Reviews tagging 'Murder'

Babel: An Arcane History by R.F. Kuang

931 reviews

delaneybarry's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad slow-paced

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

2.75

This book seems to be well researched and R.F. Kuang writes skillfully. However, while the story is compelling, it does at times feel like an exceptionally long lecture on etymology and colonization more so than a historical fantasy. The footnotes, a novel in their own right, are also a hefty weight to bear. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gun violence, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Xenophobia, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Toxic friendship, Colonisation, War, and Classism

Moderate: Addiction, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic

thymeiord's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional 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? It's complicated

4.5

I'm most impressed by the worldbuilding - creating a universe with a magic system that is the perfect starting point for conversations around the experience of immigrants, race & racism, and colonialism. Kuang takes her premise of silverworking and draws out every possible implication of a world where multilingualism is real, tangible power and demonstrates how western society is founded on injustice & inequality. It takes place in an alternative, fantasy 19th century England, but the themes are devastatingly relevant to today. A challenging read for me as a white person but wholly worth it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gun violence, Murder, and War

Moderate: Colonisation

ruthlessreads's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative tense medium-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? It's complicated

4.75

An ambitious novel that meets every expectation I had before reading. Kuang is at the top of her literary powers here. The writing style & tone is so different from her previous series, yet her voice comes through clearly. Her experiences at Oxford are clearly an influence to some of the happenings in the novel and Kuang draws from them powerfully to craft a story of the abuses of colonialization, racism, and capitalism that places like Oxford (and, indeed, our own country & lives) are dependent upon to be comfortable & function normally. 

I finished the book thinking heavily on the connotations of these issues in the modern day and in what ways we can begin to make community across racial and class divides to create a more equitable future for everyone. Truly an incredible undertaking on Kuang's part with an equally imposing outcome. My only gripe, if you could even call it such, was that it was a little longer than necessary (IMO) and slowed down quite a bit about 3/4s of the way through until the very end.  So the pacing was a little off and it didn't make me set it down but I could see how it might feel like a slog to others. 

Oh! And I liked the footnotes but I'm a nerd so *shrug*

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Violence, Xenophobia, Police brutality, Kidnapping, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Murder, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Colonisation, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Addiction, Confinement, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Slavery, Blood, and Classism

jenvogel80's review against another edition

challenging emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• 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: Addiction, Racial slurs, Racism, Violence, Xenophobia, Murder, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, and Sexual harassment

gibbierish's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

4.0

More like a textbook than a story

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Gun violence, Racism, Suicide, Violence, and Murder

wolfst4r's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Grief, Murder, Colonisation, and Classism

Moderate: Slavery, Cultural appropriation, and War

Minor: Addiction, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, and Death of parent

nameitshan's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative inspiring reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Slavery, Suicide, Violence, Xenophobia, Vomit, Islamophobia, Grief, Suicide attempt, Murder, Cultural appropriation, Gaslighting, Colonisation, War, and Classism

dairypickle04's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism

Moderate: Physical abuse and Murder

offthecarousel_'s review against another edition

dark informative mysterious tense

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

4.0

I was 60% through, giggling and kicking my feet, and ready to give this book a straight 5 star rating. Then I read the rest of it.

This is a book with some incredible elements. The prose, the characters and their interactions, the incredibly detailed grounding in history... it was all there. 

To escalate the problem from their immediate surroundings to taking on world politics with only 25% of the book left.... it was always going to have pacing issues. The last quarter is way too fast, and highlighted other pacing issues I was willing to let go in the first half. 

I also understand logically how a character can have such a dramatic personality change after a trauma, however... this book did not convince me with the words on the page. The characterizations in the last arc fell apart for me, as I wasn't convinced he would change like that.

I'm so tempted to drop the rating lower because I had such high hopes for this book and then I was extremely disappointed. But a lot of the elements here were genuinely good, so I've given it a four.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Xenophobia, Toxic friendship, and Colonisation

Moderate: Addiction, Hate crime, Physical abuse, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Violence, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, and Classism

Minor: Car accident

maggienoodles's review against another edition

challenging dark informative inspiring 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

Stunning and impeccably written. I feel like I just took a college course for the price of one book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Xenophobia, and Murder

Moderate: War

Minor: Drug use