Review by scrubsandbooks - Babel

scrubsandbooks 's review for:

Babel by R.F. Kuang

5.0

adventurous challenging dark informative medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

“English did not just borrow words from other languages; it was stuffed to the brim with foreign influences, a Frankenstein vernacular. And Robin found it incredible, how this country, whose citizens prided themselves so much on being better than the rest of the world, could not make it through an afternoon tea without borrowed goods.”

“The university tells us we are special, chosen, selected, when really we are severed from our motherlands and raised within spitting distance of a class we can never truly become a part of. The university turned us against our own and made us believe our only options were complicity or the streets. That was no favour, Sterling. It was cruelty. Don’t ask me to love my master.”

“That’s just what translation is, I think. That’s all speaking is. Listening to the other and trying to see past your own biases to glimpse what they’re trying to say. Showing yourself to the world, and hoping someone else understands.”

This book may have just several “Best Of”s awards in my heart. Best book written in 2022, best read of 2023, best of this decade, of this century, of maybe even my lifetime. I will never be the same.

This is my very first R. F. Kuang book and I am blown away by her writing. Her prose is on point, her characters are incredible with immense depth and the world-building in this is absolutely glorious. It made me rage, it made me hurt, it made me gasp “HOLY SHIT” aloud, and it even, despite the dark themes, made me laugh a few times.

This is not an easy read to go through so if you’re expecting a whimsical YA-level fantasy, throw that thought out the window (although, LBR, YA doesn’t necessarily mean easy to read). This is a masterpiece blending R. F. Kuang’s background in linguistics and literature with a cutthroat criticism of racism in academia. Kuang did not hold back! Amidst memorable and complicated characters were factoids about words and their etymology including footnotes that didn’t take away from the story. If you’re a word nerd like me, you might be absolutely absorbed in those descriptors like I was.

Do I wish I could read more of the characters in their lifetimes? Absolutely, but the ending of this book solidified that it was a standalone and honestly, it will be enough for me. I loved reading of the characters (Ramy will always have my heart), of their trials and hardships not only as Oxford students but as victims of racism and British imperialism, I felt all their emotions, hoped with them and hoped for them that everything will work out for them in the end. I had high expectations from this book as hyped as it was and it didn’t meet them — it surpassed them all! I hope in the near future, students will be dissecting this and appreciating it in classrooms much like we do now with the great classics.

CW: racism, microaggression, colorism, British colonization and imperialism, exploitation of the poor, opium mention, brief opium use, injury detail, blood, death, violence of war, mentions of war, suicide, slavery mentions

Content Warnings