Reviews tagging 'Toxic friendship'

Babel: An Arcane History by R.F. Kuang

500 reviews

tulip_ss's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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? It's complicated

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Racism, Sexual assault, Torture, Violence, Murder, and Colonisation

Moderate: Genocide, Misogyny, Toxic friendship, War, and Classism

soniajoy98's review against another edition

challenging 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: Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Gun violence, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Toxic friendship, Colonisation, and Classism

Moderate: Body horror, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Slavery, Police brutality, Islamophobia, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Bullying, Confinement, Drug abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual violence, Vomit, Trafficking, Religious bigotry, Cultural appropriation, and Deportation

delaneybarry's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad slow-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

2.75

This book seems to be well researched and R.F. Kuang writes skillfully. However, while the story is compelling, it does at times feel like an exceptionally long lecture on etymology and colonization more so than a historical fantasy. The footnotes, a novel in their own right, are also a hefty weight to bear. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gun violence, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Xenophobia, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Toxic friendship, Colonisation, War, and Classism

Moderate: Addiction, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic

ruthlessreads's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative 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? It's complicated

4.75

An ambitious novel that meets every expectation I had before reading. Kuang is at the top of her literary powers here. The writing style & tone is so different from her previous series, yet her voice comes through clearly. Her experiences at Oxford are clearly an influence to some of the happenings in the novel and Kuang draws from them powerfully to craft a story of the abuses of colonialization, racism, and capitalism that places like Oxford (and, indeed, our own country & lives) are dependent upon to be comfortable & function normally. 

I finished the book thinking heavily on the connotations of these issues in the modern day and in what ways we can begin to make community across racial and class divides to create a more equitable future for everyone. Truly an incredible undertaking on Kuang's part with an equally imposing outcome. My only gripe, if you could even call it such, was that it was a little longer than necessary (IMO) and slowed down quite a bit about 3/4s of the way through until the very end.  So the pacing was a little off and it didn't make me set it down but I could see how it might feel like a slog to others. 

Oh! And I liked the footnotes but I'm a nerd so *shrug*

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Violence, Xenophobia, Police brutality, Kidnapping, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Murder, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Colonisation, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Addiction, Confinement, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Slavery, Blood, and Classism

jenvogel80's review against another edition

challenging emotional mysterious 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Racial slurs, Racism, Violence, Xenophobia, Murder, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, and Sexual harassment

bluefrog's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring 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? N/A

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Racism, Sexism, Xenophobia, Cultural appropriation, and Classism

Moderate: Drug use, Gun violence, Hate crime, Violence, Islamophobia, Religious bigotry, Toxic friendship, and War

offthecarousel_'s review against another edition

dark informative mysterious tense

• 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? Yes

4.0

I was 60% through, giggling and kicking my feet, and ready to give this book a straight 5 star rating. Then I read the rest of it.

This is a book with some incredible elements. The prose, the characters and their interactions, the incredibly detailed grounding in history... it was all there. 

To escalate the problem from their immediate surroundings to taking on world politics with only 25% of the book left.... it was always going to have pacing issues. The last quarter is way too fast, and highlighted other pacing issues I was willing to let go in the first half. 

I also understand logically how a character can have such a dramatic personality change after a trauma, however... this book did not convince me with the words on the page. The characterizations in the last arc fell apart for me, as I wasn't convinced he would change like that.

I'm so tempted to drop the rating lower because I had such high hopes for this book and then I was extremely disappointed. But a lot of the elements here were genuinely good, so I've given it a four.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Xenophobia, Toxic friendship, and Colonisation

Moderate: Addiction, Hate crime, Physical abuse, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Violence, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, and Classism

Minor: Car accident

kittkat's review against another edition

adventurous emotional informative 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? Yes

5.0

wow-
definitiv mein bestes buch dieses jahr und ein neuer eintrag auf meiner lieblingsbücher-liste 🥹!!!!!!

so wundervolle, liebenswürdige charaktere! jede einzelne person hat eine ganz eigene komplexe persönlichkeit und sie sind vollkommen unperfekt… sie wären für einander gestorben und ganz ehrlich, ich auch.

die mischung von dark academia, linguistik, sprachen, kolonialismus, politik, ethik, erwachsenwerden und diese unfassbar heimelige freundesgruppe ist einfach das allerbeste!! ich kann das nicht beschreiben, aber ich habe mich so angesprochen und angeregt gefühlt. 

EMPFEHLE DAS BUCH ZU 199% !!!!! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Murder, Colonisation, War, and Classism

Moderate: Suicide

Minor: Slavery and Toxic friendship

oneqdprnjoy's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative mysterious reflective sad 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

This is a great commentary on colonialism, white supremacy, and internalized racism. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Hate crime, Racism, Slavery, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Blood, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Islamophobia, Murder, Toxic friendship, and War

lizzyjean's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful informative reflective sad 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? It's complicated

5.0

I thought I had cried while reading before. I thought I’d felt the grief and sadness and emotion that the characters were feeling and mourned for them, but the sobbing that took over me while reading Babel was something I’ve never experienced before while reading. I genuinely went through all 5 stages of grief (still working on acceptance) and had to close the book on multiple occasions because I couldn’t bear to read one more word. This book was a beautiful and heartbreaking story, and I cannot recommend it enough.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Misogyny, Racism, Sexism, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Child abuse, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Religious bigotry, Toxic friendship, Sexual harassment, War, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Minor: Drug abuse, Drug use, Vomit, Gaslighting, and Alcohol