Reviews - Babel | The StoryGraph

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What an amazing book! That’s it. I fully think that if someone doesn’t like Babel, then they’re aren’t ready for a critical discussion on colonialism. Kuang doesn’t shy away from presenting the truth about the impact of colonization, and I think Kuang does a fabulous job with Letty’s character and the presentation of whiteness. This book shows the inner struggles of the main character with ambition, but knowing that the system is built for exploitation. This is the kind of story that should be in AP courses and/or college courses.

sofiss_'s review against another edition

2.0

(Esta puntuación esta sujeta a cambios, ya que es la puntuación que creo que se merece por la experiencia que tuve al leerla y porque es lo que siento justo después de terminar el libro)

Principalmente me pareció innecesariamente largo el libro, siento que tuvo mucho relleno y algunas fallas en la historia, en todo el relleno innecesario que metieron pudieron haber explicado varias cosas que dejaron al aire, como por ejemplo lo de las barras plata, como funcionan, porque aja, funcionan por la traducción y se buscan combinaciones para hacer que funcionen, pero ¿como funcionan y por qué lo hacen? o sea, que hace que verdaderamente funcionen, que hay en las palabras que hace que hagan magia.

Por otro lado esta Robin, que es un gran estúpido, sentía que mientras más avanzaba la trama más me daba cuenta de lo estúpido que era, por lit sus decisiones personales eran muy absurdas y algunas sinsentido (no puedo dar ejemplos porque ya me olvide de la mitad del libro y solo es el sentimiento que me dejo el libro, no digo que necesariamente sea así) pero por otro lado sentía que era bueno académicamente y me frustraba que no hiciera las cosas bien y que no entendiera como funciona el mundo.

También están los otros 3, que de Ramy no tengo ninguna queja ya que lit lo shippeaba con Robin y su muerte fue la única que me dolió porque yo quería que se quedara con Robin, pero se juntaron otra vez en el más allá sjjsjsjjs. Pero esta Victoire, de la que no tengo muchas quejar, pero no me terminó nunca de caer bien, tenia algo que no me gustaba, aunque si le termine agarrando cariño por el final.
PERO está Letty que carajita pa caerme malisimo, blanca tenia que ser (Mentiriiiis puro chiste jsjsjjsjs), al principio decía, bueno, es insoportable pero no es relevante en la trama la ignoro y listo, PERO TUVO QUE TRAICIONARLOS, lit me cayo peor de lo que ya me caía, y no porque los haya traicionado porque hasta cierto punto digo "todos vimos las señales excepto uds" pero es que me molesta su hipocresía y su falta de lealtad. Me molesto demasiado un momento del libro que ella dijo algo como "no crean que voy a traicionar a mi país" mientras también decía "traicionen a su país y no al mio, aunque aquí no los acepten y solo los vean como objetos" o sea notan lo hipócrita que eso suena????? obvio que si, porque ella no entendía que Inglaterra nunca iba a aceptar al 100% a Robin, Ramy y Victoire por SER NEGROS y extranjeros. Y de paso en su interludio me cayó peor, pq se hacia la que sufrio mucho (porque si, ella tenia trabas en el camino solo por ser mujer, tenia muchos privilegios tmb) y no entendía pq Victoire no aceptaba a Babel como lo hacia ella, cuando para Victoire Babel era otro ser más que la tenia esclavizada, y no entendía que a VIctoire por ser mujer y NEGRA la trataban el doble de peor q a ella. Lo dejo hasta aquí (porque podría seguir tirando le mrd a Letty pero tardaría mil años)
Y por ultimo para terminar, que mencionar que me alegra mucho la muerte del profesor Lovell porque ese era un thpgmg :)

chipsandcoffee's review against another edition

5.0

First read through:
The first half of this book healed me, the second half ripped everything apart. Probably one of my all time favorite reads.

Second read through (actually did the audiobook):
Very top notch performance and it easily remains one of my favorite books of all time. RF Kuang easily a top 3 author for me.

aimeejune's review against another edition

2.0

challenging dark slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

Reading Babel was, honestly, the most frustrating reading experience to date. While the premise is undeniably clever—colonialism, language, and academia intertwined in a historical fantasy setting—the execution left me struggling through what felt like a bloated, uneven, and condescending narrative.

The “found family” dynamic that the book heavily leans on fell completely flat for me. The characters were one-dimensional and, despite being portrayed as inseparable, their relationships felt shallow and inconsistent. In particular, Letty’s arc was poorly handled. She shifts from being part of the group to essentially becoming a punching bag for the others, who suddenly hate her for not responding correctly to covering up a murder and unveil that their relationships with her have always been secretly strained. She’s written off as the privileged white girl villain; her eventual betrayal was painfully predictable, and it cheapened the hundreds of pages supposedly building up this “bond.”

Robin’s own motivations were equally muddled. At first, he only joins Hermes to connect with his brother, then backs out when he doesn’t get the validation he craves, and later re-joins seemingly because his friends now know about it. His transformation from hesitant participant to revolutionary martyr felt unearned and inconsistent, more like the author forcing him into the role she wanted than a natural character journey.

The dynamic between Robin and Remy was confusing at best. For most of the book, they read like close friends, until suddenly there’s a “charged” moment that’s never really addressed again. To be honest, the book didn’t need romance arcs at all. It would have been stronger if it had just focused on friendship and the politics of empire.

Like with Yellowface, I found Kuang’s writing condescending. The message of “white people are evil” is hammered so relentlessly that it stops feeling like storytelling and starts feeling like a lecture. The themes of colonialism and exploitation are important and worth exploring, but constantly over-explaining them stripped away any subtlety. It’s as if the author didn’t trust readers to make connections themselves.

The pacing was erratic… long stretches covering mere days or weeks, followed by abrupt time skips of years in just a handful of pages. This inconsistency made the flow jarring. On top of that, the dense, overly academic writing style made this one of the hardest books I’ve slogged through in recent memory. It felt unnecessarily convoluted, like the author was trying to impress readers with how clever she was, rather than tell an engaging story.

Babel had so much potential and I was so excited to read it after hearing so much positivity in reviews, but (to me anyway), instead of delivering a powerful story, it got lost in its own heavy-handed messaging, shallow characters, and overwrought style. It could have been hundreds of pages shorter and far more effective if it had trusted its story instead of trying to force every theme onto the reader.