Reviews tagging 'Panic attacks/disorders'

Babel by R.F. Kuang

60 reviews

hedsek's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad 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

4.5

I found this book really gripping, amazingly well written and super insightful. The whole idea of the silver working and the role language plays in it is really interesting and also appeals to me personally as a linguist, and it was clearly very well researched. The overall treatment of how people respond to oppression was also well thought out and I thought it was gripping to read about the different ways in which the main characters dealt with it. However, one thing I really disliked about this book were the footnotes. They served many different goals and it was very unclear from what perspective they were meant. I feel like they also implied that the author didn't really trust readers to understand the difference between fiction and reality and sometimes even that certain racist views expressed by characters are indeed racist and not factually true. This was mostly in the beginning of the book, though, and it did not take away from my enjoyment of the rest of the book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation, Death, Suicide, Death of parent, Suicidal thoughts, Xenophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Emotional abuse, Racial slurs, Torture, Violence, Grief, Racism, and Child abuse

Moderate: Sexual harassment, Toxic friendship, Drug use, Classism, Gore, Gun violence, Misogyny, Gaslighting, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Police brutality, Blood, Slavery, and War

Minor: Bullying, Confinement, Panic attacks/disorders, Deportation, Alcohol, Fire/Fire injury, Medical content, and Islamophobia

gabi_tron's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional 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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Child abuse, Death, Gun violence, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Grief, Panic attacks/disorders, Torture, Colonisation, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic friendship, and Suicide

Moderate: Classism and Blood

zoevjester's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional informative mysterious 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

4.0

Set in 1830's Oxford, with insight to silver trades, opium, translators' guild, and told with full, in-depth characters who shine through the story, and told through a modern lens. Beautifully written, though bitter-sweet in its ending, it is open-ended with the potential for follow-up if wanted. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Colonisation, Sexism, Misogyny, Torture, Murder, Racial slurs, Racism, Suicide, and Xenophobia

Moderate: Addiction, Child abuse, Gaslighting, Grief, Gun violence, Hate crime, Physical abuse, Slavery, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Alcohol, Death of parent, Islamophobia, Violence, Cultural appropriation, and Death

Minor: Abandonment, Confinement, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Forced institutionalization, Genocide, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Panic attacks/disorders, Police brutality, Trafficking, Vomit, War, Alcoholism, Blood, Drug abuse, Religious bigotry, and Sexual harassment

fozzybookmouse's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative inspiring reflective sad tense slow-paced

• 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: Child abuse, Death of parent, Drug use, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Murder, Classism, Colonisation, Cursing, Death, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, and War

sarah984's review

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

lilifane's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful 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

5.0

Uff

I will need to think more about this book. It's hard to read, it's depressing, it made me angry... which I'm pretty sure is the intention. But then the writing and the character work are brilliant and the themes of the book are not only very relevant but also mean a lot to me. 

The first half of the book is basically one long lecture about languages and translations and the theories and philosophy behind them. There is hardly any plot for the first 250 pages, and I'm a little torn. Because I did enjoy the way Kuang let us take part in the Babel lectures, I'm always disappointed when we hardly get any academic content in most books with an academic setting. So it was refreshing to get it here, and I enjoyed it immensely. I need to go back and note down so many quotes. Also, the way the magic is tied to language was fascinating. On the other hand, I fell in love with the group of friends immediately and just wanted to spend more quality time with them. 

The second half of the book is more action packed and focuses more on the main themes of the story. Although these are already present from the beginning, things get really intense in this second half. Colonialism, imperialism, capitalism, racism and misogyny are portrayed so realistically, I was furious the further I got. Additionally, the way these characters struggle with their identity and belonging broke my heart. And then there is the revolution part of the story. It's just so believable, the way things unfold. 

I'm really glad I read this book, but if you're searching for some escapism, this is not it. It's literally the opposite. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Sexism, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Islamophobia, Misogyny, Racism, Blood, Child abuse, Colonisation, Death, Grief, Torture, Violence, Death of parent, Toxic friendship, Xenophobia, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Suicidal thoughts, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, and Slavery

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

elnelson's review

challenging dark emotional 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? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Torture, Child abuse, Colonisation, Xenophobia, and Cultural appropriation

Moderate: Police brutality, Trafficking, Sexism, Religious bigotry, Toxic relationship, Sexual harassment, Emotional abuse, Death of parent, Racial slurs, Racism, Gore, Blood, Addiction, Islamophobia, Gun violence, Death, Confinement, Colonisation, Classism, Drug abuse, War, Suicidal thoughts, Physical abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Misogyny, Hate crime, and Vomit

maks's review against another edition

• 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: Torture, Colonisation, Violence, Murder, Racism, and Racial slurs

Moderate: War, Death of parent, Vomit, Panic attacks/disorders, and Slavery

ninjamuse's review against another edition

challenging dark tense slow-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: Misogyny, Cultural appropriation, Colonisation, Racism, Racial slurs, Classism, and Grief

Moderate: Death, Death of parent, Suicide, Blood, Toxic friendship, Xenophobia, Suicidal thoughts, Police brutality, Torture, Emotional abuse, Child abuse, Physical abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, and Murder

Minor: Slavery and Religious bigotry