Reviews with content warning for Pandemic/Epidemic - Babel

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Babel by R.F. Kuang

65 reviews

leonkaspar's review against another edition

dark emotional funny 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? It's complicated

5.0

The way Kuang manages to use symbols and fantasy to recreate the structural issues of our world is mesmerising.
I love the way the footnotes are embedded into the story and how they highlight the necessary passages with a poignant and scarcastic undertone.

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bree_h_reads's review against another edition

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dark emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

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

5.0

I wasn’t sure what to expect from Babel, but suffice it to say I wasn’t disappointed.

While it was a bit slow and some sections were written in a confusing way, it didn’t overshadow the story being told. Every character felt so vivid and alive, like they had a weight and complexity to them. And this bled into every character dynamic and relationship.

I felt like the themes and messages of the book were well conveyed. Overall it really made me think and reevaluate things I had been taught to just accept and gave a new perspective on history.

It was also written in a very potent way, to the point it felt easy to fall into the story and understand it and the characters. Overall it’s a great book and I highly recommend checking it out.

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lipka's review against another edition

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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? It's complicated

5.0

It is "a thematic response to The Secret History, and a tonal retort to Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell."

I think my favorite was the fluttering. ᜋᜌ᜔ ᜉᜃ᜔ᜉᜃ᜔ ᜀᜅ᜔ ᜊᜎᜒᜆ. It ends only as it ever could. The audiobook narration is beautiful. The protagonist's voice ages and breaks. Please send birds.

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elysianemily's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

*I will attempt keep this as spoiler-free as possible but proceed cautiously!

Summary: This book is objectively a solid 3.5/5 star read, but I have promoted it to 4 stars due to my personal bias toward the subject material. I am a person who is enamored with etymology and translation while being drawn to the dark academia genre. I found this to be an interesting spin on the genre and thus have given Ms. Kuang the benefit of the doubt throughout my long journey of reading this book. Below I will lay out what I liked about this and what I thought could have been better.

Pros:
- This is a book for linguistic nerds! And it delivered! I found myself genuinely fascinated by R.F. Kuang's footnotes providing etymological and historical context.
- Along the same note as the above bullet point, I did enjoy how the footnotes provided a sense of dramatic irony (yes, I am pulling out some dormant AP Lit terminology here). Much like plays and musicals add 'asides' to the audience, I overall thought this element was executed effectively.
- I love the characters! I found myself crying and laughing and thinking along with them. I also liked how from the very first chapter, it was clear that our protagonist, Robin, is not supposed to be perfect; and, to me, this characterization remained constant until the end. Victoire was the wisest among them and I am satisfied with her ending (sequel coming?). Ramy added comic relief that every book should have, of course. And Letty—well, I won't spoil anything—I have mixed feelings about (which I assume was the point). I would do a deep dive into every facet of each character but I am simply too lazy to put it here. That will have to stay in my head.

Cons:
- Upon perusing other reviews here, I can agree with the consensus that many parts could have been cut out for the sake of being too repetitive. It did feel like the same point was being drilled into the reader too many times, that by the end, it felt tedious. I also don't feel the thesis of the book is particularly saying anything new...just perhaps a different way of telling it.
- The "magic" system (so to speak) in this book did add an air of complication that would have not existed if this were pure historical fiction. I agree with other reviews here on that front.
- I am a sucker for drama, but somehow I felt the theatrics of the final 1/3 of the book happened too quickly and almost out of nothing. At some point, I was thinking to myself: "Ok, this is a bit corny" (I was reminded to my amusement of that infamous "Watcha Say" skit from SNL, if you know what I mean).

Anyway, this is a long book, so here is a long review. Cheers!

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bobaduckie's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional 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

5.0

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toniboi's review

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challenging emotional inspiring reflective 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? No

5.0

Instant favorite. R.F. Kuang's writing style is captivating and deeply impressive. Her use of footnotes cleverly reflects the scholarly setting while enhancing the reading experience. The characters are full, varied, and mercilessly realistic. It may be historical fiction, but every page is relevant to today. Babel unapologetically depicts the truth that resistance is never palatable to the oppressor, no matter what form it takes. Even if you don't typically read fantasy or dark academia, read, read, READ this book!

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