A review by jwells
Babel by R.F. Kuang

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad
This book resets the standard for "dark academia." Something likeĀ The Secret History, by contrast, might be set in what's supposed to be the real world, but is so obviously a cartoon version (see my cranky review) that it's just a fun thriller. Babel is set in the real world, but constantly reminds us that it's about the real world, in all the important ways. It really leans into the love for the academic world: the picturesque campus, the cozy libraries, the dedicated search for knowledge, a sense of found family with your cohort, reading books with cups of tea by the fireside, late into the night... and then it forces us to acknowledge that that lovely world is built on top of exploitation and injustice. Once we've felt that sense of betrayal right alongside Robin, we get to consider whether the subtitle of the book is correct: Is violence necessary, to start the world along a different path? If not, what is the answer?

An exceptional book. I found it very hard to put it down every night, but it's just too long to gulp down at one sitting. Incidentally, it has a remarkably beautiful magic system based on pairs of words in two different languages that mean almost - but not - the same thing.
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