Reviews tagging 'Slavery'

Babel by R.F. Kuang

904 reviews

_polaris_'s review against another edition

challenging dark emotional inspiring reflective sad 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? It's complicated

5.0

This is a brilliant book! No questions about it. 
It challenged me, touched me deeply and is so well structured and written. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Suicide, Violence, Grief, Murder, Toxic friendship, Colonisation, and War

Moderate: Slavery and Grief

Minor: Addiction, Drug abuse, and Drug use

senga15's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny 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? It's complicated

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Racial slurs, Racism, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Blood, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Religious bigotry, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Cultural appropriation, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Addiction, Bullying, Confinement, Drug abuse, and Drug use

Minor: Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, and Car accident

meghanr17's review

adventurous reflective 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? No

4.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Slavery, Xenophobia, and War

princess_azula's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional inspiring 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? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Torture, Blood, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Murder, and Colonisation

Moderate: Alcoholism, Death, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Hate crime, Sexism, Islamophobia, Grief, Cultural appropriation, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

katherineshawwrites's review

challenging dark emotional inspiring mysterious sad tense slow-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? No

5.0

I wasn't sure if Babel would live up to the hype it received when it first hit the reading community, but my goodness, it does.

If you're going into Babel expecting a high fantasy dark academia story, you're going to be disappointed, but if you go in with an open mind, you'll get a fascinating, powerful and tragic take on the magic of languages, alongside the horror and injustice of colonialism and racism.

With this story, R F Kuang delivers a gripping and moving narrative that's steeped in history, and her academic experience in language really shines through not only within the plot itself, but in all the wonderfully crafted notes that accompany the text. It gives the book an academic rigour you rarely see in fiction whilst never losing sight of the story. 

Some of the hard-hitting commentary around the British Empire (and similar colonial nations) and its amoral actions can be tough to swallow, but isn't that the point? R F Kuang pulls no punches, and I love her for that. The characters show us through their own lenses, backgrounds and personal storylines what atrocities have been committed in the name of imperialism, economic growth and capitalistic greed, and right now I think we all need to be reminded of that.

Despite its academic nature, the book is full of twists and turns, a great deal of tension, and rising stakes right until the very end, and I was flying through the final pages to see how it would all end for Robin. R F Kuang's writing is superb throughout, and I would highly recommend this to anyone unafraid of some hard truths and powerful storytelling.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Colonisation, and Classism

Moderate: Addiction, Death, Drug use, Gun violence, Slavery, Violence, Blood, Islamophobia, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail

jane3366's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Suicide, Violence, and Xenophobia

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Slavery and Sexual harassment

raitherabbit's review against another edition

emotional hopeful informative reflective 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: Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Slavery, Suicide, Xenophobia, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Alcoholism and Abandonment

rivetkitten's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad slow-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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Xenophobia, Murder, Toxic friendship, Colonisation, and Classism

Moderate: Child abuse, Blood, Death of parent, and Abandonment

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. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racial slurs and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Torture

Minor: Sexism and Sexual assault

foxgame's review against another edition

dark hopeful reflective medium-paced

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

4.5

I loved the linguistics and reading a book about languages. It is ironic that the silver bars that don’t work were the ones for translate because words with similar meanings across different languages don’t have the same depth or cultural resonance. 
Robin, the MMC, was a character that was prone to taking the easy a path rather than make a choice. Whether this stemmed from the instance of when he chose to read a novel as a child and was then beaten for it, or just a personality trait, idk. 
The story also revolves around the 18th century’s British Empire sense of self, where the rich upper class white man is the only opinion that matters and is always right regardless. The implicit and very explicit racism covered in this book is repulsive, probably more so when considering it is probably tame to what existed at that time and likely exists today. 
I found this book insightful and thought provoking. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Racial slurs and Racism

Minor: Slavery