Reviews tagging 'Toxic friendship'

Babel by R.F. Kuang

546 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

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

ankan_tove's review

adventurous dark mysterious reflective slow-paced

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

4.25

I love this book but one thing K didnt like was that Rf Kuang chose to tell us characters where bad istead of showing, or sayings things were bad when its obvious. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Misogyny, Racism, Cultural appropriation, Colonisation, and Classism

Moderate: Violence and Toxic friendship

Minor: Gun violence, Sexual assault, Slavery, Death of parent, and Alcohol

enidcoleslawww's review

dark informative sad slow-paced

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

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Racism, Slavery, Violence, Grief, Toxic friendship, Colonisation, War, and Injury/Injury detail

eemadeeberry's review

adventurous dark emotional informative mysterious 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? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Racism, Sexism, Xenophobia, Toxic friendship, and Colonisation

Moderate: Addiction, Child abuse, Drug use, Racial slurs, Blood, Grief, and Alcohol

sulkshift's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring sad 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: Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Islamophobia, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Cultural appropriation, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Colonisation, War, and Classism

momtotwo2022's review

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? Yes

4.0

Solid 4 stars.

Enjoyed the last half of this one more than the first half. I found the foreword a bit pretentious and defensive so that was off-putting at the beginning of this book. Once I began reading, however, I enjoyed it.

The book began somewhat slow with not much happening but it did set the scene well and provided some good character development. In the last half, quite a lot occurred, and it built to a beautiful ending that caught me off guard emotionally.

Pros: Higher quality writing, good story, strong/impactful message.
Cons: Pacing was a bit off, reads like a linguistics textbook in several chunks/paragraphs, some characters seemed slightly one-dimensional.
Overall: A good read that I would recommend if you have it on your tbr. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Racism, Xenophobia, Grief, Murder, and Colonisation

Moderate: Misogyny, Sexism, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Child abuse

valjeanval's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense slow-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

I do think RF Kuang is going to go down as one of this generation's leaders of fantasy. She's a great writer, and that writing is coupled with meticulous research that make her books feel so rich and thoughtful. Babel is definitely a timely read, and sadly I think it will be a timely read for a while. I think her style was occasionally a little heavy-handed, but I'm also a white woman reading this, so the very fact that I thought that might be more of credit to the writing than a detriment.  Otherwise this book builds an incredible world and uses it to really spotlight the insidiousness of colonialism and colonial attitudes. 

I'm glad I finally got around to reading this one, and while it's no cozy holiday read, you should probably read it too.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Gun violence, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Suicide, Grief, Murder, Cultural appropriation, Toxic friendship, Colonisation, and Classism

Minor: Child abuse, Child death, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, and Gaslighting