenever Robin and his cohort were just hanging out and talking about their studies, and it made the things they went through together near the end of the book a lot more impactful.  I feel like at times, the characters in this book work best when they’re bouncing off of other characters.  I really liked Griffin as a foil to Robin, and Letty being the odd one out of her friend group.  I was surprised at how much Robin grew as a character by the end as well.  In the first half of the story, I found him a little passive, acting as a camera to the more interesting characters in the story.  Now that I’ve finished the book, though, I think this flaw may have been intentional, and it makes it a lot more satisfying to see him come into his own by the end.  

I think that the pacing could be a little awkward at times, and there were definitely parts of the book that I felt could have been arranged a little differently.  For example, I thought that the Hermes Society being introduced so early in the story made certain reveals about Babel’s true nature a lot less impactful.  In fact, I would say that a pretty big weakness of this book is that most of the plot twists very predictable. 

I saw Letty’s betrayal coming from a mile away, as I’m sure most readers did.  I think that her POV chapter coming after the betrayal was also unnecessary, it didn’t add anything to her character that we didn’t already know.

 

In addition, it sometimes feels like the book is too afraid of subtext and has to make the themes explicit in both the main text and the many footnotes.  Which is a shame, because there were a some good lines in this book where a member of the faculty or an older student would say something normal but extremely sinister, but very few of them were allowed to hang without a footnote butting in to say, “By the way, they just said something racist.”  I guess not everyone reading this book will have the same background knowledge coming in to it, but I wish that the buildup to Babel not being as great as it seems on the surface had been more gradual.  

Despite the book having a bit of a slow middle, I thought the last third of the book was pretty good.  I was up until two in the morning yesterday just to see how it ended! 

I wish that the Hermes Society and the older students who were members got some more character development before they died.  I am glad that Victoire got a little more character development near the end as she helps Robin start the strike.  The progression of the strike and the descriptions of society breaking down as the result of one academic tower no longer maintaining the silver was well done, as was Robin’s final descent into violence that leads up to his death.  At first, I was surprised that the strike ended tragically, with Robin and almost all of his allies in the tower sacrificing themselves to blow it up.  However, it’s still a hopeful ending, and it probably would have been a little too neat of the strike had completely changed society overnight without any bloodshed.

 

I can’t judge this book on how well it works as a piece of historical fiction, as I’m not too familiar with the history of the Opium Wars, and I only speak English.  As a fantasy novel, I can say that I had a fun time reading it, and although I think this book is a little too long for me to ever want to read the entire thing over again, I think it definitely earns four stars from me.  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Xenophobia, Sexism, Racism, and Colonisation

Moderate: Slavery, Violence, War, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Torture, and Death

Minor: Terminal illness and Death of parent

imds's review against another edition

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, War, Suicidal thoughts, Pandemic/Epidemic, Religious bigotry, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicide, Terminal illness, Child abuse, Cultural appropriation, Drug use, Misogyny, Torture, Xenophobia, Racial slurs, Death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Kidnapping, Sexism, Islamophobia, Murder, Racism, Gun violence, Hate crime, Classism, Colonisation, Grief, and Physical abuse