A review by justagirlwithbooks
Babel: Or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators' Revolution by R.F. Kuang

4.0

 “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.”

Wow. I have a lot to say about this book. 

I thought that this book was good. The first half was a bit slow, and the second half felt really fast. Everything was happening all at once, and it was a lot to take in. The audiobook was also long, and this book took me a while to finish. But once I did, oh my gosh. 

I really liked how this was 'historical fiction adjacent', and the fantasy element wasn't a lot, but it was interwoven nicely. The whole discussion and introspection about colonialism and how it's affected countries all around the world was also really well done. I did feel like at times, it was a bit more telling rather than showing, and also some parts did feel like listening to an academic textbook, which was probably why it was feeling slow. But it did put me in the mood for going back to university. 

Something that really, genuinely surprised me was the representation in this novel. This is the first book that I've read by a non-Muslim author that actually features a good Muslim character. Rami/Ramy was my favorite character.
So when Letty shot him, I was shocked, and confused, and I also felt betrayed. The way that R.F. Kuang wrote that scene and Letty's scenes were really well done. But why, why, why did you have to kill off the actually good Indian Muslim character??? Also, I was not expecting Robin to murder Lovell like that- Lovell was really getting on my nerves in that scene, but I was shocked that Robin actually killed him.


And about the ending...
I think that was also well done. Robin's death was self-sacrificing and I feel like that is what (unfortunately) symbolizes colonialism in a way. The people that were part of that system for so long just don't know what they can do to stop this.


As you can tell, I liked this book better than Yellowface. 

With all that being said, this was a solid book, and I can't wait to pick up The Poppy War trilogy and see what happens there. 
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