Reviews with content warning for Child abuse - Babel

Reviews tagging 'Child abuse'

Babel by R.F. Kuang

578 reviews

booksjessreads's review against another edition

dark emotional tense slow-paced

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

5.0

I have been putting off writing this review for some time because I am genuinely unsure how to write my feelings about it into words, or what coherent thoughts I have about this book are at this point.

This book is an absolute marvel. It is completely astonishing. The characters are so human, fully dimensional and uniquely complex. The story: devastating. But, anything that is about empire and colonialism is. Kuang has such incredible skill at interweaving themes of empire, colonialism, racism, religion, gender and so many more themes. Sometimes, I came across sentences that put the themes and topics so well that I physically could not think of a way to rephrase things. Her style is just so clever and intricate and nuanced. Simply brilliant.

This book is also incredibly emotional. There are characters in this book that felt like friends of mine and I haven't felt this close to characters in a book for a long time. They feel so real and they are written so exquisitely. Furthermore, Robin as an unreliable narrator just adds to the appeal of reading it for me. An unreliable narrator is one of my favourite things about a book, and this was executed so well.

Babel is just a complete masterpiece. I write a lot of reviews with the mindset of 'how could what I write do this book any justice'. But I mean that from the bottom of my heart writing this review. This book is essential and so cleverly crafted. One of my favourite books of all time.

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drjoannehill's review against another edition

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adventurous reflective tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Slightly magical, alternate history of the British Empire in the 1830s amid the beginnings of the Opium Wars, and more of a commentary on racism and colonialism than fantasy.

For me, a book is 4 stars if the story holds my attention across the 500+ pages, and the characters are interesting. So, it scores on those points. Background-wise, you'll be ok with this if you have any interest in etymology and translation, but if not you'll struggle.

The anti-racist message is not subtly expressed - it is very consistently and brutally expressed. It's really laid on heavy by the colonialists quite how little they thought of people from the places they were exploiting, and there's no possibility of responding to their arguments. The characters who are at the receiving end of it sometimes discuss racism and sexism together, in language that is not authentic to the time. One of the central messages of the book is that white women are not allies, that they'll push to get access to the system but not fight the system itself - fine, this makes sense and is likely quite authentic. But as it's such a heavily pursued narrative, there's not as much complexity or surprise as there could be. We basically learn that even in a world where there's a bit of magic to make things run smoother, it is all just used to make the Empire richer, and the Empire will allow any number of atrocities if the Empire itself still stands and makes money and power. (E.g. it is discussed a few times that abolition was just a trade advantage). So, it's bleak, and maybe a tiny bit clunky, but for any readers who maintain a perspective that Britain brought good to the world through empire, they might think differently after reading (they might not though).

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fronk10's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging informative mysterious sad fast-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

4.0

An excellent and thought provoking read. I loved the characters, and Robin’s journey was so interesting to watch. It also has such a unique magic system that I adored, I just feel it got a little bogged down in semantics sometimes - but they are language scholars after all! A hard read at times, but a necessary one.

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penofpossibilities's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional informative mysterious slow-paced

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

3.0

the first half was incredibly slow paced and at times a drag to get through. If it wasn't for some long train rides with nothing better to do, I would've taken much longer to finish. The last quarter or so was really exciting though! I even got emotional and started crying near the end.

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annamary54's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional 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

I am at a loss for words right now. This is one of the best books I’ve ever read. It also doubled my vocabulary. I have been contemplating going back to school for linguistics, and this book made me want to go even more, until it didnt. And at the same time this book had everything and nothing to do with linguistics. Incredible topical time for me to be reading the this (although I’m sure you could stay that about any time). I’m just thinking of the protests happening at colleges around the US calling for a ceasefire. Very much resembles the back half of this book. I will say, it was a slow start for me, only because I started reading this when I was in a reading slump and the world building was just a lot of translation. Once I got about 40% of the way though, things started picking up. I really was going to give this 4.75 just because it was so hard for me to get into it, even with my love of language, but book five was so good I had no choice but to give this 5 stars.

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k_noodlesoup's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional 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

5.0

I don't think I can adequately review this novel. The amount of research and dedication to it astounds me. I read this as part of my book club and it was an incredible experience. I cried so much while reading this. The poignant way this novel looks at capitalist and imperialist structures of society gave me so much to think about and resonate with. It was slow going in the beginning, but the way the story came together for me deserves a 5 star rating.

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quinn24's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional funny informative reflective 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

I am absolutely floored. I was so fucking stressed reading this I had to keep taking breaks and honestly I’m a little pissed at how intelligent R.F. Kuang is. Insane.

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