You need to sign in or sign up before continuing.

Reviews tagging 'Death'

Babel by R.F. Kuang

1502 reviews

adventurous dark hopeful 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

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
adventurous challenging dark 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

Fiction with footnotes (the footnotes are also fictional)

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
dark emotional mysterious 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: Complicated

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
adventurous challenging dark emotional reflective medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

A challenging and thought provoking read. Babel explores issues of social and racial inequalities in 19th Century Britain. 

Set in Oxford, the story centres around the Royal Institute of Translation in Oxford, and its role in perpetuating colonialism through it’s monopoly of silver bars (powered by the untranslateable space between different languages). Babel is 
reliant on the labour of individuals taken from the colonies at a young age, and the story follows their gradual realisation of the role they play in holding up the very machine that exploits and holds them captive. 

It is a deep and emotional read, but I  really enjoyed how much this book made me think about my own experiences at Oxford. 


Expand filter menu Content Warnings
adventurous hopeful sad slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

Really dragged in the middle, but stuck the landing. Beautiful world-building with roots in real-life colonial conditions.

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
dark emotional informative mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
emotional informative inspiring 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

No review can do justice to the power of this book. Succinctly: an excellent translation of colonial theory in the vein of Franz Fanon into fiction. The level of magic was just enough to make a point and elevate the narrative rather than being a framework that consumes the message of the work. This isn't a magical world with commentary about colonization. This is about colonization, period, with magic as a thought experiment. And as if it couldn't get any better—the characters tore my heart out.

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
challenging dark emotional sad medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

amazing book, r. f. kuang is so talented

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
emotional 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



this was heartbreaking I'm sad..wish the ending didn't 've to go w robin & the rest having to end their life to beat their colonizers but ik this what happens most of the time it's very awful & unfair idk what to feel about it but I'm glad Lovell died at least i wish letty died too instead of ramy it's making me so mad most people on the side of resisting brit colonizers just died ik they achieved their goal of putting the british a couple of yrs back but god what a heartbreaking way to end it still 

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
challenging dark emotional informative 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

Expand filter menu Content Warnings