Reviews with content warning for Drug use - Babel: Una historia arcana

As soon as Ramy and Robin met, I was like “don’t be a coward and make them gay”. Instead, she fucking killed Ramy (well, I guess she killed them both). I almost DNFd because of this. And like, ok, she did throw in that line on the last page about Robin falling in love. And like, ok, it was obvious (to me) that they were more than platonic besties the whole time. And like, ok, there was no explicit romance, het or otherwise, in the book. But still, if you’re not gonna let them kiss, at least don’t kill them 🥲. like yes, whatever, romantic tragedy, my love dies I go on a grief fueled rampage whatever whatever. Letty Price, you incel ass, you better not let me catch you in these streets.

Was really disappointed that, given the parallels between Griffin’s cohort and Robin’s, she chose to take Letty in the same direction as Evie. I think it would have been more subversive if Letty DIDNT betray them literally two pages after we found out Evie did the same.

Ok, maybe this is childish (I did say I docked points for petty reasons!), but DAMN, did she have to kill everyyyyyone what the fuck. I feel like she lost her thesis at times? It was difficult to understand the point she was trying to make. IS violent rebellion the only solution or no? IS martyrdom as a way to get the (white) man to take you seriously valid/fair or no? Maybe I just lack reading comprehension skills, but if most of your characters are dead by the last chapter of your book, their sacrifice painted as the only path to success, but you are ambiguous about the outcome AND the character you leave alive was the most levelheaded and logical, what am I supposed to believe about the necessity of violence?

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findingnobody's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional hopeful informative reflective medium-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

Overall a solid read, there was some amazingly written character work, and the research added a good but of depth to the book. The back half of the book had some issues with feeling artificial, especially the political discussion felt contrived at times, but still had many good parts.

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wardenred's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional reflective tense medium-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

4.75

You’re an asset to them, but that’s all you are. A translation machine. And once you fail them, you’re out.

Wow. I can tell this story is going to haunt me for a very long time. Somehow, I didn’t expect to cry actual ugly tears over it, and yet here we are.

The first half of the story hooked me so easily. It had everything I wanted the book to be: the thick as hell dark academia vibes, the forming of a dysfunctional found family, the absolutely excellent magic system that might be my favorite ever, and all those hard, impossible choices no one should ever make. What do you do when you love something that wants to destroy your origins? How do you reconcile the good your getting out of your relationship with your colonizer with the rest of it all? Can you pay the cost of fighting against the oppression? Can you justify not joining the fight?

And then the second half came, and damn, it pulled no punches, turning the already painful story into something that made me want to throw my nook into the wall, but also made it impossible not to keep reading. Especially after that one death—damn, that character tricked me with his entire personality into believing he was invincible, and then this, and it somehow wasn’t even the most painful part of the story???

It is scary how viscerally and relatably the story paints the evil of empires. All those powerful men who make entire countries their playground, dehumanizing those countries’ people because it suits their designs; who would sacrifice everyone before they let go of their pride. All those big, insurmountable forces that won’t cave no matter how much weight you throw against them—but maybe it’s worth it to keep fighting just because someone needs to oppose it. Because if you’re not fighting it, that means you’re supporting it, whether you want to or not.

I’m a little frustrated with the openness of the ending; a part of me wants to know whether that one big thing worked. Whether it paid off. But I think it suits the story best not to know. The worth of the act, sometimes, isn’t determined by whether it rendered the desired results or not. Sometimes, it’s just about doing the right thing—and sometimes, doing the terrible thing means doing something terrible. The book does have some flaws, such as the occasional tangents the author seems to go on merely to show off more worldbuilding and research, but the ending isn’t one of them.

Anyway, I should go get another tissue.

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rideauriverreads's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful informative medium-paced

4.5

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