62.6k reviews for:

Babel

R.F. Kuang

4.34 AVERAGE

medium-paced
challenging dark emotional mysterious tense 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

Did I finish this book or did this book finish me? 
adventurous 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: Yes
dark emotional informative mysterious reflective slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes
adventurous emotional reflective sad 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: Complicated

I both loved this book and there were so many things that made me angry 

I wanted so bad for Letty to not betray them. From the first moment that Letty found out about Hermes, I felt like she would eventually turn on them and no matter how realistic her portrayal to like, a white woman in 1830, it still made me angry. I think maybe that was deeply intentional, for it to feel not surprising and still upsetting at the same time. I think tho, the reason this wasn’t five stars for me is that I just wanted MORE out of the ending. I don’t think Victorie’s ending was bad per say (tho, I also think Victoire was mistaken that Letty would hunt her. I didn’t get that impression from their last conversation). I liked that Victoire and Robin had these divergent views about the future and about revolution, but I think it just felt like there was this lingering feeling that the ending was unfinished that irked me.

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
challenging dark informative reflective sad slow-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

This book had some really good moments/quotes. The magical system is really cool. There were a few times when it felt like we were going on an adventure with the trio from Harry Potter, except the characters are older and the ending is a lot darker. 

Not a feel-good tale. The ending is only vaguely hopeful; it’s mainly just tragic. 

It took me five months to read this (in between other books; I couldn’t read it straight through). Thankfully, it’s broken up into short sections within each chapter, but it is unbelievably long and slow. Ultimately worth it, but I’m not eager to read another book of hers right now; I need a break. 

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
challenging dark emotional informative mysterious reflective medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated
dark hopeful sad 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: Complicated

Did not expect to love this as much as I did but wow