Reviews

Babel: An Arcane History, by R.F. Kuang

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astrofaux's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious fast-paced

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

5.0

ebba94's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

kara4's review against another edition

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5.0

I really enjoyed this book as I have a lot of interest in reading/learning to read/language. The etymology piece of this was fascinating, and the overall theme of language/translation and lost meaning focus reminded me of what I read someone say once-all written history we have is because someone chose what is to be remembered. We don’t have a recording of all of history, so there is bias based on what other people have chosen to remember or conserve. It was interesting how the author gave actual examples of words/translations and their etymology, so I learned along the way (bonus!). This is such a well done book with a story wrapped around big themes such as language translation tied to discrimination, actual discrimination for women and minorities, capitalism and social justice.

chl03's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes

4.0

mautz's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

The first half of the book was amazing and I learned a lot.
The second half it's not a fun book , but sometimes we need these sort of stories.

nifelya's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional informative reflective 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

4.75

madelyncantu's review against another edition

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4.0

This book was soul crushing, fascinating, and beautiful. This was my first foray into the "dark academia" genre, thank you Tiktok. It was also my first time reading anything by R.F. Kuang. It amazes me that someone can write so well that they keep you enthralled in a longer, dense book such as Babel. I've added the first book in her Poppy Wars trilogy to my reading list for sure.