Reviews

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

mioleo9's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense fast-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? It's complicated

4.0

takey's review against another edition

adventurous informative reflective sad tense slow-paced

3.0

edithczc's review against another edition

5.0

4.5 ⭐
"But the future, vague as it was frightening, was easily ignored for now; it paled so against the brilliance of the present."
"It's hard to accept what you don't want to see."

ktngyn's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional reflective sad 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

mysterioustrumpet's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful inspiring 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

5.0

maria_fr's review against another edition

dark slow-paced

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

2.5

I hate giving leftist books low ratings but here we are. I found it extremely boring, and I thought its political analysis was rather simplistic, almost childish. 

inarilox's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful 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? It's complicated

4.5

hannahcmwright's review against another edition

adventurous challenging mysterious 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? Yes

4.25

katyjb1's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious 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

4.5

kiranmm's review against another edition

5.0

oh my god. just. oh my god. i have no words im speechless im just. wow. this was incredible.

also i absolutely SOBBED. this was so well written & just so so so incredibly good & everything, but god. it hurt so bad.

anyway i’m going to keep crying & stare blankly at the wall for the next while trying to process this book because. just. oh my god.

1000000% recommend. ironically, despite being literally largely about words, this book was just beyond words.

i will most definitely be rereading this (once im emotionally ready). also i annotated this book & just couldn’t help underlining every other sentence bc rf kuang just writes so well & so beautifully.

anyway. i will be thinking about this book for a long, long time.