Reviews tagging 'Violence'

Babel, or The Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators' Revolution by R.F. Kuang

1096 reviews

h_preadsagin's review against another edition

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

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

4.25

I greatly enjoyed the book. The first half is more linguistic heavy but it picks up the pace as you get further in. The author heavily foreshadows. While it didn’t necessarily take away from the story, there wasn’t much that happened that I was truly surprised by. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexism, Toxic friendship, and Colonisation

Minor: Addiction, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Xenophobia, and War

ekgranstro's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional 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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Self harm, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Police brutality, Medical content, Grief, Religious bigotry, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Cultural appropriation, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Gun violence, Slavery, Vomit, Medical content, Stalking, and War

basilroad's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful informative mysterious 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Murder, Colonisation, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Misogyny, Sexism, and Slavery

alixlowe's review against another edition

challenging dark 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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Islamophobia, Trafficking, Grief, Religious bigotry, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, and Pandemic/Epidemic

selbs2004's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Racism, Violence, and Colonisation

Moderate: Child abuse, Misogyny, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic friendship, and Sexual harassment

missmaddie's review against another edition

challenging dark inspiring sad fast-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism and Colonisation

Moderate: Death, Violence, and Murder

Minor: Misogyny and War

_marycappiello3's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative 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: Child abuse, Child death, Death, Gun violence, Hate crime, Misogyny, Racism, Sexism, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Cultural appropriation, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Alcohol, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

remery3's review against another edition

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cultural appropriation and Colonisation

Moderate: Racism and Xenophobia

Minor: Physical abuse and Violence

sas_lk's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.5

I enjoyed this less than I thought I would have, but I still enjoyed it. I think there are 3 main reasons why this wasn't a 5 star for me.
1- The pacing was a bit off, I felt that we spent too much time with some scenes, and not enough with others.
2- The friendship of the characters never felt truly real to me; it felt more like telling than showing, so I never felt like I could truly "feel" the depth of their relationship. And that only worsened throughout the book to the point where in the 2nd half of the book, it felt like nothing anymore.
3- I was expecting it to be more mind-blowing in terms of the discussion of colonialism. Don't get me wrong, I think the writing was brilliant in terms of making you feel that constant dread that colonialism makes you feel when you slowly start understanding the reality of how things were. However, if you already have quite a good understanding of colonialism and its depth, then this book isn't so mind-blowing which is unfortunate. 
I feel bad for saying this, but I think once more books like these (that discuss colonialism in fiction like this) get published, I think this book will go under a little bit.

Either way, I think my expectations were simply too high. However, I still enjoyed it.
Although now I want to study more languages in depth.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gun violence, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Violence, Xenophobia, Vomit, Islamophobia, Murder, Colonisation, and Classism

Moderate: Toxic friendship and War

Minor: Drug abuse and Drug use

bwoo's review against another edition

challenging dark 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gun violence, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Murder, Cultural appropriation, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism