Reviews tagging 'Pandemic/Epidemic'

Babel by R.F. Kuang

85 reviews

bilal_shumuus's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gun violence, Hate crime, Infidelity, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Self harm, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Kidnapping, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Addiction, Confinement, Blood, Police brutality, Islamophobia, Religious bigotry, Abandonment, Sexual harassment, and Pandemic/Epidemic

scytheria's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Racism, Sexism, Xenophobia, Grief, Death of parent, Cultural appropriation, and Colonisation

Moderate: Gun violence, Racial slurs, Slavery, Suicide, Violence, Trafficking, and War

Minor: Child death, Police brutality, Islamophobia, Toxic friendship, and Pandemic/Epidemic

blomil's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This is an all-time great work. Very clearly a labor of love and passion, heavily researched with a magic system that seamlessly works in as a stand-in for any resource that a society demands. At the same time, this book feels like an effortless coming of age story about growing in a system that wants and needs you while telling you you’re nothing without it. This is a story about the rawest form of radicalization where everything can be taken from you if the right people call for it. As bleak as this premise is, this book has immense heart and respect for the characters trying to survive in this brutal world and champions their hope like nothing else.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Xenophobia, Grief, Colonisation, and Pandemic/Epidemic

imds's review

• 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Hate crime, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Islamophobia, Kidnapping, Grief, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Murder, Cultural appropriation, Colonisation, War, Classism, and Pandemic/Epidemic

hannahcstocks's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective sad tense medium-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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Hate crime, Infidelity, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Sexual assault, Slavery, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Vomit, Islamophobia, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Cultural appropriation, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, Dysphoria, War, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, Deportation, and Pandemic/Epidemic

garyosu's review

challenging dark emotional informative sad tense slow-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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Cultural appropriation, Toxic friendship, Colonisation, War, and Pandemic/Epidemic

cherryfreckle's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Blood, Grief, Murder, Toxic friendship, Colonisation, War, Classism, and Deportation

Moderate: Gun violence, Death of parent, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Minor: Drug abuse, Drug use, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

broken_biscuits's review

challenging dark emotional informative tense medium-paced

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

3.5

As a political thought piece, great. As an actual story, a little rough. While the magic system was *so* cool, I was a little disappointed in the character writing. Still felt like a worthy and important read. I feel like it did a lot of telling the reader how to feel about things, which kind of took me out of the experience, even though I agreed with what I was "supposed to feel." I didn't feel hardly any connection to the characters, since they felt like they were created to make a point. Especially the main character. Victoire and Ramy were the most real to me, but they still kinda felt like plot devices. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Hate crime, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Islamophobia, Grief, Murder, Colonisation, Classism, and Pandemic/Epidemic

libellumartinae's review

adventurous challenging emotional informative inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

3.5

I'd like to preface this by saying that I genuinely believe that this book having half the pages that it had would have been a better choice, because the writing was just low key ridiculous at times. Starting in media res would have been far more exciting and intriguing and although I do realize the author's reasoning between drilling us with the purpose of this book, it still felt at times empty and without meaning. As did the characters. I genuinely think I have a problem with R. F. Kuang's characters, because I find them so empty and little developed, always going through by stereotypes which I think is a consequences of the author's strong ideologies pushed on them (which I am not against, but for example I felt Victoire utterly useless till the ending and then it was a bit meh; similarly with Robin, who is the mc, there were times when I felt so little interest and development).

I also think that oftentimes there were too many repetitions of some concepts, such as the magic and world building, still I think that on those topics the book is utterly amazing and bring forward a charming and shocking portrayal and a clear critique that should definitely be read by everybody as it also brings forward future and present concerns and I am not going to lie, as a translator and expert of latin and Ancient Greek, this book did feel like a love letter to the act of translating and languages, although at times the linguistic reflections could be a bit boring and useless for the plot.

Overall, I think it's a good book albeit not worth the hype around it and that while in spirit it has good intentions, the actual writing of it could have been worked over so much better.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Gore, Misogyny, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Xenophobia, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, War, and Pandemic/Epidemic

keltaklo's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Slavery, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Colonisation, and Classism

Moderate: Alcoholism, Bullying, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Religious bigotry, Abandonment, Alcohol, War, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Minor: Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Sexual harassment, and Deportation