Reviews with content warning for Xenophobia - Babel

Reviews tagging 'Xenophobia'

ceejeffe's review against another edition

It’s full of racism and abuse from the start but the lore is barely introduced. I simply can’t find myself caring about this universe.

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minorvamp's review

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challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad 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? No

5.0

What an astonishing book.

I've had this sat on my kindle for nearly a year and so decided to tackle it as my first book of 2025.

The first half is not for the faint of heart, the plot develops slowly as do our characters, and it is all interspersed with deep philosophical lectures from the Oxford professors. The slow pace allows for the reader to get into Robin's head, to fall in love with Oxford and it's mad academic rituals and rigour. And to empathise with his struggle to reconcile his love for the life and family he's built and his creeping realisation of the evils of his colonial oppressors.

I read the last 200 pages in one afternoon, pausing every time my heart broke, but unable to put the book down.

A true masterpiece.

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gallifreyanpanicmoon's review

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fast-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? Yes

5.0

A historical fantasy, postcolonial twist on the classic university novel, providing a rich exploration of the colonial violence of the British empire through a Chinese-English pupil's candidature at Oxford University. With a truly unique magic system based on etymological links between translated words, this gripping novel uses magic to interrogate Britain's dark history of colonialism, and transforms Oxford University into a magic institution that manufactures stolen magic off of colonised subjects and their languages.

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risingred's review

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challenging dark emotional informative inspiring mysterious 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? It's complicated

5.0

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arielledavis's review

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adventurous dark emotional 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

4.5

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nikki_flowers's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted mysterious 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

This book was brilliant in so many ways that I cannot even begin to adequately put into words.

This is a book to help you decolonize your mind. The story itself is beautiful and the message is powerful. Fiction like this is so important. People need to see, these stories, to read these stories. Decolonial fiction like this gives us insight and hope and community and so much more.

As I reflect back on my journey reading this masterpiece I cannot help but think of the events that were unfolding in the world at the same time.

As I very slowly (for thoroughness sake, not a lack of interest) made my way through the book, I watched the world justify the genocide of Palestinians and the further colonization of Palestine. I watched so so many people, white girls and women in particular, obsess over this book but refuse to put the message into practice. If felt like a fetishization or infantilization of the book and its decolonial efforts. How many read this book and took what they wanted from it for their own selfish reasons and then watch Palestine burn and called Hamas terrorists or stayed completely silent. A completely colonizer move to take what you want from the book and leave the rest to burn regardless of the harm caused.

And yet, how many others read this work and felt its message in their bones. How many saw themselves on the page for the first time. How many people were awakened to liberations struggles. How many felt and cried and turned it into action. How many had hard and necessary conversations with themselves and/ or others because of this book.

That is the legacy of this book. The change it brought about to so many. The perverse colonizer response is not its legacy but rather further example of exactly why we need books like this.

May this book live on in the hearts of those who have read it and may it fuel our souls in the liberation/mutual aid/revolution/abolition work we do.

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bbybryn's review

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dark emotional inspiring 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? Yes

4.0

i started this book thinking it was too lengthy for me, that it's long blocks of text that may sound redundant, but i came to like the story in the end even if it took a while to finish.

i'm torn by this book because of how it ended. how after much effort they put into fighting back, they had to destroy everything and themselves just to make a point. i miss their times as freshmen, but that moment is just an illusion. the world was already broken then, and the moment i desperately miss is just bliss in the form of 'stability'.

babel has really made me think deeply upon the injustice minorities experience daily. it's shamed me even for how ignorant i was before picking up this book, so i'm quite pleased with the lessons i learnt from it. it's a treasure to have in my bookshelf and it'll forever have a special place in my heart.
ps: i cried a lot

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