I had to read this for my uni class on American 1960s literature and I genuinely enjoyed it. Our professor warned us that it's a depressing read and it definitely is that but it doesn't feel overly emotional. Sylvia Plath makes the world feel very removed and far away which captures mental illness very well in my opinion. The main character does things that seem to make no sense and at points you want to kind of scream at her. But that portrayal of the mc and her actions fit very well into the world of depression Plath has created.
I loved the metaphors of the fig tree and the bell jar and the overall writing style felt very accessible.
If you want to get into reading classics The Bell Jar definitely is a good place to start.

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Babel: An Arcane History by R.F. Kuang

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emotional reflective tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

Rating this feels really hard because I liked the plot and the characters but the writing and construction of the story made it hard for me to connect fully with what was going on.

I can definitely appreciate the message R.F. Kuang is trying to convey and I liked the discussion of colonialism, the empire etc. But the story felt too much like a lecture at times and the description of the silverworking was very confusing and went on for too long in my opinion. The way the story is told made it really hard to connect to the characters and made them feel kind of surreal. That got better towards the end but it couldn't make up for the distance created in the beginning and middle.

All in all, I think R.F. Kuang might just not be for me but I can still appreciate the story of Babel and how it handles the topic of racism, colonialism, slavery etc.

Content Warnings