Reviews tagging 'Child death'

Babel: An Arcane History by R.F. Kuang

46 reviews

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.

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Content Warnings

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

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.

goose's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional 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

4.5

I really had fun with this book. It hurt though! Just finished it and I gotta sit with it for a while. It's very heavy at times and like others have stated may have benefited from being divided into 2-3 books instead of one large tome. I feel like then the pacing could have felt unified in separate volumes instead of contrasting with itself as the book goes on. The use of footnotes might be cumbersome for people, for me it was okay. It wasn't handled very well in the digital edition I read on Libby (the asterisk to click on to send you to the footnote at the end of the book was small and hard to press, meaning I'd have to sit and try many times before it worked.) Of course a physical edition wouldn't have this problem. Also have a  dictionary on standby, I came across many words I didn't know (in this case the ebook gets a point in favor because it's easy to highlight something to look it up.) All in all despite minor faults here and there (really wish we got to see more of the other characters) this book kept me rapt and I really couldn't put it down once the stakes got high. I also felt like it somehow managed to juggle a lot of ideas and once and knit them together into a great story, which is a feat in it of itself. Wholly recommend it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Body horror, Colonisation, Death, Gore, Murder, Racial slurs, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Child death, Suicide, Violence, and Torture

Moderate: Classism, Sexism, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Physical abuse, War, Islamophobia, Gun violence, Slavery, and Vomit

Other tags that Storygraph doesn't have:

Spoiler

main character death, main character murder

samchase112's review against another edition

dark informative sad medium-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? Yes

5.0

Goddamn. I hope people read this for decades to come.

Full review coming soon, even if it’s just mainly just going to be a list of quotes.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Violence, Classism, Toxic friendship, Torture, Slavery, Sexism, Grief, Colonisation, Physical abuse, Emotional abuse, Suicide, Pandemic/Epidemic, Racism, Blood, Racial slurs, Xenophobia, Death of parent, Death, and Child abuse

Moderate: Vomit, Suicidal thoughts, War, Fire/Fire injury, Car accident, and Addiction

Minor: Child death and Rape

sharrikloves's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative inspiring reflective 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? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Xenophobia, Racial slurs, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Genocide, Classism, Violence, Toxic friendship, Torture, Suicidal thoughts, Panic attacks/disorders, Misogyny, Murder, Slavery, Racism, Religious bigotry, Physical abuse, Grief, Gore, Gaslighting, Cultural appropriation, and Colonisation

Moderate: Car accident, Ableism, Sexual harassment, Vomit, Medical content, Suicidal thoughts, Religious bigotry, Drug use, Death, Child death, Emotional abuse, and Death of parent

This is an important read, but will be extremely triggering for AAPI + BIPOC readers.

spineofthesaurus's review against another edition

challenging dark informative sad tense

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Racial slurs, Racism, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Child abuse, Blood, Colonisation, Violence, Xenophobia, Classism, Death of parent, Death, Gun violence, Hate crime, Medical trauma, War, Body horror, Confinement, Forced institutionalization, Gaslighting, Gore, Grief, Sexual harassment, Suicide, Torture, Emotional abuse, Murder, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Cultural appropriation, Genocide, Vomit, Fire/Fire injury, Homophobia, Mass/school shootings, Misogyny, Police brutality, Religious bigotry, Abandonment, Deportation, Islamophobia, Medical content, Slavery, Terminal illness, Ableism, Child death, Chronic illness, Drug abuse, Drug use, Kidnapping, Sexism, and Trafficking

Minor: Excrement, Infidelity, Car accident, Alcoholism, and Addiction

lemonysquish's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Blood, Racism, Child death, Xenophobia, Racial slurs, Bullying, Colonisation, and War

Moderate: Murder, Drug use, Slavery, Gun violence, and Physical abuse

Minor: Torture and Suicidal thoughts

jessi_c's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring 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? Yes

5.0

Speechless. Inconsolable and speechless.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Drug use, Torture, Racial slurs, and Grief

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Death of parent, War, and Emotional abuse

Minor: Child death and Addiction

starryeyesali's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional 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? Yes

5.0

I loved this book so much. The magical/fantastical elements seemed so plausible and the issues were so real and relevant - racism and belonging being at the forefront. The relationships between all the characters was so well written. I did find some parts confusing and, small point - the asterisks were too small and easy to miss so I often had to go back and find them to understand what the footnotes related to. But the world, the story and the plot were amazing. I REALLY hope there’s a follow up!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Death of parent, and Child death

Moderate: Gun violence

talonsontypewriters's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Gun violence, Murder, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Sexism, Xenophobia, Torture, Physical abuse, Colonisation, Death, Suicidal thoughts, Fire/Fire injury, Suicide, Misogyny, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Police brutality, Violence, and Racism

Moderate: Gore, Confinement, War, Cultural appropriation, Islamophobia, Sexual harassment, Drug use, Slavery, Religious bigotry, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Minor: Vomit, Child death, Alcohol, and Addiction

marthadude's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Gore, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Racial slurs, Sexism, Slavery, Suicide, Grief, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Torture, Violence, War, Colonisation, Xenophobia, Child death, Cultural appropriation, Genocide, Abandonment, Gun violence, Toxic friendship, Child abuse, Alcohol, Blood, Bullying, Emotional abuse, Racism, Body horror, Classism, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, and Gaslighting