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A review by libellumartinae
Babel by R.F. Kuang
adventurous
challenging
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
I'd like to preface this by saying that I genuinely believe that this book having half the pages that it had would have been a better choice, because the writing was just low key ridiculous at times. Starting in media res would have been far more exciting and intriguing and although I do realize the author's reasoning between drilling us with the purpose of this book, it still felt at times empty and without meaning. As did the characters. I genuinely think I have a problem with R. F. Kuang's characters, because I find them so empty and little developed, always going through by stereotypes which I think is a consequences of the author's strong ideologies pushed on them (which I am not against, but for example I felt Victoire utterly useless till the ending and then it was a bit meh; similarly with Robin, who is the mc, there were times when I felt so little interest and development).
I also think that oftentimes there were too many repetitions of some concepts, such as the magic and world building, still I think that on those topics the book is utterly amazing and bring forward a charming and shocking portrayal and a clear critique that should definitely be read by everybody as it also brings forward future and present concerns and I am not going to lie, as a translator and expert of latin and Ancient Greek, this book did feel like a love letter to the act of translating and languages, although at times the linguistic reflections could be a bit boring and useless for the plot.
Overall, I think it's a good book albeit not worth the hype around it and that while in spirit it has good intentions, the actual writing of it could have been worked over so much better.
I also think that oftentimes there were too many repetitions of some concepts, such as the magic and world building, still I think that on those topics the book is utterly amazing and bring forward a charming and shocking portrayal and a clear critique that should definitely be read by everybody as it also brings forward future and present concerns and I am not going to lie, as a translator and expert of latin and Ancient Greek, this book did feel like a love letter to the act of translating and languages, although at times the linguistic reflections could be a bit boring and useless for the plot.
Overall, I think it's a good book albeit not worth the hype around it and that while in spirit it has good intentions, the actual writing of it could have been worked over so much better.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Xenophobia, Death of parent, Violence, War, Child death, Suicidal thoughts, Sexism, Pandemic/Epidemic, Gore, Misogyny, and Religious bigotry