Reviews tagging 'Racism'

Babel by R.F. Kuang

2510 reviews

laurenleigh's review against another edition

4.0

challenging dark tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

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Once again, I’m in awe of Kuang’s talent. The hard magic system in this story was excellent and so interesting. It’s really more magical realism than fantasy, as this book is firmly set in Victorian era Oxford. I have a soft spot for books set in famous old colleges. I was super engrossed in the middle of this text (academic settings, secret societies, all my faves), but the ending really dragged. It took me way too long to get through the last 5 hours. There was also a major event in the end that I felt deserved more attention, more reaction. I think I was more invested in the characters than the plot at that point.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gun violence, Racism, Suicide, Violence, Colonisation

Moderate: Terminal illness

ryanandrew23's review against another edition

5.0

challenging emotional reflective medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gun violence, Xenophobia, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, Classism

Moderate: Racism, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Grief

Minor: Confinement, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Hate crime, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Religious bigotry, Death of parent

roseltov's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous challenging emotional 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: Complicated

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Truly a beautiful, moving and enraging story about colonialism, language and friendship. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Xenophobia

Moderate: Violence

alainral's review against another edition

4.0

challenging emotional 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: Yes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Physical abuse, Racism, Sexism, Xenophobia, Colonisation

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Forced institutionalization, Islamophobia, Grief, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Murder, Cultural appropriation, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail, Classism

livcashmere's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous dark emotional inspiring reflective 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

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Racial slurs, Racism, Slavery, Violence, Police brutality, Murder, Toxic friendship, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, War, Classism

cherryfreckle's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Blood, Grief, Murder, Toxic friendship, Colonisation, War, Classism, Deportation

Moderate: Gun violence, Death of parent, Pandemic/Epidemic

Minor: Drug abuse, Drug use, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail

megliz's review against another edition

3.0

challenging mysterious sad 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

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Parts 4 and 5 of the book were 5 stars. However, I found the beginning to be pretty boring. The magic system was incredible. I loved the idea of magic based on language. I feel like the beginning could be condensed or more focused on the Hermes Society plotline or on the training. The 1st 3 parts were horrible moments, fluff about Oxford, some character moment, little bit of learning, little bit of plot, and repeat. Over and over. Until part 4, where the plot started to fly.

At times, it felt like more reading a textbook with hints of character moments, an actual fantasy fiction book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Racism, Suicide, Colonisation

broken_biscuits's review against another edition

3.5

challenging dark emotional informative tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

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As a political thought piece, great. As an actual story, a little rough. While the magic system was *so* cool, I was a little disappointed in the character writing. Still felt like a worthy and important read. I feel like it did a lot of telling the reader how to feel about things, which kind of took me out of the experience, even though I agreed with what I was "supposed to feel." I didn't feel hardly any connection to the characters, since they felt like they were created to make a point. Especially the main character. Victoire and Ramy were the most real to me, but they still kinda felt like plot devices. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Hate crime, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Islamophobia, Grief, Murder, Colonisation, Classism, Pandemic/Epidemic

paigereitz's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring 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: Complicated

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Wow. This book tackles colonialism and doesn't hold back. It is a searing indictment on how we set up a system to allow some to prosper on the backs of others. It is an exploration of tokenism and how we often elevate the "special" to show an "exception to the rule" of racism, often ignoring the fact that it in fact validates the rule at all. It is intense and harsh, as is colonialism. It is intricate and beautifully heartbreakingly spun. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Racism, Sexism, Violence, Xenophobia, Toxic friendship, Colonisation, Classism

Moderate: Drug use, Hate crime, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Islamophobia, Murder, Sexual harassment

dkmorello's review against another edition

2.0

dark reflective sad slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

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Babel was recommended by another reader for its use of language as a weapon. Once I started reading Babel, I was alternately interested and bored. It starts with academia and moves into global revolution — with a point about the dissolution of the British Empire and the rise of the Global South and Asia. During the final quarter of the book, I speed-read the first sentence in most paragraphs, then filled in the gaps with Wikipedia and reviews. A very slow read, with only a handful of compelling characters. In the end, this seemed to be a preachy story that an academic aesthete may drunkenly relate over a glass of wine at a cocktail party at Oxford, but hundreds of pages too long.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Drug use, Racism, Xenophobia