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

First and foremost I have 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 oftentimes unclear. While I think it had a lot of potential, for the most part that wasn’t realised.

Content Warnings

marthadude's review against another edition

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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

Content Warnings

shaipanda's review against another edition

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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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cepbreed's review against another edition

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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

Content Warnings

louisegraveyard's review against another edition

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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

Content Warnings

lilacs_book_bower's review against another edition

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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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