A review by ayuming_reads
Babel: An Arcane History by R.F. Kuang

adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

I don't think I'll ever be able to move on from this book. 

To see Robin go from this child full of hope to a young adult full of despair was just heartbreaking. He deserved everything and more. His final ending absolutely shattered me. But, like other reviews have stated, this was an ending that was ultimately inevitable. For it to end in any other way wouldn't have felt plausible, as painful as it is to admit. Ramy's death was the end of his world, and Griffin's later on was the true breaking point. The final conversation between Robin and Victoire hurt so much to read. Neither could save the other, and both had to live with their choices, alone. Just the thought of Victoire after the events in the book, forever running and alone breaks my heart. I hope she finds others and has a community and a place to call home again. She deserves it so much. 

“Be selfish," he whispered. "Be brave.”

And the fact that Robin never got to read Griffin's letter to him... just.. God. That he most likely had other siblings, and he'll never know. 

Ramy, Victoire, Griffin, Robin, Anthony, everyone; you meet them, learn more about them, fall in love with them, root for them to make it - and they don't. It felt like whiplash to see these beloved characters die with no final moments normally bestowed to such characters in novels. One second they're there, the next they're gone. I wish so badly things could have ended differently, despite everything. They all deserved so much more than what the world gave them.

These characters may be fictional, but the reality of their situations and their world mirrors our own. The brutality of colonialism will never not make me sick to my stomach.

On a different tangent, the way we never learn Robin's name....that just did something to me. The final page of him remembering his mom and her calling his name. And Robin feeling like he had known Ramy his whole life, and Ramy replying it's because he listens and understands. Because he's a good translator.

“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.”

Typing this out is literally making me cry so I'm going to stop right here.