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Reviews tagging 'Toxic relationship'

Babel by R.F. Kuang

46 reviews

cloverandmoss's review against another edition

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dark emotional informative 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

3.25

WY too many unnecessary footnotes that could have easily been incorporated into the story 

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cursed10fold's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective 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? Yes

1.0

This book was quite a bit too long for what story was there. It feels like it should have been heavily edited so that the author could put more focus on the best parts of the story. Or if the author didn't feel like any parts could have been dropped, it should have been two books so that the poorly focused parts could have been explored more thoroughly. 

For example, I was disappointed with how the women were handled in the story. In real-life Victorian England, less than half of women could read at all (much less go to university) so I thought that there would be interesting angles to explore as two main characters were women and students but the issue of sexism wasn't really explored beyond a few token mentions even though it was raised by the narrative. The more important of the two characters (whose POV comes at the very end as a sequel hook) didn't really get any focus until quite late in the story even though she was in most scenes throughout the book. 

The author also adds a gay romance(?) which would be interesting to explore except that it happens so little that I forgot it was even a plot until the end of the book which leaves me wondering why it wasn't edited to either give it the time and breathing room it deserves (as it could have added a lot of depth to the two other characters in the core four) or removed to tighten up the main plot. 

Lastly, I thought the anachronisms were jarring and distracting. One character is fairly modern for the most part (even speaking like someone from the 2020s/using modern terms like "narco-military state") but then goes back to blaming a woman for being sexually harassed with her friend by drunk men at a party. He blames her for suggesting going to the party in the first place and putting herself and her friend in danger instead of the men for harassing the two of them. When she brings up that she was almost assaulted too the narrator calls it "a bizarre line of argument". The way that scene was handled put a really bad taste in my mouth and I almost DNF-ed there. I kept going as I was hoping it would be used as a learning opportunity but it never comes up again and the character that blames her is treated as one of the most likeable characters by the story. I get that his attitude would have been common for the time but for that to be the one thing that's time-period accurate in how he speaks seems to be a really strange choice given that the narrative doesn't examine it or challenge him in any way. There are quite a few other unchallenged sexist remarks/tropes used throughout the story. 

The stuff I did like was the first book/section; it was a good set up for the story and the racism/attitudes of Prof. Lovell and his colleagues was very well done and fairly accurate to real-life Victorian academic figures (check out some of the real figures that worked with King Leopold II). I also liked the magic system and wish there was more of it. Also some people were complaining about the slow pace but I actually liked the atmospheric descriptions in the early story. This book was ultimately very disappointing given that it had a relatively strong start and a very rushed/disjointed ending. 

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idabwells's review

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative reflective sad tense 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? It's complicated

5.0

Probably the most impactful book I've ever read besides Jemisin and Butler.

Manages to capture the devastating scope of colonial genocide while also portraying the courage and brilliance of those around the world struggling to survive and triumph over it. 



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razmatazt's review

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challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective tense 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

4.5


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passionatereader78's review

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adventurous challenging mysterious 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? No

4.5

If you like political fantasy stories this book is perfect for you! If you enjoyed Yellowface, and Atlas Six you will enjoy this book. It's well written and the story is told well. Robin, Remy, Victoire, and Letty are minorities at Oxford University.  They are translators and are in the Babel tower. They stick together because they have no one else. They aren't invited to the parties or to go to town. They each face discrimination daily. As they study and spend time at Babel they begin to accept their fates until they meet Griffin and learn about Hermes. Are they strong enough to face the truth about Babel and the part they play? Definitely, check out the trigger warnings!




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polaris1117's review

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adventurous challenging dark emotional 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


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amalas_bookstop's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional informative mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I think I am still gasping for breath. I am clapping, if all dark academia is not written like this I do not want it. She was able to write what could have been such an elitist topic to something that was very easy to grasp, you don't even have to go searching. I want more!

This book is a straight masterpiece. It is so refreshing to read a victorian age dark academia novel through the eyes of people of color. I cannot fully grasp how she was able to touch on so many topics. From classism to racism to economics she covered it all masterfully. I was learning new scopes of language as I was trying to read this. 

Her characterization of Letty and the and white guilt was so spot on. My mind is still reeling. Her characterization of being a person of color who is provided opportunity and the guilt/shame you can sometimes feel was also spot on. I did not know that my soul needed to read a view point of this age that is not told by the white majority. This was like therapy and a history lesson all in one.

A required read.

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celery's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense 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

4.75


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cmklaft's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring 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

3.75


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uninvestedreader's review

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challenging dark emotional informative sad tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

This book elicited a lot of thoughts and feelings (though let's be honest, most of the feeling was anger) from me. I don't think I was fully the type of reader Rebecca wrote this for - I know people who capital-F felt the friendship between Robin and his colleagues in a way that I wasn't particularly interested in at the start, and so some of the very terrible things that happen amongst those friends just felt... expected, and very sad (but didn't wreck me). Alternatively,  the relationships between Lovell, Robin, and Griffin left me totally, totally devastated. Robin deserved so much better, as did Griffin. This book made me feel unrelenting anger through understanding how people of power choose to divide a group of people that they see as beneath them, and then use some of those people to hurt their own while never offering anyone equality.

Yeah, this book made me very angry. I expect this book's message to live in my head for many years to come.

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