Reviews tagging 'Blood'

Babel by R.F. Kuang

483 reviews

soniajoy98's review

challenging 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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Gun violence, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Toxic friendship, Colonisation, and Classism

Moderate: Body horror, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Slavery, Police brutality, Islamophobia, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Bullying, Confinement, Drug abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual violence, Vomit, Trafficking, Religious bigotry, Cultural appropriation, and Deportation

bo0ks_are_cool91's review

challenging dark informative mysterious reflective slow-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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Blood, Murder, Cultural appropriation, Abandonment, Colonisation, and Classism

Moderate: Death of parent, War, and Deportation

Minor: Cursing

zgreyz's review against another edition

dark informative sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

the ending has me crying. 
it was a bit of a slow start but the concept of this was super cool and i love the linguistic tidbits throughout and the overall themes were portrayed well. love the main character’s development. ughh. 
definitely a book that i want to get a physical copy of and annotate it a bunch. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Gun violence, Racial slurs, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Xenophobia, Grief, and Colonisation

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Sexism, Torture, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Drug use, Slavery, and War

ruthlessreads's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative 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

4.75

An ambitious novel that meets every expectation I had before reading. Kuang is at the top of her literary powers here. The writing style & tone is so different from her previous series, yet her voice comes through clearly. Her experiences at Oxford are clearly an influence to some of the happenings in the novel and Kuang draws from them powerfully to craft a story of the abuses of colonialization, racism, and capitalism that places like Oxford (and, indeed, our own country & lives) are dependent upon to be comfortable & function normally. 

I finished the book thinking heavily on the connotations of these issues in the modern day and in what ways we can begin to make community across racial and class divides to create a more equitable future for everyone. Truly an incredible undertaking on Kuang's part with an equally imposing outcome. My only gripe, if you could even call it such, was that it was a little longer than necessary (IMO) and slowed down quite a bit about 3/4s of the way through until the very end.  So the pacing was a little off and it didn't make me set it down but I could see how it might feel like a slog to others. 

Oh! And I liked the footnotes but I'm a nerd so *shrug*

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Violence, Xenophobia, Police brutality, Kidnapping, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Murder, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Colonisation, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Addiction, Confinement, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Slavery, Blood, and Classism

ladystardust1979's review against another edition

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Drug use, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Suicide, Xenophobia, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, and Colonisation

summerif's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Racism, and War

Moderate: Child abuse, Sexism, Slavery, and Death of parent

Minor: Child death, Blood, and Death of parent

sherny's review

challenging dark 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

4.75

This book should be taught in high school curriculum, right next to 1984 and Fahrenheit 451. It features a dystopian world very similar to our own at the height of the British empire. It covers topics such as racism, classism, colonialism, workers rights, woman’s rights, and more. The way it talks about these topics is insightful and well informed, while also being interesting and mirroring our world while also relying on the twist that makes this world different. It has queer characters, though they are not out given the time period. It could be listed as scifi/fantasy, but is more historical fiction with a twist.  Highly recommend as a read for white woman to understand intersectionality. 

Only reason I’m not giving it 5 stars is because it contributes to the literary trope of queer people not surviving

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Drug use, Racism, Xenophobia, Blood, Murder, Colonisation, and Classism

Moderate: Gun violence, Misogyny, and Torture

Minor: Addiction, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Religious bigotry, and War

kathrynwi11's review

dark emotional funny informative sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Bullying, Child abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Murder, Alcohol, Colonisation, and Classism

oneqdprnjoy's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative mysterious reflective 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

5.0

This is a great commentary on colonialism, white supremacy, and internalized racism. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Hate crime, Racism, Slavery, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Blood, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Islamophobia, Murder, Toxic friendship, and War

booksthatburn's review against another edition

dark mysterious 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Racism, Grief, Religious bigotry, Murder, Colonisation, and Classism

Moderate: Bullying, Child abuse, Gun violence, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Sexism, Slavery, Terminal illness, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Minor: Child death, Excrement, and Deportation