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betraythestars's reviews
69 reviews
Babel by R.F. Kuang
3.75
thoughts about babel:
-i did enjoy it, i loved the footnotes it felt so special, loved the etymological bits, loved the translation theory, loved the technical academics of it all
-i do feel like it was lacking? could not get attached to any of the characters (too one dimensional which is a shame because it had so much potential)
-i felt like the revolutionary talk was what a child would imagine revolutionary talk to be like
-the colonialism aspect felt very, very watered down and ignored a lot of crucial points just to simplify it as white man bad (not wrong but still too simplified)
-too on the nose, i dont like when books are that direct… the point was reiterated directly too many times and the colonialism is bad card was slapped on the table directly every other page (i feel like it would have been more efficient had it been a little more… implicit
-underwhelming in the end honestly
-i feel like white people will think it’s the peak of colonial critique but when you’re living in the third world and see how it’s slightly… well. you know. you’ll get what i’m saying
-it had potential to be so much more with the setting and very obvious work put into it which is why it fel tlike a let down :/
-the villains (empire and its agents) felt too watered down… when one is aware of colonial history and its horrors one knows such subjects are meant to evoke derangement and disgust at the very least
-i enjoyed the book, truly! very unique, nice set of characters nice plot But there’s just so much more to be done witb it! 3.75 stars i think. good book, would not reread and probably won’t haunt me enough to be 4 stars
-i did enjoy it, i loved the footnotes it felt so special, loved the etymological bits, loved the translation theory, loved the technical academics of it all
-i do feel like it was lacking? could not get attached to any of the characters (too one dimensional which is a shame because it had so much potential)
-i felt like the revolutionary talk was what a child would imagine revolutionary talk to be like
-the colonialism aspect felt very, very watered down and ignored a lot of crucial points just to simplify it as white man bad (not wrong but still too simplified)
-too on the nose, i dont like when books are that direct… the point was reiterated directly too many times and the colonialism is bad card was slapped on the table directly every other page (i feel like it would have been more efficient had it been a little more… implicit
-underwhelming in the end honestly
-i feel like white people will think it’s the peak of colonial critique but when you’re living in the third world and see how it’s slightly… well. you know. you’ll get what i’m saying
-it had potential to be so much more with the setting and very obvious work put into it which is why it fel tlike a let down :/
-the villains (empire and its agents) felt too watered down… when one is aware of colonial history and its horrors one knows such subjects are meant to evoke derangement and disgust at the very least
-i enjoyed the book, truly! very unique, nice set of characters nice plot But there’s just so much more to be done witb it! 3.75 stars i think. good book, would not reread and probably won’t haunt me enough to be 4 stars