Reviews tagging 'Car accident'

Babel by R.F. Kuang

33 reviews

schnaucl's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative 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

5.0

This is a brilliant book that should appeal to anyone who loves language(s) or who spends any time thinking about colonialism and what it takes to maintain and grow an empire.   

The magic system is based on the imprecision of translation.  The more closely word pairs in different languages share a meaning, the less powerful the magic is.  

There's a lot to chew on here with regard to power, empire, colonialism and what it means to belong, whether belonging is even possible, and how hard it is to persuade people in positions of privilege to even see the true cost of that privilege let alone to make them care about it.   

Babel also has a lot to say about the power and limitations of friendship.

The characters are compelling and empathetic.  

I thought there was a slim chance Robin would survive just because of references to him looking back on events in the future, but alas.

While I'm very curious what happens next and particularly what happens to Victoire, I actually like that this a standalone novel, at least as far as I know

I'm not doing a good job of explaining why this book was so amazing, but it is amazing.  It's smart and well written and I'll be thinking about it for a long time. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic friendship, Police brutality, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Colonisation, Domestic abuse, Murder, Racism, Religious bigotry, Classism, Misogyny, Child abuse, Torture, and Xenophobia

Minor: Death of parent, Drug use, Injury/Injury detail, Alcohol, Car accident, Death, Violence, Vomit, Islamophobia, Slavery, Addiction, Alcoholism, Grief, Gun violence, Child death, and War

sarah984's review against another edition

challenging dark slow-paced

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

1.0

I preordered this book and was so excited to read it, but found it hugely disappointing. A lot of the problems I had with The Poppy War are only magnified here, so maybe RF Kuang isn't for me.

Much like Rin, Robin is a complete non-entity as a character, and just absorbs the opinion of whoever the last character he talked to was. The book is very long but so much is glossed over - each friend has like one character trait and we barely see them interact so none of the emotional beats hit like they're supposed to. The writing is self consciously mimicking a "classic" style but characters often speak in a strangely modern vernacular (saying, "same," to agree with someone, a character's disparaging remark about "brain cells", the character who directly quotes the Caleb Gallo "sometimes things that are expensive are worse" sketch) and most of the language around race by characters we are supposed to like came straight out of 2020.

The book makes a huge deal about pointing out racism like you might miss it in a way that felt very YA to me (the footnotes that are essentially just "that's racist" in the smuggest tone imaginable made me want to scream) but the POV characters say unexamined misogynist stuff all the time and a major plot revolves around a woman consumed by romantic jealousy in a way that made me really uncomfortable. You can tell when the author doesn't like a character and those characters are excruciating to read. There's this absurd sort of Shakesville era privilege checklist thing going on over who is allowed to be sympathetic and/or correct that is so simplistic it's embarrassing. (Eg. Ramy is an Indian Muslim so he is almost always correct when arguing with Robin, who is a white-passing Christian. You can predict the outcome of almost every conflict in the book like this, like rock paper scissors)

The magic system was cool in theory but the world was somehow almost exactly the same except that the machinery of empire is clustered together in a really small space so characters can claim a victory that somehow feels super rushed even though it was foreshadowed 500 pages before.

The lectures on language were really interesting though.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Racism, Colonisation, Torture, Xenophobia, Child abuse, Death, and Violence

Moderate: Addiction, Cultural appropriation, Drug use, Toxic friendship, Misogyny, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Police brutality, Emotional abuse, Racial slurs, Confinement, Vomit, Alcohol, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Bullying, Classism, War, Gore, Grief, Religious bigotry, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide

Minor: Medical content, Islamophobia, Car accident, Slavery, Child death, Genocide, Fire/Fire injury, and Sexual harassment

natnat_7's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative mysterious reflective sad 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: Racial slurs, Sexual harassment, Gun violence, Gaslighting, Hate crime, Religious bigotry, Sexism, Slavery, War, Xenophobia, Grief, Colonisation, Classism, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Racism, Sexual violence, Violence, Murder, Toxic friendship, Gore, Death, and Child abuse

Moderate: Ableism, Antisemitism, Panic attacks/disorders, Vomit, Misogyny, Suicidal thoughts, Drug use, Blood, Car accident, Child death, Alcohol, and Physical abuse