intoner 's review for:

Babel by R.F. Kuang
DID NOT FINISH: 87%

R.F. Kuang is a very talented writer, but a horrible storyteller. She insists on bludgeoning the reader over the head with her intended messages, as if her audience is stupid. Her characters are bland, boring, and one-dimensional, serving more as mouthpieces. The magic system is woefully underutilized, and it genuinely just feels like it was tacked on at the last second. I like what she's writing about, I just get irritated at the way she does it.