A review by anushaaa
Babel by R.F. Kuang

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense fast-paced

5.0

 
'...when they wouldn't have to go through endless distortions just to be understood.'

This book fascinated me because I went into knowing nothing about what was going on, but loving every bit of it.  This is beautiful. This is horrifying. This is fictionalised. this is true. This was life for them. and still is. I wanted to laugh and cry and all of the above, I simply loved it. Thats not to say it was without its imperfections, but the overall message was beautifully done.

This is a quote I laughed about how blunt but how true it was:
It revealed the sheer dependence of the British, who, astonishingly, could not manage to do basic things like bake bread or get safely from one place to another without words stolen from other countries.



Ironic this is a 544 page book, but I said its a fast paced book. My only comments would be I wish it were longer, maybe even a duology because some parts could have been fleshed out more, I felt the climax came too quickly, and ending the story on Victoire had no significance. Otherwise I loved Kaung's intricate world building and the little notes at the end of the pages that made aspects of Babel feel real.


I didn't have high expectations after reading R.F. Kaung's Yellowface which I mildly enjoyed, but this by far is my favourite book out of the two, and its everything I didn't expect it to be, and more.
Expand filter menu Content Warnings