Reviews tagging 'Toxic friendship'

Babel by R.F. Kuang

494 reviews

aoifeprettypurplepolkadots's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark informative mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gun violence, Racial slurs, Racism, Trafficking, Death of parent, Murder, Toxic friendship, Colonisation, and Classism

stuckinatimeloop's review

challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad 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

a masterpiece.
rf kuang really does her research for whatever she writes (i mean, you would expect that from a cambridge and oxford graduate).
ramy is the muslim desi boy representation i needed, and he is written so well. it's the little details that really make the representation so real.
and the plot. it's historical fiction, but is also a metaphor for the present (which is sad, like has nothing changed?). now i'm inspired to start a revolution.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Racial slurs, Racism, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Death of parent, Murder, Toxic friendship, and Colonisation

Moderate: Suicide

doodlesdistractions's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional slow-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Xenophobia, Death of parent, Cultural appropriation, Toxic friendship, Colonisation, and War

taracloudclark's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark informative mysterious reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This book has a lot of juicy nerdy stuff in it. The tagline I’ve been considering is “This is the college Heroine Granger wishes she could go to,” and I think those who love the idea of magic school and love reading would agree. Kuang’s magical realism, alternate early Victorian setting reveals a lot about the power and nuance of language as well as historically-based realities of colonialism. I imagine she is very interested in the two subjects, and instead of writing two nonfiction books, she finds a more palatable vehicle for getting the ideas to readers. 

I really enjoyed it. I am recommending it to people who I think will like it. But I also give warning. 

It can be dense and dry at times. And it’s way longer than it needed to be.  

A review from a book influencer I follow noted the author talks down to the reader. I disagree, strongly, but I can see how someone may come to that conclusion. There are a lot of facts provided through exposition (tho creative devises are employed) and footnotes. 

I believe that, instead of the author showing the reader she’s smarter than them, she’s just indulging her own interests. And I’m here for that. Because she does know more about this stuff than I do, and I’m honored she’d share it with me. 

And there isn’t a lot of action. In the total book there is, but most of it is exposition loaded up front and action at the end. 

Also, if characters are a big deal to you, be aware that this book is not for that. The friendships and warmth we see in other magical school stories isn’t accomplished here. The characters don’t change much IMO and their relationships aren’t developed enough for me to care when there are divisions and worse. Unfortunately this hurts the author’s attempt to bring marginalized perspectives to the  reader’s understanding and becomes more of a telling than showing situation. I still appreciate the telling, because it’s helping me see what I’ve learned about marginalized peoples experiences in a different light, but it’s not done through character growth and rich “found family” presentations. But the characters and relationships aren’t terrible. It’s still yet readable and enjoyable. Just not as delicious as I’d like. 

The narrators were very good. The main reader, Chris Lew Kum Hoi, has a rich tone and switches accents well. The footnote narrator being female, Billie Fulford-Brown, was an excellent choice to help delineate. I do get a bit annoyed when female authors have male narrators (tho the main character is male, so I’ll allow it 😉), and white people narrate for authors of color. But the main narrator is, at least, Asian. Both gave nuance to foreign words that made them feel authentic and added to the intricacies on the emphasis of language in the story, though I’ve no idea if they are accurate.

I would like to add a special note about my personal experience. Because of the way Libby delivered by holds to me, I read Yellowface by the same author and then this. And half way through I read a scathing review of Babel that sounded a little more like white fragility than true criticism. The landscape within which I read this, therefore, was fascinating. I imagine this book to be much like the stolen novel in Yellowface, a passion project for the author with cultural ties to the subject matter. And the review similar to some of those mentioned in Yellowface. The juxtaposition of the two in two different time periods was super fun, as well. It was a much richer experience because of that, and I wish it was read this way in a classroom setting so I could indulge with other readers. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Drug use, Racism, Violence, Xenophobia, Trafficking, Grief, Cultural appropriation, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Colonisation, War, and Classism

Moderate: Bullying

Minor: Rape

moond4ncer's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative 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

Best book I've read in a long time. Intriguing, clever, really well crafted. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Sexual assault, Slavery, Suicide, Terminal illness, Violence, Grief, Death of parent, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, War, and Classism

celery's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Infidelity, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Vomit, Police brutality, Antisemitism, Islamophobia, Medical content, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Cultural appropriation, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, and Deportation

cmklaft's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring reflective sad 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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Domestic abuse, Hate crime, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Slavery, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Cultural appropriation, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, War, and Classism

mels_reading_log's review against another edition

adventurous emotional inspiring mysterious medium-paced

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

4.0

The world within this book is one in which languages are used with silver bars to run most of England. The bars can control anything from a building’s architectural stability to the health of the citizens. The most important thing needed to make this process work is people who speak other languages, but not just know words, but understand the other languages. So Babel, the college that controls this whole process, finds smart children in other countries and raises them to remember their home language but also have a very upper class English life. This sculpts those kids into the perfect students for the school and perfect workers for Babel. But what happens when those kids learn about the injustices that England is putting the rest of the world through?

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child abuse, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Misogyny, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Blood, Grief, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

honipoems's review against another edition

adventurous emotional informative inspiring 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? It's complicated

5.0

it was quite slow and really deeply in the oxford universe for à long time which made me romanticize it a lot. but when the plot twist happened, everything got Foster and more violent all of sudden. it saddens me soooo much. I really like how it ends, very realistic not too optimiste. I learned a lot and I love langage <3

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racial slurs, Racism, Forced institutionalization, Cultural appropriation, and Colonisation

Moderate: Death, Hate crime, Physical abuse, Slavery, Suicide, Toxic friendship, and Deportation

aralynn26's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad 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

4.5

This book was fascinating, enlightening, and emotional. I loved the school setting and the lectures about translation. The magic system with the silver bars was very unique. This book dealt with a lot of serious topics and it was very thought-provoking. The ending was quite sad and violent. I wish that it had ended a different way. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Genocide, Gun violence, Racial slurs, Racism, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Murder, Toxic friendship, Colonisation, War, and Classism