Reviews tagging 'Suicidal thoughts'

Babel by R.F. Kuang

654 reviews

bluehourphile's review

adventurous challenging dark informative mysterious reflective 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts and Murder

morganlink11's review against another edition

adventurous emotional inspiring 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Drug abuse, Hate crime, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Violence, Xenophobia, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Cultural appropriation, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, War, and Classism

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

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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

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 

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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. 

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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

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

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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

songofachilleus's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Racial slurs, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Xenophobia, Grief, Death of parent, and Classism

Moderate: Hate crime, Violence, Murder, Toxic friendship, and War

Minor: Sexual harassment

friendly_neighborhood_grandma's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful inspiring 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Bullying, Death, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racism, Sexism, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Xenophobia, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, Colonisation, War, and Classism

Moderate: Addiction, Child death, Drug abuse, Gore, Terminal illness, Blood, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Suicide and Vomit

annakh16's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional 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? Yes

4.5

Ah. She gets it. 

I’ve held off on writing this review for a little while, mainly to process. I feel like I have a lot and at the same time very little to say. The key thing is that the intensity of emotions this book induces - the betrayal and guilt and grief - is such a poignant way to bring its message to the public. And for that, hats off. 

More “superficial” things first: the language nerd in me adored having a magic system based around translation. Additionally, I found the footnotes very effective as a method of world-building, as they made it feel like a real history. I also loved all of the thinkers and literary references included.

The Plato quote right at the end nearly made me cry in the office

. 

Really, I had so many thoughts about 3/4 in regarding how cleverly this book was set up and how much I appreciated the analysis. And then it just went a bunch of places I didn’t think it would and that made it so much better. 

In my opinion, the pacing was off around the middle - there were too many repetitive bits and the plot dragged. But the ending brought this back a hundred times over.

Griffin was my favourite character for most of it, not because he’s overly likeable though. The clarity of his conviction and analysis, as well as how much he predicts correctly made for a pessimistic but poignant reading. I truly didn’t expect Robin to follow in his footsteps. To see this play out - the conclusion of the themes of this book so clearly brought onto the page, not to be inferred, not to be denied - was a welcome if very sad surprise

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An incoherent review for a not at all incoherent novel. Overall, while parts of this book were a little raw, I loved it. There are many quotes and moments I will carry with me from now on and I’m already “looking forward” to re-reading it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Racial slurs, and Racism

Moderate: Child abuse, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Xenophobia, Car accident, Murder, Colonisation, and War

Minor: Drug use

shermansays's review against another edition

adventurous emotional informative inspiring 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Xenophobia

Moderate: Racism, Torture, Violence, and Murder

Minor: Racial slurs, Sexism, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and War