Reviews tagging 'Medical content'

Babel: An Arcane History by R.F. Kuang

31 reviews

jokeater's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional 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? It's complicated

5.0

i cried

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Xenophobia, Emotional abuse, Colonisation, War, Death, Racism, Police brutality, Racial slurs, Violence, and Suicide

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Sexual harassment, Child abuse, Medical content, and Misogyny

Minor: Slavery and Islamophobia

niceonehros's review

While I enjoyed the treatment of colonialism I didn't have the stomach for the scenes where Robin is beaten by the Professor.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Injury/Injury detail, Xenophobia, Grief, Racism, Medical content, Racial slurs, Colonisation, Child abuse, Physical abuse, Violence, Terminal illness, and Death of parent

rinku's review against another edition

challenging dark informative reflective slow-paced

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

3.5

It’s honestly kinda hard for me to rate and write a review for Babel. I gave it 3.5 stars now and my critiques are kinda similar to the ones others already have written about: The way the central themes are talked about feels a bit shallow, and the pacing is just not so good. 

Babel follows Robin Swift, a Chinese boy that is taken to the UK by an Oxford professor. There, he gets prepared for studying at the language institute in Oxford which uses a kind of word magic that is used throughout the whole UK and thus also to control the British colonies. Robin needs to navigate this new life while also figuring out what he wants to stand for. 

The general setting and magic system were interesting, but I think the magic could’ve been utilized more. I still liked to see how the UK looked at that time and how the magic has changed it. Another topic I enjoyed was etymology and it was so great to see the love for words and books in this novel. Classism, racism, and colonialism are all discussed, but especially the discussion of the former felt a bit shallow and too simple for me. At the same time, I had the feeling that losing your (mental) health for your work/studies was romanticized which always gives me some neoliberal vibes, if I’m honest. Still, there were some parts of the first two-thirds I liked, like when

Spoiler

Robin killed his father and they had to hide his body, this whole section stressed me so much

. The part about the opium was interesting as well and I guess I’ll read The Poppy War one day to delve deeper into this topic. 

In the last third, the book got much more interesting and made give 3.5 stars instead of 3 stars. We get our classical

Spoiler

low point with Ramy getting shot, Hermes destroyed, and Robin and Victoire locked up. It was such a great moment when Griffin saved them but of course, he had to die as well. This part of the story was so dark, and I loved it

. My favorite moment of the novel happened towards the end when

Spoiler

Robin and Victorie took over the tower. It showed that non-violence can’t be the answer if you want to change something and deals with the moral questions around political violence. After it, it was so interesting to see how the city started to fall apart and how the revolution started. Sadly, the worker revolution wasn’t talked about in depth as I wished it was

. Furthermore, I really enjoyed the ending itself with

Spoiler

the tower getting destroyed and Robin having to prepare for his death, I always love moments like these in novels lmao

. 

I also don’t know what to think about Kuang’s writing. She definitely has talent, but the writing was a bit too pretentious for my taste? Additionally, I wasn’t the biggest fan of some of the foreshadowing in the novel that just felt cheap, and the predominance of telling. I was so annoyed how often it was mentioned how intelligent the characters are, but we honestly didn’t see too much of it lol. 

Looking at the characters, I have similar problems with them like I had with the other elements of the book. Robin was an okay-ish protagonist. I found his struggle between the two worlds he’s part of interesting, but I couldn’t always understand his behaviour, like when he

Spoiler

helped Ramy and Victorie flee and got punished instead of them. Before, I hadn’t the feeling that he was the kind of guy to do something like this

. 

The side characters though were a bit flat. The other three Babel students are just as pretentious as Robin which annoyed me. He also calls them way too fast his family, we barely see the development of their relationship. Another topic I want to talk about is Letty’s character. <a href=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JUdFkRdgPDU>Cindy recently said in her review of Yellowface</a> that the racist white female main character seemed to her like a low-hanging fruit, and I see a similar problem with Letty in this book. To no surprise,

Spoiler

she turns out to be a traitor as well in the end

. This feels to me like a too black and white worldview, to be honest. 

All in all, there were some aspects of Babel that I really liked, like the etymologic lessons or the emotional last third of the novel. But there were many aspects that felt just mediocre to me because they weren’t discussed in much detail/nuances as I hoped they would. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Child abuse, Colonisation, Gun violence, Murder, Racial slurs, Torture, Violence, Addiction, Blood, Sexism, Alcohol, Misogyny, Classism, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, and Drug abuse

Moderate: Medical content, War, Religious bigotry, Fire/Fire injury, Pandemic/Epidemic, Suicidal thoughts, and Toxic friendship

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

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

saucy_bookdragon's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-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

RTC

When people ask me what my favorite books are this is going to be one of my answers 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Pandemic/Epidemic, Racial slurs, Racism, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Physical abuse, Classism, Cultural appropriation, Emotional abuse, Colonisation, Gaslighting, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Islamophobia, Misogyny, Murder, Death, Death of parent, Gore, Sexism, Toxic friendship, and Xenophobia

Moderate: Drug use, Fire/Fire injury, Medical content, Sexual harassment, Blood, Religious bigotry, Child abuse, and Alcohol

rebelscum's review

adventurous challenging dark reflective slow-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Xenophobia, Sexism, Police brutality, Racial slurs, and Racism

Moderate: Alcohol, Violence, and Colonisation

Minor: Medical content

catherinedsharp's review against another edition

challenging informative reflective fast-paced

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

4.5

Really interesting exploration of colonialism, racism and sexism (amongst other topics) within academia. Found it a little difficult to grapple with at times as despite it being fiction, it includes a lot of information and facts. Would recommend although check out the trigger warnings as it can be brutally described at times.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Blood, Colonisation, Racial slurs, Cultural appropriation, Death, and Racism

Moderate: Slavery, Medical content, War, and Misogyny

applejacksbooks's review

challenging dark emotional informative slow-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

4.5

I'll start this off by saying this book isn't for everyone, but everyone should read it. Its ending alone isn't a happy one. That being said I absolutely enjoyed my time while reading it. From the footnotes, to the history of how we understand language today, to the conversations about colonialism and racism and how we (as white people) have abused and taken from everyone not to better and learn but because we can, this book is a master class in all of it. It's well researched and executed and I couldn't put it down when I was reading it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Xenophobia, Abandonment, Colonisation, Violence, Classism, Gun violence, Medical content, Racial slurs, Racism, Death of parent, and Toxic friendship

krows_ink's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

"A permanent dialogue with oneself and an increasingly obscene narcissism never ceased to prepare the way for a half delirious state, where intellectual work became suffering and the reality was not at all that of a living man, working and creating himself, but rather words, different combinations of words, and the tensions springing from the meanings contained in words." - Frantz Fanon, The Wretched of the Earth, Transcribed by Dominic Tweedie.

Initially, when I picked up Babel I didn't think that I would like it nearly as much as I do now that I have finished. There is something hauntingly beautiful and soul-wrenching contained in these pages. The world feels real because it mostly is. The characters are deeply flawed - each one of them. The writing is exceptional and the use of language use is so profound that I cannot seem to comment on it. Truly, most of my words (ironically) seem to have escaped me even almost 24 hours after completing the novel.

R.F. Kuang's commentary on imperialism and colonialism is incredibly well crafted. Not to mention her exploration of internalized oppression, white supremacy culture, and white feminism. While some may state that the commentary or exploration of these themes felt heavy-handed, I cannot bear to agree. I believe that there are times to be blatant about what you mean and this novel is a perfect example. However, it is not without nuance and room to explore. I will be rereading this book, possibly later this year.

The rest will be marked as spoilers because there are some things I cannot express without possibly delving into the book's later sections.

Spoiler

R.F. Kuang's use of parallels and mirroring of previous scenes in the book blew me away. Everything surrounding Ramy and Robin broke my heart. Not to mention Victoire's backstory and how she was orphaned and the relatability of that to Robin's backstory. To say that I am heartbroken after reading this book is an understatement. A piece of me almost simply wrote "I am empty inside". However, that would be a disservice to this book.

The final scene. The final scene took my breath away. I was a sobbing and incoherent mess as I read it, blabbing nonsense as I broke down all over again reading "She smiles. She says his name." I couldn't have ended Robin's story better. The use of present tense? Amazing. Bringing it back to the first chapter - to the first scene? Heartbreaking. I was so engrossed by these last chapters and felt numb and empty after reading them. Truly one of my new favorites which I consider difficult to earn the title of.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Racism, Blood, Grief, Death, Death of parent, Gun violence, Xenophobia, and Racial slurs

Moderate: Suicide, Pandemic/Epidemic, Classism, Medical content, Emotional abuse, Child abuse, War, Misogyny, and Addiction

Minor: Slavery, Sexual harassment, and Islamophobia