A review by meghanlew_
Babel by R.F. Kuang

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective tense 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

5.0

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an arc copy of this book.

I’m going to need at least 2 to 3 months to recover from this book, if not more. This book evoked so many emotions about historical events that I didn’t realize I had. From the first page, I was drawn into the story and world. I loved getting to know all the characters, and in a way, I understood them all. 

The writing was absolutely spectacular. I mean, even in the longer sentences and passages, I was fully paying attention. There was just something about the way everything was strange together that kept me fully invested at all times. For the most part, this book is told through the lens of Robin, but sprinkled throughout were perspectives from other characters, and it provided the understanding that I craved from each character. Also, everywhere this book took me, I felt like I was really there and experiencing it all myself. 

As a history major, there were a lot of actual historical events that happened or were referenced throughout the book. And while I have studied most of them, I didn’t realize just how emotionally invested I was in them. At times I had to set the book down because I was reminded of how much my ancestors were affected by colonialism and how we often still feel its effects in academia today.  Throughout a lot of this book, I saw glimpses of my own experience that was sometimes hard to come to terms with.

The story itself was also beautifully crafted, and I enjoyed watching all of the characters' journeys even though I was utterly heartbroken by the end. This is defiantly a character-driven book, but through his self-discovery, we see the political upheaval that was the British Empire and at what cost that all came at.

Each character had their own very unique and exciting identity. While I did not always like every character, I grew to understand their motivations. It was a weird feeling despising a character yet understanding why they did what they did.

Overall I think this is one of the best reads of the year. It is a dark academia that sweeps you into a world of politics, colonialism, and capitalism and forces you to confront not only the past but the present as well.