Reviews with content warning for Violence - Babel, or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators' Revolution

oh man. it took me a while to get through Babel between the length + slow pace, but i found the second half to be much faster and the plot picked up a lot of momentum, so once over some of the early hurdles and more invested, i felt naturally hooked. i definitely cried at the end (even the last chapter's epigraph from Aristotle hit hard), but the subject matter of the book is very heavy throughout overall so mind the content warnings if you're thinking of picking it up. also, it's not all too often that i read a book told predominantly from a MMC's pov (and then enjoy it), but i really liked Robin a lot. most of the key side characters were great, too; i loved their vignettes and only wish we got more.

of what i've read, the plot + themes + magic system felt most comparable to m.l. wang's blood over bright haven.

i'd recommend Babel to anyone open to a long read who:
- is a linguistics + languages nerd
- has intense beef with the British empire (for obvious reasons)
- is a fan of dark academia
- loves a good bildungsroman, especially if radicalization (sans any negative connotation) & revolution are involved

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mostlykenny's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional inspiring 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? It's complicated

5.0

this was very tense, but so intriguing. A must read for sure !! ⭐️

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irammy's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging informative reflective 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? Yes

5.0

I absolutely devoured this book and was quickly immersed into this world, which at first glance didn't seem to differentiate from Victorian england. Despite being a work of fiction it was a great way to learn about the history and motivations between colonisation and abolition as the book attempts to provide a (fictional) perspective from voices that aren't often represented in history textbooks. The interspersion of real historical quotes particularly aided this. As a mixed race person I can relate with Robin's conflict between trying to blend in versus fight for the rights of the oppressed.

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megaptera23's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional informative inspiring reflective 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? Yes

4.5

Rassen- und Klassenkampf sind sehr gut dargestellt. Als Lesern kann man die Diskriminierung der Charaktere mitfühlen. Die spannende, mitreissemde Geschichte arbeitet Kolonialismus und Kampf für Rechte von PoCs, Arbeiter*innen und Frauen auf und regt zum nachdenken an.

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avery_hutchinson's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring reflective sad tense fast-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

This book was beautiful, insightful, and utterly heartbreaking. It brought so many concepts to light through its rich world-building and complex characters.

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applesodaperson's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional sad slow-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

4.0

Geez so this book took me absolutely forever to read. Because right after I started it, I got a bunch of library books that I ended up reading first. But even once I got back into it, it was long. Because it is over 500 pages, and the font size is pretty small. And overall, I did like this book, but there was also a lot that I didn't like.
I unfortunately did not like the magic system in this book, because even after reading 500+ pages about it, it still felt confusing, and just not very cool. It almost felt overly complicated. And holy cow the sections where they were just talking about linguistics and etymology were so mind numbing and boring. It felt like I was there in the lecture with them. And I just wasn't engaged because etymology isn't something I am interested in.
I liked Robin as a protagonist, because the narrative gave him room to make mistakes and grow, but the side characters all just blended together.
Something this book did really well was its commentary on racism. There was so much nuance around it and the characters all experienced it in different and very personal ways. It was just very well done and impactful, and the setting of 1800's England made it even more intense. Because as bad as it is today, discrimination against people of color was even worse back then. I just liked how significant it was to the story and I feel like I learned a lot.
Overall, this was a good book, but not the best book I have ever read. It did make me want to read more from R.F. Kuang though.
Read a personal copy.

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violetaffairs's review against another edition

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challenging emotional informative reflective 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? Yes

5.0

Kuang is so clearly an expert on languages and translation and she expertly weaves that knowledge into her work. She effortlessly makes her message clear and keeps her story intriguing and interesting throughout the novel. I am forever changed because I read this book, I will never be able to stop thinking about it. I cannot wait to read more of Kuang's work.

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elessahr's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark informative reflective sad 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

4.75

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