A review by smateer73
Babel by R.F. Kuang

challenging dark 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

5.0

Absolutely one of the most incredible books I have read this year and probably all time. This book brings to the surface all those questions of language and colonization and power and violence and resistance and the oxymoronic nature of capitalism and consumption and the utter indifference that is the natural enemy of progress. I will be thinking about this book forever I think. As a linguist, I loved the concept of translation and betrayal and loss. As an academic I mourn for lost knowledge, even as I desire liberation. I want the world to be free and yet I do not want to give up basic comforts. But I must. We must. A violent world can only be faced with violence, with intersectional unity. Wow. Just wow. For one single book, and a fiction book at that to conjure all these thoughts is truly incredible.
Expand filter menu Content Warnings