Reviews tagging 'Sexual assault'

Babel: An Arcane History by R.F. Kuang

48 reviews

uranaishi's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.25

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Racism, Torture, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Colonisation, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Bullying, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Gore, Gun violence, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Sexism, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Police brutality, Medical content, Kidnapping, Suicide attempt, Fire/Fire injury, Cultural appropriation, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Classism, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Minor: Child death, Drug abuse, Genocide, Homophobia, Infidelity, Rape, Sexual assault, Forced institutionalization, Vomit, Islamophobia, Religious bigotry, Car accident, War, and Deportation

bookishmaggie's review against another edition

adventurous reflective tense

• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.5

Excellent commentary on atrocities of colonialism, the self destructive force of imperialism, and the bonds formed among the marginalized in this violent demanding world 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gun violence, Hate crime, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Islamophobia, Medical content, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Cultural appropriation, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, and Pandemic/Epidemic

ell_n's review against another edition

challenging dark medium-paced

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

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Racism, and Sexism

Moderate: Sexual assault

thebankofbooks's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

3.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Hate crime, Misogyny, Racism, Suicide, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Colonisation, and War

Moderate: Child abuse, Confinement, Gun violence, Sexual assault, Torture, and Fire/Fire injury

bloodbrooxv's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective slow-paced

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

4.5

Rebecca did it again.

I loved this book from the very first page: you can see how much the author cares about the subject, and the way she manages to reconcile and express her love for the academic setting with an honest, raw and unfiltered critic about colonialism is masterful. As in tpw, Kuang addresses these issues in an extremely deep way, without neglecting the most brutal details. 
I really liked the characters, even if sometimes I’ve found the co-protagonists a bit flat. Robin, on the other hand, is characterized beautifully. His motivations are clear and evolve naturally during the course of the story, and its inner change is as inevitable as necessary. 
I especially loved the second half of the book, mainly because I think that the first half has some pacing issues. Probably the only narrative choice I didn’t appreciate was the way the author used footnotes: they contained very interesting information, but in my opinion they were far too fundamental for the complete understanding of the story, and they compromised the flow of the story.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Torture, Violence, Blood, and Murder

Moderate: Gun violence, Sexual assault, Slavery, Toxic friendship, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Drug use, Religious bigotry, Fire/Fire injury, and Alcohol

Representation: chinese mmc, black fmc, indian mmc

rnbhargava's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted mysterious reflective relaxing sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This book is amazing. It feels classic, riffing on so many known qualities of well known books yet it still does its own thing. The history and ideas are implemented so intelligently that this fantasy feels more historic fiction than anything. The fantasy is really more for quickly explaining action and technology. The magic is in the language, the languages help define the characters and their dynamics with each other, it’s thrilling and heartbreaking at the same time.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Police brutality, Islamophobia, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Stalking, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Cultural appropriation, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

All the themes said to be triggers are present, particularly the race and religion ones. There’s a scene where it appears that female characters could hypothetically be assaulted. The racism and discrimination on religion angles are throughout the book. The major theme of the book is reconciling existing within educational institutions in the west while the same people you’re learning from are harming your original homelands, whether you remember them or not, and the moral plus political repercussions of that.

lizard800's review against another edition

challenging dark sad tense slow-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

3.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Racial slurs, Racism, Xenophobia, Death of parent, Colonisation, and War

Moderate: Death, Sexual assault, and Slavery

villenview's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Racism, Sexism, Sexual assault, and Sexual harassment

notthatcosta's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.75

First and foremost I have respect for R.F. Kuang’s ambition in building this world. The first section ended up being my favourite of all, mostly because its main focus was on establishing the complex parallel universe in which this world exists.

However, the middle section loses a lot of steam for me and ended up spending far too long hovering over tired literary tropes before kicking back into gear for the ending, which was saved by an excellent epilogue. What took me out of the book was how it sometimes directly placed itself within the 1800s in every sense and other times featured dialogue that felt like contemporary Twitter discourse about colonialism. 

Tonally the book was confusing, the motivations for the characters were oftentimes unclear. While I think it had a lot of potential, for the most part that wasn’t realised.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Hate crime, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Sexual assault, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Torture, Violence, Police brutality, Mass/school shootings, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Sexual harassment, and Colonisation

stephlikestoread's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual assault, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Police brutality, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Cultural appropriation, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, and Pandemic/Epidemic