A review by elizmoe
Babel: An Arcane History by R.F. Kuang
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
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
3.5
did i decided to read this after that one white bookstagrammer had a public meltdown over this book? absolutely, i’m nosy
to that bookstagrammer, whose main gripe with the novel was how all the white characters were flat cartoon villains, just want to say: Abel Goodfellow and Mrs. Piper are RIGHT THERE. not to mention professor craft! pls !!
regarding Letty, (spoiler) yeah she does some really fucked up shit! and up until betraying everyone, the book gives her a lot of grace in terms of portraying her as a complex human who loves her friends and experiences heartbreak and grief ////and also was indoctrinated with white supremacy from birth and therefore will never be able to see her nonwhite friends as fully human in their own right. she even got her own interlude from her POV, where she gets to defend her choices for an entire chapter. the book then goes on to gives her more grace AFTER her betrayal, during Victoire and Robin’s last conversation about her — the line “loving her was like an exercise in hope” continues to haunt me. Victoire wanted so desperately for Letty to see her and respect her Blackness and Haitianness as part of her humanity, and the tragedy of Letty as a character is she never does. she compartmentalizes her friends’ racial/national identities as _separate_from the people she thinks she loves. and then she puts white supremacist colonialist empire before their lives when shit gets real, a well-documented tendency of white women throughout history. tldr; if you think the white villains in this book are all one dimensional or unrealistic, i genuinely don’t think you read this book!
other thoughts: the portrayal of a friend group united by shared academic stress and unhinged desire to succeed? while staying up all night every day eating garbage and losing their minds together? was maybe one of the most viscerally realistic college friend groups i’ve ever read
other !!! things
-the exploration of language was super interesting. it is not a subject i’m well-versed in and i appreciated how it was more than just a magic system, but an actor in the story in its own right
-i liked the footnotes! sue me!!
-i generally really liked the prose
-the audiobook narrators were absolute fire. especially chris lew kum hoi with the bajillions of accents they had to do
-robin? bisexual. definitely in love with rami (probably also had crushes on both victoire and letty at different points) and while i absolutely wanted them to actually get together, i understand why they did not and i respect the choice! even though rf kuang you’re absolutely sick for that face touch the first day they met,
i agree the magic system was maybe a bit underdeveloped but while reading it never really bothered me, however i understand it as a gripe from people who read or write more complex fantasy with complicated and thought-through magic systems.
one more con: i get the complaints about how the existence of silver doesn’t change the 1830s world as we know it, just adds extra flair to the things that actually happened. it would have been interesting to see a more alternate history where this source of power affects the world more comprehensively, but i also kind get why kuang didn’t go that route and instead chose to just use silver/language magic to explore historical british colonialism as we know it.
to that bookstagrammer, whose main gripe with the novel was how all the white characters were flat cartoon villains, just want to say: Abel Goodfellow and Mrs. Piper are RIGHT THERE. not to mention professor craft! pls !!
regarding Letty, (spoiler) yeah she does some really fucked up shit! and up until betraying everyone, the book gives her a lot of grace in terms of portraying her as a complex human who loves her friends and experiences heartbreak and grief ////and also was indoctrinated with white supremacy from birth and therefore will never be able to see her nonwhite friends as fully human in their own right. she even got her own interlude from her POV, where she gets to defend her choices for an entire chapter. the book then goes on to gives her more grace AFTER her betrayal, during Victoire and Robin’s last conversation about her — the line “loving her was like an exercise in hope” continues to haunt me. Victoire wanted so desperately for Letty to see her and respect her Blackness and Haitianness as part of her humanity, and the tragedy of Letty as a character is she never does. she compartmentalizes her friends’ racial/national identities as _separate_from the people she thinks she loves. and then she puts white supremacist colonialist empire before their lives when shit gets real, a well-documented tendency of white women throughout history. tldr; if you think the white villains in this book are all one dimensional or unrealistic, i genuinely don’t think you read this book!
other thoughts: the portrayal of a friend group united by shared academic stress and unhinged desire to succeed? while staying up all night every day eating garbage and losing their minds together? was maybe one of the most viscerally realistic college friend groups i’ve ever read
other !!! things
-the exploration of language was super interesting. it is not a subject i’m well-versed in and i appreciated how it was more than just a magic system, but an actor in the story in its own right
-i liked the footnotes! sue me!!
-i generally really liked the prose
-the audiobook narrators were absolute fire. especially chris lew kum hoi with the bajillions of accents they had to do
-robin? bisexual. definitely in love with rami (probably also had crushes on both victoire and letty at different points) and while i absolutely wanted them to actually get together, i understand why they did not and i respect the choice! even though rf kuang you’re absolutely sick for that face touch the first day they met,
i agree the magic system was maybe a bit underdeveloped but while reading it never really bothered me, however i understand it as a gripe from people who read or write more complex fantasy with complicated and thought-through magic systems.
one more con: i get the complaints about how the existence of silver doesn’t change the 1830s world as we know it, just adds extra flair to the things that actually happened. it would have been interesting to see a more alternate history where this source of power affects the world more comprehensively, but i also kind get why kuang didn’t go that route and instead chose to just use silver/language magic to explore historical british colonialism as we know it.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Genocide, Blood, Cursing, Religious bigotry, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Death of parent, Death, Colonisation, Fire/Fire injury, Classism, Grief, Murder, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racism, Violence, and Racial slurs
Moderate: Emotional abuse, Slavery, Drug use, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Toxic friendship, and War
Minor: Addiction and Deportation