Reviews tagging 'Mental illness'

Babel by R.F. Kuang

26 reviews

peonydancer's review

challenging funny informative reflective 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

4.75

honestly, if it weren't for me feeling sour that 

Ramy and Robin don't live happily ever after together alongside their girl besties because WHY LETTY, WHY

it might've been 5 stars. But I thought this novel was incredibly well written, and I learned so much about translation and both its beauty and destructiveness, along with languages and how they form, especially the English language. I underlined so many lovely lines in this book. I haven't read any of Kuang's works before, but this book has got me excited to read 'The Poppy War' series. More to add to my TBR!
As for what I didn't like; I think due to other reviews, I expected to cry and feel super emotional about the ending of the book. But honestly, besides 

Ramy's death and all that jazz

, there wasn't really anything to the end that made me cry like I saw some reactors do. I guess I held some expectations for the ending due to that, so I was a little disappointed (but not surprised) by the end. But that's on me, not the book, so don't mind it.
The one thing I TRULY didn't like was how stereotypical the final embodiment of villainy ended up being. As in, having 

Letty more or less embody the complacency of white England, and end up making an enemy of the cohort. Honestly, I might've found it more interesting to see a non-white baddie here, to demonstrate how long-time conditioning can make one unable to see past their own nose; kind of like how Robin was struggling at the start of the book, but by the end, realised 'the truth'. It would've been cool to see a foreign-born translator never truly reach that conclusion and aide the 'other side' in their efforts.

 
I would suggest an air of caution in taking the message of this book and applying it to the real world now.  

I find it impressive that Kuang managed to portray quite a realistic view of 19th-century England, but remember the novel is set 200 years ago. Sure, you'll have plenty of people who are racist, irrespective of colour, that exist in the 21st century. But the CURRENT world is not all white people viewing us non-whites as sub-human, nor are non-white people being oppressed (At least, not where I'm from; I speak from a Non-USA P.O.V btw) 

  I have a lot of hope for the world, and we've come a long way since that time. <3  
That's my review - highly recommend this book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Emotional abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Xenophobia, Gaslighting, Colonisation, and Classism

Moderate: Child abuse, Drug use, Gun violence, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Islamophobia, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Toxic friendship, and War

lokes'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? It's complicated
• 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, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Mental illness, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Transphobia, Forced institutionalization, Religious bigotry, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Colonisation, War, Classism, and Deportation

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Cursing, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Homophobia, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Murder, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, War, and Injury/Injury detail

elizmoe's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional 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? It's complicated

3.5

did i decided to read this after that one white bookstagrammer had a public meltdown over this book? absolutely, i’m nosy

to that bookstagrammer, whose main gripe with the novel was how all the white characters were flat cartoon villains, just want to say: Abel Goodfellow and Mrs. Piper are RIGHT THERE. not to mention professor craft! pls !!

regarding Letty, (spoiler) yeah she does some really fucked up shit! and up until betraying everyone, the book gives her a lot of grace in terms of portraying her as a complex human who loves her friends and experiences heartbreak and grief ////and also was indoctrinated with white supremacy from birth and therefore will never be able to see her nonwhite friends as fully human in their own right. she even got her own interlude from her POV, where she gets to defend her choices for an entire chapter. the book then goes on to gives her more grace AFTER her betrayal, during Victoire and Robin’s last conversation about her — the line “loving her was like an exercise in hope” continues to haunt me. Victoire wanted so desperately for Letty to see her and respect her Blackness and Haitianness as part of her humanity, and the tragedy of Letty as a character is she never does. she compartmentalizes her friends’ racial/national identities as _separate_from the people she thinks she loves. and then she puts white supremacist colonialist empire before their lives when shit gets real,  a well-documented tendency of white women throughout history. tldr; if you think the white villains in this book are all one dimensional or unrealistic, i genuinely don’t think you read this book!

other thoughts: the portrayal of a friend group united by shared academic stress and unhinged desire to succeed? while staying up all night every day eating garbage and losing their minds together? was maybe one of the most viscerally realistic college friend groups i’ve ever read

other !!! things
-the exploration of language was super interesting. it is not a subject i’m well-versed in and i appreciated how it was more than just a magic system, but an actor in the story in its own right
-i liked the footnotes! sue me!! 
-i generally really liked the prose
-the audiobook narrators were absolute fire. especially chris lew kum hoi with the bajillions of accents they had to do
-robin? bisexual. definitely in love with rami (probably also had crushes on both victoire and letty at different points) and while i absolutely wanted them to actually get together, i understand why they did not and i respect the choice! even though rf kuang you’re absolutely sick for that face touch the first day they met, 

i agree the magic system was maybe a bit underdeveloped but while reading it never really bothered me, however i understand it as a gripe from people who read or write more complex fantasy with complicated and thought-through magic systems.

one more con: i get the complaints about how the existence of silver doesn’t change the 1830s world as we know it, just adds extra flair to the things that actually happened. it would have been interesting to see a more alternate history where this source of power affects the world more comprehensively, but i also kind get why kuang didn’t go that route and instead chose to just use silver/language magic to explore historical british colonialism as we know it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Death, Genocide, Gun violence, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Blood, Grief, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Drug use, Emotional abuse, Slavery, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, and War

Minor: Addiction and Deportation

zghutcheson01's review

challenging reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• 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 was absolutely amazing. It was incredibly reflective and Kuang managed to intellectually and eloquently write about the intersection of race, class, and gender without glossing over all the joy that oppressed people made for themselves, even in times of extreme strife. I understand people’s criticism of flat characters and I would love to get more of the rest of the cast but I think this book is mainly about Robin and his emotions. This book is fueled mainly on themes and the introspection of a single character and I understand people not loving that, especially since I tend not to like books like that either. But I think Kiang’s choice to focus on young characters and their friendships early on in the book makes it more personal and emotional. It also straddles a weird line with fantasy and historical fiction since the only magic is in silver but I honestly don’t think it’s an issue with the book but with descriptions of it. I genuinely think this book is a masterpiece and everyone who can should read it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Police brutality, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Colonisation, and Classism

Moderate: Confinement, Hate crime, Misogyny, Slavery, Suicide, Torture, Toxic relationship, Blood, Suicide attempt, and Toxic friendship

clairew97's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny informative 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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Police brutality, Grief, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, and Deportation

jenmcreads's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective sad fast-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

This book deserves all of the hype it is getting. I haven't picked up anything similar to this genre-wise in many many years (though now I hope to!), but I have always enjoyed language and thinking about the impossibility of translation, so the idea of this magic system intrigued me.

I am so glad I read this. I think Kuang has masterfully woven in her critiques of colonialism, academia, and academia's service to Empire. The messaging is not subtle, but these are some of the major wrongs of our society, so in terms of scale that did not bother me. I was very impressed by the pacing of this book, which managed to sweep through time when it needed to, but lingered sufficiently to build depth and attachment to the characters. The exploration of intersectionality was nuanced, and I felt Kuang was very honest and rigorous in her exploration of the different experiences these four characters would go through facing the same events. Kuang's ability to distill the essence of complex global challenges into a view concise and moving paragraphs is astonishing at times. I am not typically an annotator but found myself on more than one occasion reaching for a pen. 

The messaging is important, of course, but this is a 500+ page tome, and the message wouldn't get to nearly as many people if the story weren't compelling. The plot is well structured, tense, and exciting throughout (arguable the first half is a bit slow at times, but to me you can always feel the build). 

And then for me, there is the translation based magic system. I loved this, I loved the etymologies (that take is not for everyone I know, but it delighted me). Kuang is clearly a remarkable mind and the level of research here is awe-inspiring.

I don't feel I am able to do justice to my thoughts on this book, but in three words, it is a masterpiece.  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Child abuse, Death, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Islamophobia, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Cultural appropriation, Gaslighting, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Minor: Slavery