64.6k reviews for:

Babel

R.F. Kuang

4.34 AVERAGE

naoisereads's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

eilidhwilliamson's review against another edition

5.0

dark emotional reflective slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

chloe435's review against another edition

5.0

informative inspiring mysterious reflective 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

ac_myhrberg's review against another edition

4.0

challenging dark emotional 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: Yes

garrettmuns's review against another edition

4.5

adventurous dark emotional hopeful informative 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: Yes

rel31's review against another edition

4.75

dark emotional reflective sad 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

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Many parts of the book felt like they dragged. The siege, hold, strike, and destruction of the tower in particular. Other parts were too short, the epilogue could have had more. It felt a little rushed. Which is odd since we were already 500+ pages in. What’s another 10-20 to flesh out Victoire’s voice? Overall a wonderful ride and very informative (while still entertaining)

breyzeexplores's review against another edition

4.5

challenging emotional hopeful reflective sad tense medium-paced

ramyaarivazhagan's review against another edition

3.5

challenging mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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The first 400 pages drag a little bit, but the last 150 make up for it. The first part was interesting and it held my attention pretty well, but the middle chunks less so. The hermes parts were the best, and by the halfway point, nothing was really happening with hermes or with their normal daily lives at babel. IMO, it doesn't really become worthy of the hype until the Canton trip, which is further into the book than it should be. I think it really could've been two books in order to have all the plot at the pace it happens, but also preserve the world building and bond-forming between the characters. The last 150 pages was good, but everything happened there. I think the epilogue, while very satisfying, also did not really answer any questions. I think the actual content and plot was pretty good, it's really just the pacing that I had a problem with. Also sometimes the characters/their relationships fell a little flat (plot tradeoff). 
Probably would recommend this book to other people, but not if they don't regularly read books that are a little boring. 

artificialfriend_joey's review against another edition

5.0

dark emotional informative 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: Complicated

sophiemelling's review against another edition

4.75

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative 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: Yes