Reviews tagging 'Emotional abuse'

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

378 reviews

cherryfreckle's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Blood, Grief, Murder, Toxic friendship, Colonisation, War, Classism, and Deportation

Moderate: Gun violence, Death of parent, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Minor: Drug abuse, Drug use, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

broken_biscuits's review against another edition

challenging dark 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

3.5

As a political thought piece, great. As an actual story, a little rough. While the magic system was *so* cool, I was a little disappointed in the character writing. Still felt like a worthy and important read. I feel like it did a lot of telling the reader how to feel about things, which kind of took me out of the experience, even though I agreed with what I was "supposed to feel." I didn't feel hardly any connection to the characters, since they felt like they were created to make a point. Especially the main character. Victoire and Ramy were the most real to me, but they still kinda felt like plot devices. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Hate crime, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Islamophobia, Grief, Murder, Colonisation, Classism, and Pandemic/Epidemic

paigereitz'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? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

Wow. This book tackles colonialism and doesn't hold back. It is a searing indictment on how we set up a system to allow some to prosper on the backs of others. It is an exploration of tokenism and how we often elevate the "special" to show an "exception to the rule" of racism, often ignoring the fact that it in fact validates the rule at all. It is intense and harsh, as is colonialism. It is intricate and beautifully heartbreakingly spun. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Racism, Sexism, Violence, Xenophobia, Toxic friendship, Colonisation, and Classism

Moderate: Drug use, Hate crime, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Islamophobia, Murder, and Sexual harassment

keltaklo's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective sad tense medium-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? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Slavery, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Colonisation, and Classism

Moderate: Alcoholism, Bullying, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Religious bigotry, Abandonment, Alcohol, War, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Minor: Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Sexual harassment, and Deportation

moond4ncer's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative 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

Best book I've read in a long time. Intriguing, clever, really well crafted. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Sexual assault, Slavery, Suicide, Terminal illness, Violence, Grief, Death of parent, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, War, and Classism

celery's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense fast-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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Infidelity, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Vomit, Police brutality, Antisemitism, Islamophobia, Medical content, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Cultural appropriation, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, and Deportation

mels_reading_log's review against another edition

adventurous emotional inspiring mysterious 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? It's complicated

4.0

The world within this book is one in which languages are used with silver bars to run most of England. The bars can control anything from a building’s architectural stability to the health of the citizens. The most important thing needed to make this process work is people who speak other languages, but not just know words, but understand the other languages. So Babel, the college that controls this whole process, finds smart children in other countries and raises them to remember their home language but also have a very upper class English life. This sculpts those kids into the perfect students for the school and perfect workers for Babel. But what happens when those kids learn about the injustices that England is putting the rest of the world through?

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child abuse, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Misogyny, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Blood, Grief, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

bmt1005's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional 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? It's complicated

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Violence, Xenophobia, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Colonisation, War, and Classism

Moderate: Slavery

coyotes_tiptoe's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative 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? No

5.0

R.F.Kuang has broken my heart with how beautiful and flawless this book it. The characters are complex and whole, the world is thoroughly thought out, and the plot is intense and important. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Slavery, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Toxic friendship, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

uninvestedreader's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative sad tense slow-paced

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

4.5

This book elicited a lot of thoughts and feelings (though let's be honest, most of the feeling was anger) from me. I don't think I was fully the type of reader Rebecca wrote this for - I know people who capital-F felt the friendship between Robin and his colleagues in a way that I wasn't particularly interested in at the start, and so some of the very terrible things that happen amongst those friends just felt... expected, and very sad (but didn't wreck me). Alternatively,  the relationships between Lovell, Robin, and Griffin left me totally, totally devastated. Robin deserved so much better, as did Griffin. This book made me feel unrelenting anger through understanding how people of power choose to divide a group of people that they see as beneath them, and then use some of those people to hurt their own while never offering anyone equality.

Yeah, this book made me very angry. I expect this book's message to live in my head for many years to come.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Racism, Sexism, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, and Colonisation

Moderate: Slavery, Suicide, and War

Minor: Cultural appropriation and Gaslighting