Reviews tagging 'Terminal illness'

Babel. Una storia arcana by R.F. Kuang

27 reviews

ford_defect's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective slow-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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Death, Domestic abuse, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Toxic friendship, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Drug abuse, Drug use, Slavery, Trafficking, Religious bigotry, and Abandonment

Minor: Islamophobia, Deportation, and Pandemic/Epidemic

jul_grk's review against another edition

dark 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

5.0

An epic novel, which clearly took a lot of research and reading before it was written. Amazing, complex characters and depiction of Oxford. Heartbreaking end. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gun violence, and Terminal illness

Moderate: Suicide

petra_eller's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative 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? No

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Hate crime, Homophobia, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Self harm, Slavery, Suicide, Terminal illness, Violence, Xenophobia, Antisemitism, Mass/school shootings, Death of parent, Murder, Cultural appropriation, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, and Deportation

jffgldblm90s's review against another edition

adventurous emotional tense 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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Misogyny, Racism, Terminal illness, Violence, Xenophobia, and War

booksthatburn's review against another edition

dark mysterious 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Racism, Grief, Religious bigotry, Murder, Colonisation, and Classism

Moderate: Bullying, Child abuse, Gun violence, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Sexism, Slavery, Terminal illness, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Minor: Child death, Excrement, and Deportation

vitoriaemi's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring reflective fast-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

Reading this book felt like a slap on the face, a punch on the mouth and a kick on the stomach

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Gore, Gun violence, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Blood, Police brutality, Islamophobia, Kidnapping, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Cultural appropriation, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, Classism, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Alcoholism, Alcohol, War, and Deportation

rmperezpadilla's review against another edition

dark emotional informative 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Racial slurs, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Grief, Murder, and Colonisation

Moderate: Genocide, Slavery, Terminal illness, and Death of parent

Minor: Deportation

wheatlyre's review against another edition

I didn't have enough time to read it, and need to return it soon. It also has been taking me a long while to read, and whether or not it's just my mood the past 5 weeks, but it takes me a while to feel motivated to actually read it. Once I read a paragraph or two I get sucked in for a couple 10-17 pages, but I've been busy and just haven't been able to really get into it in the right way. (Again, just my experience with it so far, and it might not necessarily have anything to do with Babel in particular.) The writing is more advanced than the typical YA novel, but not as period-accurate as a classic Literature novel, still leaning more to the YA style.
I have enjoyed it so far, with a couple parts in particular sticking out to me, especially [spoiler cw:

child abuse, physical abuse, and emotional abuse

]

when Robin is beat by the Professor for the first time. The way he describes his surprise and the numbness he felt during it was heart wrenching, and the way the professor was described as both detached, reserved, and aloof, yet swift and graceful, was incredible. I'm unable to describe with words how affected I was by it. I'm also in awe with how amazingly the author characterizes Robin through the way he reacts to the abuse, brushing past it and refusing to think about it for anything more than, 'I don't want that to happen again'. The rest of Robin's teenage years were brushed past, which, while I feel it to be a loss for me to see more of his adaption to life in London, I understand from a storytelling point as a reflection of the monotony of his years there, and could possibly be echoing off how the single beating affected him.

The writing in that part is just so beautiful, and I've frequently found myself coming back to that moment. I just wish we got a bit more of his musings.

I really enjoyed his reflections on the professor and cook's disagreement about scones.

Once again, I have not gotten too far in the book, but I have liked it quite a bit so far.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Confinement, Physical abuse, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, and Deportation

Moderate: Death, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Terminal illness, Islamophobia, Death of parent, Colonisation, and Classism

Minor: Slavery and Trafficking

all content warnings mentioned were put in intentionally by the author and are seen clearly to be character flaws or problematic.

rainbowalcremie1995's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful informative reflective sad 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

4.0

Overall, this was an enjoyable book for people who want to read a fantasy story about academia that acknowledges the ways academic institutions can be both helpful and harmful to the societies they’re a part of.  

I really enjoyed the magic system that was introduced in the book.  Although the characters in the book may have to study for hours on end to master it, it wasn’t too complicated for a reader to understand.  

I don’t really have an individual favorite character in this book, but some of my favorite parts were whenever Robin and his cohort were just hanging out and talking about their studies, and it made the things they went through together near the end of the book a lot more impactful.  I feel like at times, the characters in this book work best when they’re bouncing off of other characters.  I really liked Griffin as a foil to Robin, and Letty being the odd one out of her friend group.  I was surprised at how much Robin grew as a character by the end as well.  In the first half of the story, I found him a little passive, acting as a camera to the more interesting characters in the story.  Now that I’ve finished the book, though, I think this flaw may have been intentional, and it makes it a lot more satisfying to see him come into his own by the end.  

I think that the pacing could be a little awkward at times, and there were definitely parts of the book that I felt could have been arranged a little differently.  For example, I thought that the Hermes Society being introduced so early in the story made certain reveals about Babel’s true nature a lot less impactful.  In fact, I would say that a pretty big weakness of this book is that most of the plot twists very predictable. 

I saw Letty’s betrayal coming from a mile away, as I’m sure most readers did.  I think that her POV chapter coming after the betrayal was also unnecessary, it didn’t add anything to her character that we didn’t already know.

 

In addition, it sometimes feels like the book is too afraid of subtext and has to make the themes explicit in both the main text and the many footnotes.  Which is a shame, because there were a some good lines in this book where a member of the faculty or an older student would say something normal but extremely sinister, but very few of them were allowed to hang without a footnote butting in to say, “By the way, they just said something racist.”  I guess not everyone reading this book will have the same background knowledge coming in to it, but I wish that the buildup to Babel not being as great as it seems on the surface had been more gradual.  

Despite the book having a bit of a slow middle, I thought the last third of the book was pretty good.  I was up until two in the morning yesterday just to see how it ended! 

I wish that the Hermes Society and the older students who were members got some more character development before they died.  I am glad that Victoire got a little more character development near the end as she helps Robin start the strike.  The progression of the strike and the descriptions of society breaking down as the result of one academic tower no longer maintaining the silver was well done, as was Robin’s final descent into violence that leads up to his death.  At first, I was surprised that the strike ended tragically, with Robin and almost all of his allies in the tower sacrificing themselves to blow it up.  However, it’s still a hopeful ending, and it probably would have been a little too neat of the strike had completely changed society overnight without any bloodshed.

 

I can’t judge this book on how well it works as a piece of historical fiction, as I’m not too familiar with the history of the Opium Wars, and I only speak English.  As a fantasy novel, I can say that I had a fun time reading it, and although I think this book is a little too long for me to ever want to read the entire thing over again, I think it definitely earns four stars from me.  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Sexism, Xenophobia, and Colonisation

Moderate: Death, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Grief, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Terminal illness and Death of parent

imds's review against another edition

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Hate crime, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Islamophobia, Kidnapping, Grief, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Murder, Cultural appropriation, Colonisation, War, Classism, and Pandemic/Epidemic