Reviews tagging 'Sexual assault'

Babel by R.F. Kuang

58 reviews

aidamaria_reads's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

This is a literary middle finger to colonialism, capitalism, racism, classism, sexism and all the other -isms, basically. I admire the way the author came up with the magic system (as a former translation student, it was truly amazing) and how it plays into the historical setting. The writing was wonderful. I wonder how long we’ve got until some government(s) bans this book.

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Bullying, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Hate crime, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Sexual assault, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Police brutality, Islamophobia, Grief, Religious bigotry, Murder, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Colonisation, War, and Classism

snowiceblackfruit77's review

dark emotional informative 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

4.25

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Sexual assault, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Blood, Police brutality, Medical content, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

theglossreview's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective slow-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

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Gun violence, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Death of parent, Murder, Colonisation, and War

Moderate: Sexual assault, Slavery, and Torture

Minor: Excrement and Vomit

chinue's review

challenging emotional informative 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

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Racial slurs, Racism, Xenophobia, and Colonisation

Moderate: Death, Sexism, Sexual assault, and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Violence and War

angorarabbit's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad 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? Yes

5.0

Is it wrong to move a book up the TBR due to it being listed on a GoodReads challenge? I am glad I read this book but I feel like the challenges are manipulating the readers. Is a book popular on GoodReads because it is good or because I am reading it to tick off one more challenge? 

 

That aside, this is a very good book. The main four characters feel very real and I can empathise with the viewpoints of all of them. It is also an important book. While languages have not been used in the method the book describes with the silver working they have been stolen in a manner not unlike the onebbnn nn nn  h described in the book. The Opium Wars were very real wars that were fought to keep the opium legal in China for the benefit of European trading companies. 

 

We can learn from history and do better, but we have to actually do better. 

 

Stolen labour, stolen land, stolen language, stolen lives. 

 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Violence, Police brutality, Gaslighting, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Slavery, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Death of parent, Cultural appropriation, War, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Minor: Animal death, Sexual assault, Fire/Fire injury, and Alcohol

jitter's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring 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

Holy shiiiiiiiiit. I'm shaking. I'm ashamed of being white (even though I'm not the "correct" de of white) and I felt so many things while reading this book that I couldn't even gather myself. The linguistics porn was an excellent bonus but the political issues discussed were just 👌👌👌👌

I'm seeing a lot of low rating reviews and I'm sure that's because this book made people uncomfortable. Maybe they're too comfortable or too young to read this. I absolutely loved it

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Death of parent, and Murder

Moderate: Drug abuse and Alcohol

Minor: Child death and Sexual assault

abfreda184's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative mysterious 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

5.0

I really enjoyed this book. I found it incredibly engaging, thought provoking, and it had amazing twists. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Racial slurs and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Torture

Minor: Sexism and Sexual assault

ankan_tove's review

adventurous dark mysterious reflective slow-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

4.25

I love this book but one thing K didnt like was that Rf Kuang chose to tell us characters where bad istead of showing, or sayings things were bad when its obvious. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Misogyny, Racism, Cultural appropriation, Colonisation, and Classism

Moderate: Violence and Toxic friendship

Minor: Gun violence, Sexual assault, Slavery, Death of parent, and Alcohol

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.

---

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

dragonlilly's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional informative mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

4.0

Quite an excellent book, especially with R. F. Kuang's studies and research. The book is long with slower paced sections, and bursts of crazy events throughout, but it all felt right. The characters were well built (although summarizing their relationships with one another during the school years was a bit off-putting, rather than having consistent scenes and conversations but I get it in the context of a more informational-style story almost), the story was consistently interesting, and while there were repetitive bits, the themes examined within this book were well explored. It took me a while to be convinced by the magic of silver, but I eventually accepted it and was interested in how it worked and how it accelerated the British Empire's power. 

The history of colonization and all that is intertwined within that history is quite thoroughly explored, especially through the ways the characters interact with one another, and the individual difficulties they face as people who are seen as ultimately foreign to England and Europe generally, no matter how long they have lived there or become a part of that land. Yet, we also see the unique difficulties the characters face because of their different phenotypic appearances, genders, races, languages, and religions. So, while our main characters are able to come together to form an immensely strong bond, especially due to the prejudices they face, we can also see how unique all people are generally. Each character came from different parts of the world, grew up differently, and had wholly distinctive experiences that causes them to have their own opinions, biases, and views on the world. This creates conflict in the dear friend group, but they often come back together because they only have one another in the end. I also felt the characterization of these individuals was very consistent, and their actions always seemed to make sense. I liked Ramy instantly, and liked Victoire quite a bit, while the other characters grew on me.

The exploration of translation and etymology, along with the characters and story, was one of my favorite aspects, and the quotes I loved the most from this book all seem to relate to that theme: 

Ch. 6 - "'You don't think that an original language exists?' Robin asked.
'Of course I [Richard] don't. The most devout Christians think it does, but you'd think if the Holy Word were so innate and unambiguous, there'd be less debate about its contents'"

Ch. 8 - "'How can we conclude, except by acknowledging that an act of translation is then necessarily always an act of betrayal?'"

Ch. 33 - "The bars were singing, shaking; trying, he thought, to express some unutterable truth about themselves, which was that translation was impossible, that the realm of pure meaning they captured and manifested would and could not ever be known, that the enterprise of this tower had been impossible from inception... Language was just difference. A thousand different ways of seeing, of moving through the world. No; a thousand worlds within one. And translation - a necessary endeavour, however futile, to move between them"

 Ch. 33 - "'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.'" - Ramy
(My favorite quote, very likely)

Overall, great book! I just didn't absolutely adore this. I would certainly recommend this to those interested in history, translation, and the uniqueness among people, and those who can handle the slower sections, as I think that can easily bog people down a bit. 

Some spoiler notes I wanted to think on:

What was Richard Lovell reaching into his pocket for at the moment of his death?! I feel like this was an interesting thing that was missed upon. 

The reveal of what was in Griffin's note for Robin was very interesting. It seems Robin may have had other brothers in Hermes abroad! That could have been the hope to allow him to live and believe in a future. But maybe it wouldn't have changed his mind either, as all of his love and love for life was somewhat centered upon Ramy. Quite horrifying to think that Richard Lovell was just impregnating possibly dozens of Chinese women though, as this reveal shows. 

I enjoyed the picnic conversation between Ramy and Robin that was revealed in the last chapter. While I didn't feel any chemistry beyond solid friendship throughout the story, I thought this scene was very cute. Although, I guess Robin wasn't able to put a name to these feelings either until the end, so I suppose it being hard to notice could make sense, I just wish is was a teeny bit more obvious. I had honestly thought there were hints between Robin and Victoire earlier on, but it must have just been platonic admiration. 

Dang it Letty. Yet, I see in how her characterization led to this. 

Lots of unexpected moments in the story, mainly the deaths. It certainly captured my interest and made for some fast reading though. 

The standoff between Griffin and Sterling Jones was a bit comic, playing on them being the 'main characters' of their own stories at one point and in another book, this would be their ending. I didn't love this scene, just found it a bit funny. But Griffin's death was indeed sad.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racism, Sexism, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Murder, Cultural appropriation, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Addiction, Body horror, Gun violence, Racial slurs, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Blood, Mass/school shootings, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, War, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Minor: Genocide and Slavery