Reviews tagging 'Gun violence'

Babel: An Arcane History by R.F. Kuang

334 reviews

fizzieee's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring mysterious 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? It's complicated

4.5

Intelligent and clear in its intentions.  Insightful and self-aware in a way I’ve never read before. The magic system is extremely unique and the structure of the novel leans heavily into its academic themes. R.F. Kuang seems to struggle with pacing in their novels, which is why I won’t give this the full 5 stars, but that “weakness” doesn’t prevent me from gobbling up the characters/subject matter of their novels. I’ll be thinking about this one for weeks (maybe years).

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Suicide, Toxic friendship, Violence, Gun violence, Islamophobia, Vomit, War, Racism, Sexism, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Xenophobia, Colonisation, Racial slurs, Blood, Child abuse, Classism, Death, and Murder

Minor: Bullying, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

chiwirite's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Death of parent, Cultural appropriation, Suicide, Racism, Classism, Death, and Drug use

Moderate: Alcoholism, Racial slurs, War, Pandemic/Epidemic, Blood, Bullying, Xenophobia, Violence, Drug abuse, Child abuse, Murder, Gun violence, Grief, Deportation, Addiction, Slavery, and Sexism

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.

arayo's review against another edition

adventurous challenging inspiring 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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Torture, Murder, Xenophobia, Colonisation, and Violence

Moderate: Misogyny, Suicide, Grief, Classism, Gun violence, and Slavery

Minor: Death of parent, Drug use, Child abuse, Sexual harassment, Islamophobia, and Injury/Injury detail

goose's review

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

raquel_rqlh's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark informative reflective sad slow-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Slavery, Blood, Classism, Death of parent, Murder, Misogyny, Colonisation, Death, Racism, War, Xenophobia, and Violence

Moderate: Grief, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Physical abuse, and Addiction

Minor: Child abuse, Emotional abuse, and Sexual harassment

maryjames's review

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring sad tense slow-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, War, Toxic friendship, Death, Gun violence, Grief, Physical abuse, Colonisation, Emotional abuse, Classism, Racial slurs, and Racism

Moderate: Drug use, Violence, Slavery, Child abuse, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual harassment, Sexism, and Blood

Minor: Sexual violence, Misogyny, and Slavery

paulibirisqui's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative inspiring reflective sad tense 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? Yes

5.0

I'm speechless. 

This book deserves all the praises and success (may I say, even more) that's having. Do not be intimidated by it, the  language used makes it much easier to get engaged with the story. 

The academic side is brilliant.  The conversation and discourse surrounding translation, languages, imperialism and colonialism, and the relations between them, is sublime. It's incredibly well developed and carried through the whole book. 

The dark side is nice. Especially towards the end, even though there were always small hints. 

The characters are amazing, being Victoire my favourite. The different perspectives they have make their relationships richer and complicated. I saw someone saying they were unidimensional. I can not disagree more. They have elaborated feelings and unique ways of facing issues. However a valid criticism is that their union is more said than showed.

Nonetheless this was an amazing read, I heavily recommend it.

Spoiler

I loved Griffin so much, I wished he had stayed longer :'(

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation, Violence, Cultural appropriation, Classism, Hate crime, War, Racism, and Murder

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Child abuse, and Gun violence

Minor: Slavery and Physical abuse

yorozuya's review against another edition

challenging dark informative slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Classism, Slavery, Bullying, Physical abuse, Colonisation, Death, Gun violence, Misogyny, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic friendship, Emotional abuse, Grief, and Racism

asifsyed's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious reflective 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Colonisation, Racial slurs, Racism, Cultural appropriation, Xenophobia, Toxic relationship, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, and Domestic abuse

Moderate: Violence, Murder, Trafficking, Fire/Fire injury, Addiction, Slavery, Misogyny, Grief, Drug abuse, and Gun violence

Minor: Torture, Police brutality, War, Abandonment, Terminal illness, Religious bigotry, Sexism, and Pandemic/Epidemic