Reviews tagging 'War'

Babel by R.F. Kuang

1086 reviews

k8tlane's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Racial slurs, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and War

misszierose's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional inspiring tense fast-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? It's complicated

5.0

This is a dense, erudite, and dark book.  I truly believe everyone who loves language and books and believes in basic human rights even if people different from you should at least attempt this book.  It is so important especially in the social and political and cultural time we are currently living through.  Our choices matter.  People deserve respect.  Knowledge is power.  Who holds that power is something that can alter the whole world’s future.  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Slavery, Violence, Xenophobia, Police brutality, Islamophobia, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Murder, Cultural appropriation, Colonisation, War, and Classism

Moderate: Slavery, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Toxic friendship, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic

endlessallison's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring 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

5.0

This book is so relevant to today and captures the perspectives of both the colonizers and the colonized on such beautifully blunt painful ways I truly believe everyone should read it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gun violence, Hate crime, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Self harm, Sexism, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Religious bigotry, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Cultural appropriation, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, and Deportation

This is a book of fiction that uses a slightly fantastical element of silver/magic to be a placeholder for any and all resources valuable to an empire. It deals with sexism, racism, colonization, revolution, workers revolt, strikes, rebellions, war, academia, and more. Within those topics there are really heavy pieces of content but it is handled tactfully and effectively to convey a message to look at the world today through the lens of this narrative.

erebus53's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

4.0

I do like the concept of the translation magic used in this story, but it feels a little flawed. The word-nerding dark academia feel reminded me a bit of Anathem by Neal Stephenson, only a little less insular. This is a really interesting infrastructure horror story, exploring ideas of Empire, Colonization, and extraction, and the inevitable collapse of systems that are dependent on one main monopolised resource.

There is a lot going on in this book, and balancing the world building and the characterisation seems to have been a major challenge. Hard, complex and uncomfortable things happen, which gives it less of a YA vibe that it starts out feeling like.

If I loved the characters and the setting more I think I would have rated it very highly.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gun violence, Slavery, Xenophobia, Murder, and War

alliyyamo's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring 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? No

4.5

I loved this so much. It was a bit slow to start but worth the build up. My digital copy had a few issues rendering some characters in the other languages unfortunately. I'm definitely going to get my hands on a physical copy.

If you're passionate about languages or have an interest in linguistics and history, this is a must-read. I found it to be a brilliantly researched and thoughtfully crafted work, with a world that feels alive. Personally, I've never been adept with languages, but I've always felt a sense of envy towards multilingual individuals. It’s also a source of deep sorrow for me that, due to the lasting effects of colonialism, my family and I have lost the languages of our ancestors.

It's definitely not for the faint of heart if the length daunts you. But I think it was well worth the read and I will be thinking about this one for a while.

Forever heartbroken about Ramy & Robin and what never was.

Honestly so grateful to R.F. Kuang for helping provide the history/English/literature education I never had.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Racism, Xenophobia, Gaslighting, Colonisation, and Classism

Moderate: Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Slavery, Blood, and Murder

Minor: Infidelity, Forced institutionalization, Death of parent, Cultural appropriation, and War

I honestly feel like I could put so many content warnings just because of how much context there is in this book related to colonialism, classism and racism.

rachelreads95's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child abuse, Gore, Misogyny, Racism, Slavery, Violence, Blood, Murder, Toxic friendship, War, and Classism

joey_estrada's review

challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring 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

4.5

The writing is beautiful and poetic and flows smoothly. I like how the dialogue is written.
I really liked all the literary references and just the general atmosphere of the book. Reading it made me feel smart and uneducated at the same time. 

The way that colonialism, racism, slavery, etc. were talked about was very interesting and felt brutally honest, which I appreciate and think is needed when talking about this sort of thing. 
Language was intertwined with and used as an example of how colonialism affects people and their identity. I thought it was done very well. 

The character development for everyone but especially Robin was very interesting to see and perfectly shown. 
You can see how drastically Robin's thoughts, feelings, and morals change and go back and forth. You can see his inner turmoil and contradictions so vividly.

This book did not go quite how I expected it to based on some happenings towards the beginning, but truthfully, it got so much better and more interesting than I thought it would and I already had high hopes for this book. I cried and teared up multiple times while reading for multiple different reasons.

I think everyone should read this at least once.
The feeling of being alone as a person of color, the different yet similar experiences people of color can have from each other, the devastating cruelty of how racism and colonialism work, the tragic realizations all throughout, and even more emotional, heavy, complicated, upsetting topics are somehow put into words perfectly.

(I realize that this is a very long review, but this book is so packed full with emotion and information that I feel it's only right. For all I know, I'll add more thoughts later.)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Racial slurs, Racism, Violence, Xenophobia, Grief, Colonisation, and Classism

Moderate: Child abuse, Misogyny, Sexism, Islamophobia, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Addiction, Drug use, Slavery, and Death of parent

danieriv's review against another edition

challenging mysterious reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

Long, tedious exposition that isn’t entirely necessary to the main plot of the book. Highly academic writing that you truly have to focus on to understand the book. The writing itself is very good, but this is not a leisure read. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Racism, and Colonisation

Moderate: Slavery, Violence, Murder, and War

Minor: Physical abuse, Sexism, and Death of parent

Themes may be triggering to those who have suffered under imperial rule or who face the lasting effects that empires inflict upon the areas they colonize.

aidamaria_reads's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

This is a literary middle finger to colonialism, capitalism, racism, classism, sexism and all the other -isms, basically. I admire the way the author came up with the magic system (as a former translation student, it was truly amazing) and how it plays into the historical setting. The writing was wonderful. I wonder how long we’ve got until some government(s) bans this book.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Bullying, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Hate crime, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Sexual assault, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Police brutality, Islamophobia, Grief, Religious bigotry, Murder, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Colonisation, War, and Classism

koolaberg's review

challenging dark emotional inspiring 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

4.75

Loved the audio book. The linguistic aspects were much better hearing multiple accents and native speakers. 

Most of the book was quite slow, particularly the beginning. But it was also quite charming and pleasant to become wrapped up in the world of Oxford in the 1830s. As an academic, it was endearing to experience another POV reflecting the love/hate relationship I feel with “the academy.” The last 1/4 of the book is quite a different pace and almost an entirely different book. I found the eventual conclusion quite heartbreaking but also satisfying given the current political climate of the US. The idea that foreign scholars could be in solidarity with the working classes gave me hope.

I found myself feeling so angry and cursing Letty for her betrayal. And the deaths of several key characters (Lovell, Remy, Griffin) made the stakes feel authentic. It’s quite poetic and tragic that we never learn Robin’s name in Cantonese.

 

The book was a bit long compared to my usual books, and perhaps could have been a duology. But I appreciated that the publisher doesn’t make the readers buy two books unnecessarily. This book felt like an excellent companion after Les Miserables. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Racism, Sexism, Grief, and Colonisation

Moderate: Slavery, Suicide, Violence, Toxic friendship, and War

Minor: Blood and Death of parent