Reviews tagging 'Gun violence'

Babel by R.F. Kuang

652 reviews

raynearchv's review against another edition

slow-paced

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

5.0

my mind is absolutely blown away r.f. kuang is a genius in her field of work and i have huge respect for her.
as for the reading experience, i do admit that the first half of the book is quite slow, it felt like a huge essay while also getting glimpses into the different characters and their dynamic, but dear goodness does the pace and plot pick up drastically throughout the second half and i binged it all

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Racism, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Islamophobia, Death of parent, and Murder

Moderate: Gun violence, Violence, Death of parent, and War

Minor: War

lis98's review

challenging dark informative sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I don’t think I’ve ever had such an emotional reaction to a book before. Even now I don’t even know how to describe what I felt reading this. Sadness and guilt were a lot of it though. Reading this during the time of the US election and everything else made it hit different too I think. 

I heard criticism that this book tackled too many themes and bc of that didn’t go deep enough in some aspects for some people. I personally didn’t feel that way even though I can see where people were coming from. I think it was a choice to make it more about how this affected the individual characters personally and it made it so much more personal for the reader so I really am glad the author made that decision. Especially in hindsight about the importance they put on how people would only care if it affected them personally it was a very powerful choice to focus on the main characters motivations and inner world like this. 

I also really enjoyed the academic theory about language and translation a lot. It’s probably not everyone’s cup of tea but as someone who spends a lot of time learning and engaging with other languages this is something I find extremely fascinating. It also made the dark academia themes much more engaging and believable and play into the story more. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Gun violence, Hate crime, Physical abuse, Racism, Sexism, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Death of parent, Colonisation, and Classism

bookcheshirecat's review

challenging dark emotional medium-paced

4.0

“Betrayal. Translation means doing violence upon the original, means warping and distorting it for foreign, unintended eyes. So then where does that leave us? How can we conclude, except by acknowledging that an act of translation is then necessarily always an act of betrayal?” 

➽ 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Genocide, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Torture, Violence, Grief, Murder, Toxic friendship, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Minor: Addiction, Drug use, and Slavery

carly_reads's review against another edition

dark emotional sad

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gun violence, Racism, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Violence, Xenophobia, Death of parent, Murder, Toxic friendship, Colonisation, and Classism

Moderate: Slavery, Grief, and War

smarmo21's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious 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? It's complicated

3.75

I’ve never read a book quite like this. On the surface I docked some points because of the pacing, which I found to be drawn out at times. But the story itself is a fascinating and gripping narrative about colonialism and systems of oppression, and what privilege does and doesn’t mean, all while playing with a truly unique, linguistics-based magic system.

I found the conclusion of the book absolutely heartbreaking, if appropriate for the nature of the story. I wonder if we’ll get a Victoria spinoff one day.

I connected with Kuang’s writing style however at times I felt the weight of repetitive dialogue and conversations. Toward the last 100 pages I felt I’d read the same things a few times. All things considered, though, a really good read that’ll definitely sit with me long after I put this book down. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Xenophobia, and Colonisation

Moderate: Gun violence and Suicide

steviewonder's review

challenging dark 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

5.0

If I could give this book 6 stars I would. RF Kuang really knows how to make me think holy shit. I will be thinking about this book for months 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Death, Gun violence, Hate crime, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Xenophobia, Islamophobia, Grief, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Murder, Cultural appropriation, Colonisation, and Classism

themoostconfused's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring mysterious 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

"That's just what translation is, I think. That's all speaking is. Listening to the other and trying to see past your own biases to glimpse what they're trying to say. Showing yourself to the world, and hoping someone else understands." (pg. 535)

I don't even know where to begin. R. F. Kuang has done it again. She has rattled me, shaken me to my core and I thank her for it. Going into it - having read the entire Poppy War series - I knew I was not bound for a happy, carefree book. Coming from an anthropology background, the extent of human destruction and hatred of "the other" it not news to me but it continues to move me every time. 

I can already sense that I will return to this book over and over again in the future and will recommend it to everyone I come across, although not without warning. 

The book's alternate title "The Necessity of Violence" captures the journey this book takes one on while reading quite succinctly, althought the extent of this might not seem obvious upon first glance.

In the process I have learned a great deal about linguistics and am planning on dealving into that further. But first I am going to have to digest what I have become witness to by reading this book. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gun violence, Hate crime, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Slavery, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Islamophobia, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Cultural appropriation, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, and Deportation

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Body horror, Body shaming, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Hate crime, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Vomit, Police brutality, Islamophobia, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Religious bigotry, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Cultural appropriation, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, and Deportation

Minor: Alcoholism, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Vomit, Police brutality, Islamophobia, Medical content, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Religious bigotry, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Cultural appropriation, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, and Deportation

clovetra's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

4.0

ok. i gotta say it. least favourite r.f kuang book right here. which is crazy to say seeing as i haven’t finished the burning god but whatever.

first let me dunk on this book very briefly. i think this book has four  issues that hold it back from a perfect novel. 

one, rf kuang has set my expectations so high any imperfections seem so glaring when i adore her other works. 

two. this book is repetitive at times. when you have 546 pages, i imagine there would be some repetition. but at some point after hearing about how lovell sucks, about how babel sucks, about how colonialism is bad, how exploitation of the lower class for the profits of the upper class sucks, and how racism sucks… i wanted more. which kind of brings up the issue of this book not going deeper with its analysis. ok yes i get it white people are perpetrators of colonialism and racism to the highest degree. now let’s add some more depth to this conversation. Nope! let’s instead

make lovell an almost cartoonish villain, make letty turn on her friends when she had a “redemption arc” coming her way, and have no depth beyond how white people are racist. after a while it felt like every white character became a mythic antagonist. i’m not saying humanise the racists! they can get fucked! especially letty you can eat dog shit at this point. what i am saying is let’s go beyond these fundamentals. rf kuang i know you can do this.

. i don’t think i properly explained what i mean here and i don’t think i actually possess those words. idk i just wanted a deeper analysis of the points kuang raises in this book. and this seems to be the issue with all themes in this book. the theme is explored in a surface way, and then fail to dig deeper and instead we get the same line rewritten every 20 pages. RF KUANG YOU CAN DO BETTER.

this also leads me onto the fact that there is no nuance in this book. everything must be black or white. britain is good or britain is bad. lovell is good or lovell is bad. babel is good or babel is bad. i expected MORE than just surface-level conversations that i’d expect to see on twitter.

robin sucks. robin swift the character isn’t a bad guy, he’s just badly written. at points he goes from the most obvious audience surrogate in the world, to someone with wants dreams and aspirations, to yet again as fleshed out as cardboard. at points robin felt so raw and honest, and other times he felt like he was just doing and saying shit just because the plot beckoned him to, not because that’s what his character would do. because he has no character!!!!! gun to my head other than listing characteristics of robin (e.g orphaned, chinese, a babbler), i could not name you 3 traits he has. i mean i could say he’s a good friend and that’s it. 

and let me just say - this book is boring at times. straight up i did not care about this book until The Big Thing. like before that ok i was into this book, but i wasn’t gripped. there is no plot. there is no tension. and don’t sit here and tell me “oh it’s a school story at that point of course there’s no tension” SHUT UP. the poppy war’s school setting ate AND had a good plot. i don’t know what happened here shorty but it wasn’t great! it was fine. passable. tolerable. but not truly interesting. 

ok now ive shit on this book let me tell you what i DID i like.

• the linguistic side. idk it made this book feel more real. plus you could tell it was interesting and deeply researched
• ramy. my love. my dear. you are babygrill. 🫶
• after canton 2: electric bugaloo, the book REALLLLYYY gripped me. like i was HOOKED. i think from there i literally finished the rest of this book in one day.
• the first half of this book was great in terms of atmosphere ! i actually was really digging it ! but after a while i realised the points raised weren’t really going to go past the basics i became a bit disillusioned 

ummm otherwise idk what to say. i mean i very clearly had a good time reading this. i was invested and will always adore rf kuang’s writing. but this? this is a fall from grace compared to the beauty that is the poppy war trilogy. 

i’m such a hater oh my god

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gun violence, Racial slurs, Racism, Violence, Murder, Colonisation, and War

Moderate: Drug use, Slavery, Suicide, Torture, Grief, Death of parent, Cultural appropriation, and Classism

lemilysnikda's review

dark informative sad tense slow-paced

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

3.75

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Gun violence, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Torture, Xenophobia, Colonisation, War, and Classism

inkysplodge's review against another edition

dark informative 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? Yes

4.25

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Racial slurs, Racism, Suicide, Death of parent, and Colonisation

Moderate: Child abuse, Confinement, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Blood, Murder, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, and War

Minor: Alcoholism, Child death, Cursing, Drug use, Gun violence, Excrement, Vomit, Islamophobia, and Sexual harassment