Reviews tagging 'Fire/Fire injury'

Babel by R.F. Kuang

92 reviews

jo_brekker'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? Yes

5.0

The chances of you being beaten by a book is low, but never zero.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Physical abuse, Racism, Sexism, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Alcohol, Colonisation, War, and Classism

Moderate: Child abuse, Chronic illness, Gun violence, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Islamophobia, Kidnapping, and Mass/school shootings

Minor: Police brutality and Fire/Fire injury

bookishfaye's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional 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? It's complicated

4.75

Speechless 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

criticalbooks's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative inspiring mysterious 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? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Alcoholism, Bullying, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gun violence, Hate crime, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Blood, Police brutality, Islamophobia, Medical content, Grief, Religious bigotry, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Cultural appropriation, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, and Deportation

ramreadsagain's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

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

5.0

to be added

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Hate crime, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Violence, Xenophobia, Islamophobia, Murder, Colonisation, War, and Classism

Moderate: Death of parent and Alcohol

Minor: Fire/Fire injury

eralbesu's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative inspiring 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? Yes

5.0

Reading this book made me feel smarter. I felt like I learned something, even though I’m fully aware this is historical fiction, it felt educational in a sense. As a victim of colonialism, it challenged me to think of it in a way I never had before. 

RF Kuang is so impressive as a writer. It’s inspiring and challenged me to go deeper with my own writing. 

I really enjoyed this novel. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Child abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gun violence, Hate crime, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Islamophobia, Grief, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Colonisation, War, Classism, and Deportation

Moderate: Death, Medical content, Medical trauma, and Abandonment

onestephatatime's review against another edition

adventurous dark 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Violence, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, and Colonisation

Moderate: Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Sexual harassment, and Classism

Minor: Alcoholism and War

ncoletti's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective sad 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? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gun violence, Racial slurs, Racism, Xenophobia, Blood, and Death of parent

Moderate: Torture, Fire/Fire injury, and Sexual harassment

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

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

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

jackie_recommends's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional 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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gun violence, Misogyny, Racism, Slavery, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Grief, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

cameronreads's review against another edition

5.0

One of my new favourite books of all time. The perfect dark academia, the perfect discussion of colonialism, the perfect historical fiction. Wonderful, intricately crafted characters and magic; beautiful, heart wrenching prose, and astonishingly researched and in depth storytelling. Everyone, everyone, should read this book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Gun violence, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Colonisation, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Slavery, Religious bigotry, Fire/Fire injury, Toxic friendship, and War

Minor: Addiction, Bullying, Drug abuse, Drug use, Infidelity, and Alcohol