Reviews tagging 'Abandonment'

Babel: An Arcane History by R.F. Kuang

121 reviews

spineofthesaurus's review against another edition

challenging dark informative sad tense

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Racial slurs, Racism, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Child abuse, Blood, Colonisation, Violence, Xenophobia, Classism, Death of parent, Death, Gun violence, Hate crime, Medical trauma, War, Body horror, Confinement, Forced institutionalization, Gaslighting, Gore, Grief, Sexual harassment, Suicide, Torture, Emotional abuse, Murder, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Cultural appropriation, Genocide, Vomit, Fire/Fire injury, Homophobia, Mass/school shootings, Misogyny, Police brutality, Religious bigotry, Abandonment, Deportation, Islamophobia, Medical content, Slavery, Terminal illness, Ableism, Child death, Chronic illness, Drug abuse, Drug use, Kidnapping, Sexism, and Trafficking

Minor: Excrement, Infidelity, Car accident, Alcoholism, and Addiction

notthatcosta's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad 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? No

3.25

First and foremost I respect for R.F. Kuang’s ambition in building this world. The first section ended up being my favourite of all, mostly because its main focus was on establishing the complex parallel universe in which this world exists.

However, the middle section loses a lot of steam for me and ended up spending far too long hovering over tired literary tropes before kicking back into gear for the ending, which was saved by an excellent epilogue. What took me out of the book was how it sometimes directly placed itself within the 1800s in every sense and other times featured dialogue that felt like contemporary Twitter discourse about colonialism. 

Tonally the book was confusing, the motivations for the characters were sometimes unclear, but it is the masterful use of the discipline of translation that keeps the book grounded in intricacy and care.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Colonisation, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Mass/school shootings, Police brutality, Racial slurs, Gun violence, Hate crime, Suicide, Sexual assault, Murder, Death, Death of parent, Misogyny, Racism, Sexism, Sexual harassment, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Torture, and Violence

marthadude's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Gore, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Racial slurs, Sexism, Slavery, Suicide, Grief, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Torture, Violence, War, Colonisation, Xenophobia, Child death, Cultural appropriation, Genocide, Abandonment, Gun violence, Toxic friendship, Child abuse, Alcohol, Blood, Bullying, Emotional abuse, Racism, Body horror, Classism, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, and Gaslighting

shaipanda's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative 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

I truly have no words to express how great this book is. it is simply an experience and despite it being dark and long and fairly academic, it is worth every last minute spent reading it. 
It got a lot darker in the last 200 pages which I didn’t fully expect so definitely be aware of that but this is just a masterpiece of a book.
R F Kuang is ridiculously skilled at writing about things that she has done incredible amounts of research and study on and this is a great example of that 
Just an amazing and incredibly impactful read that I will be thinking about for the foreseeable future

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation, Death of parent, Murder, Toxic friendship, Emotional abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Torture, Xenophobia, Child abuse, Grief, Violence, Domestic abuse, Racism, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, and Racial slurs

Moderate: War, Classism, Confinement, Suicide, Sexism, Kidnapping, Slavery, and Abandonment

Minor: Vomit, Alcohol, Drug use, Police brutality, Drug abuse, and Addiction

cepbreed's review against another edition

challenging emotional 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? No

5.0

“Anger was a chokehold. Anger did not empower you. It sat on your chest; it squeezed your ribs until you felt trapped, suffocated, out of options. Anger simmered, then exploded. Anger was constriction, and the consequent rage a desperate attempt to breathe.”

I AM INCONSOLABLE BECAUSE OF THE ENDING. This is my favorite book of the year thus far.

I knew it was coming. I knew the name Babel was a prophecy of the end, but I am still inconsolable. They were pure, intelligent and gentle kids and they were forced to live through one injustice after another. I can’t believe anyone would read this and not understand it. Sweet Ramy, Robin, and Victoire. I know you as well as I know any friend and love you the same. Even Letty I feel for despite thinking I was going to hate her in the middle of the book. It’s irrational because of what she’s done, but just like them she was just a child. I am scarred by Victoires epilogue and tortured by not knowing what will become of her, not knowing what was in Griffin’s letter to Robin. I am happy knowing that in his last moments Robin heard his real name. However I am filled with hope to know that Victoire stayed true to her self, stealing some silver and keeping the list of contacts. She’s my hope and I love her. I just wish we saw more of Victoire sooner.

I am so incredibly impressed by this book. The concept of translation/etymological magic is so enchanting and creative I’m amazed. There are so many poignant lines that have left me speechless. R. F. Kuang is meticulous and a true talent. After reading two of her books I’m convinced she has become an instant buy for me. The entire time I was nearly convinced silver working was real and I was simply suffering the misfortune of being born too late and in the US instead of the UK. Babel is brilliant and despite being set in the past has many lessons applicable to today, as any brilliant novel should. I can’t say it enough: I love R. F. Kuang!!!! I’ve been seeing scathing reviews from ignorant people online and I must confess it gives me the strangest sense of satisfaction. They are exactly who are being called out through Babel and yet they can’t comprehend that and choose to be irrationally angry instead. It’s just a testament to their stupidity. On the contrary each time I understood a historical reference, had read one of the books/passages that began every chapter etc, I felt so intellectual. It’s a good feeling to have and I truly believe it enriched my experience with the text. I definitely wouldn’t recommend reading this if you aren’t willing to look things up at times or really read through the footnotes. It’s really helpful to have some basic understanding too of the subject matter like the philosophers mentioned or the historical context. 

As a mixed kid all this talk of dreaming in a language has made me so incredibly sad. I’m motivated to learn Korean for my mother’s side of the family but in all honestly I feel pessimistic as well. Despite my heartfelt connection to the text and Robin’s experience with his cultural heritage I believe this book is for everyone. No I don’t have to imbue the text with my personal anecdotes in order to enjoy a book, but I keep finding myself doing exactly that (especially with Kuang’s work). My father is a classics professor and proficient in learning languages (including Greek and Latin) so he would fit right in at Babel. Seeing him in the text opens up the possibility of seeing myself in it as well. I love the idea of becoming a polyglot and have never struggled while learning French in school but my envy for the Babel kid’s skill is immense. I’ll put more effort into my French and Korean studies.

Songs: 

• Alleyways - The Neighbourhood
• Family Line - Conan Gray 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Grief, Gun violence, Misogyny, Racism, Bullying, Colonisation, Murder, Sexism, War, Classism, Hate crime, Xenophobia, Injury/Injury detail, and Racial slurs

Moderate: Blood, Gaslighting, Religious bigotry, Abandonment, Torture, and Slavery

Minor: Alcohol

louisegraveyard's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative mysterious 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Violence, Abandonment, Cultural appropriation, Death of parent, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Islamophobia, Sexism, Slavery, Chronic illness, Colonisation, Death, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Addiction, Blood, Classism, Grief, Murder, Racism, Torture, Toxic friendship, Drug use, Physical abuse, Hate crime, Kidnapping, Misogyny, and Pandemic/Epidemic

lilacs_book_bower's review against another edition

challenging dark sad slow-paced

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

3.0

I have such mixed feelings on this one!  I am glad I read it, and it's an important story to be told about colonization and appropriation.  But ultimately, I never cared about any of the characters, so nothing that happened to them affected me, and I wanted more.  Even though the magic system is there, it felt so mundane, like it almost doesn't qualify as a fantasy.  I didn't mind the footnotes; however, there were a few instances of character backstory or development tucked away in them, and I thought that was odd.  Definitely should have been in the main text, as I am sure not everyone read every footnote (I didn't), and footnotes seem a strange place for info about characters. I did love all the parts about the languages and the history of the words.  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Classism, Death, Drug use, Grief, Misogyny, Gore, Murder, Racial slurs, Torture, Abandonment, Addiction, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Racism, War, Colonisation, Genocide, Blood, and Violence

black_cat_iiix's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional 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: Racial slurs, Racism, and Colonisation

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Slavery, Abandonment, Sexism, Gaslighting, Emotional abuse, Domestic abuse, and Torture

Minor: War, Physical abuse, Police brutality, and Deportation

dianaschmidty's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Classism, Colonisation, Abandonment, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Emotional abuse, Murder, Physical abuse, Grief, Racial slurs, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Vomit, War, and Xenophobia

Moderate: Gore, Drug use, Drug abuse, and Cultural appropriation

thebowandthebook's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional 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? It's complicated

4.75

Page turner, had me reading non-stop. Very heavy on colonialism, but was really excellent

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Xenophobia, Suicidal thoughts, War, Abandonment, Colonisation, and Suicide