Reviews tagging 'Gun violence'

Babel by R.F. Kuang

652 reviews

joeyvelcro's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative mysterious reflective sad tense fast-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

this book ruined my life and for that i’d like to thank it

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Addiction, Drug use, Gun violence, Misogyny, Sexism, Blood, and Alcohol

Minor: Alcoholism, Child death, Slavery, and Islamophobia

jadeandherbunny's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny informative mysterious reflective relaxing 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

4.25

Definitely a masterpiece, it was a bit heavy for me but as student in translation it was really good for the most part. I really liked all the linguistics shenanigans and all the discussions about race.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gun violence, Racial slurs, Racism, Violence, Death of parent, Murder, Cultural appropriation, and Colonisation

Moderate: Drug use and Alcohol

sahanasri's review against another edition

emotional informative mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

• 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

man … still processing this one and the ending / how sad i am its over 

Babel felt frighteningly relevant to not only my personal revelations of late but the state of the world as it is now. I actually really enjoyed how slow paced it was (and all the footnotes!) because of the major soft spot I have for linguistics and etymology (and dark academia lmao). As I’m learning (or maybe relearning?) my mother tongue as an adult, the discussions present in Babel on colonialism and language ring so true for me - Eurocentrism robbed me of a language I wish I’d kept since birth. Reading this now is continuing to fuel my curiosity on Telugu and its origins. 

I loved the characters (especially Ramy lol) and how much you see them grow and change in revolutionary ways.

Robin in particular being so hesistant for the majority of the book was so interesting.

Overall I really enjoyed Kuang’s strategic and thorough takedown of colonial power structures and how they were/are able to last because of their incredible violence (both physically and linguistically). Anyway fuck the British empire and I loved this book

Definitely didn’t fully see that ending coming especially with its discussions on dying for a cause… really thought provoking I gotta sit with that one for a while

also R F Kuang always on her white woman hater soapbox lmfaooo

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, and Xenophobia

chantellimus's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Hate crime, Physical abuse, Racism, Sexism, Suicide, Violence, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Toxic friendship, Colonisation, and Classism

bumfinity's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

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

3.5

Long read with a very slow beginning. Wish there was more in-depth exploration on the magic system. Would have preferred more emotion in the writing style so it could be easier to connect with the MC. Kept wishing it leaned more fantasy-like.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Blood, Cultural appropriation, Colonisation, and Classism

Minor: Child abuse, Gun violence, Slavery, Suicide, Torture, Grief, Murder, Alcohol, and War

nekoprankster218's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring mysterious 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? Yes

5.0

This was such an experience to read in the last two months of 2024. I had to check it out twice from the library as my reading slowed, a bit because I had to take breaks from this book (not entirely the book's fault). The first two weeks were in November, the last few days of reading in mid-December. 

This is definitely one of the books everyone should read at least once in their lives, one of the novels that should be added to English class curriculum. It's a good story on its own, but the added themes of revolution and anti-colonialism elevates it, especially in the current era. I've been utilizing my library to get through my TBR to save on money and space, but if I ever had the chance, I would purchase this book to keep forever.

My one gripe is honestly pretty nit-picky: I don't like how dialogue 'uses "punctuation" like this', "instead of 'like 'this'". It threw me off at the start and I never fully got used to it even by the end.

At first the pacing was also throwing me off, but by the time I reached the final chapters, I realized why it was like that and it's no longer a fault to me. I really enjoy how this novel feels like a progression of one type of story turning into another and then further into another; it feels realistic for the events and relates the reader even more to the main characters, who certainly wouldn't have expected their cozy academic fantasy to turn so jarringly. 

This book made me feel at least twice now an experience of "this can't actually be happening, this is not real, they're gonna pull the rug under me and reveal this as a dream sequence... NO WAIT THIS IS GENUINELY WHAT'S HAPPENING?!" and it was exhilarating. I can't think of any other story that gave me such a deep sense of... unreal shock? I can think of life events, which coincidentally happened around the time of reading this and were pretty relevant to the themes.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Racism, Sexism, Violence, Xenophobia, Police brutality, Religious bigotry, Cultural appropriation, Colonisation, War, and Classism

Moderate: Child abuse, Drug use, Gun violence, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Death of parent, Murder, Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Bullying, Confinement, Sexual assault, and Sexual harassment

onmypocket's review

adventurous challenging informative 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? Yes

1.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Trafficking, Death of parent, Murder, Cultural appropriation, Gaslighting, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

eldervampire83's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative inspiring reflective tense slow-paced

• 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

Phenomenal narration. It made an already brilliant story all the more gripping, with individual voices for each character portrayed by Chris Lew Kum Hoi. He captures all of the emotions and even the inflections of each quote. An excellent touch, as well, to have a separate reader narrate the footnotes.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, Racism, Violence, Xenophobia, Death of parent, Colonisation, and Classism

Moderate: Drug use, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Sexism, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Forced institutionalization, Police brutality, Religious bigotry, Cultural appropriation, and War

elliott_the_clementine's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful sad tense fast-paced

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

I can’t even give this book a review. Heartbreaking. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Gun violence, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Slavery, Torture, Blood, Murder, Toxic friendship, Colonisation, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Fire/Fire injury

khymihr's review against another edition

dark informative reflective 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racial slurs, Racism, Xenophobia, Murder, Cultural appropriation, Classism, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, and Torture

Minor: Gun violence, Slavery, Trafficking, Death of parent, and Sexual harassment