Reviews tagging 'Physical abuse'

Babel by R.F. Kuang

388 reviews

emviolet's review

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Physical abuse, Racism, Colonisation, Torture, Death, Xenophobia, Suicide, Slavery, Murder, War, and Racial slurs

Moderate: Death of parent, Grief, Suicidal thoughts, Classism, Drug use, Toxic friendship, Blood, and Cultural appropriation

aleyajo's review

adventurous challenging dark hopeful informative sad tense medium-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

Classic college experience: magic, colonization, exploitation, racism, slavery, murder, and revolution

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Torture, Death, Murder, Child abuse, Classism, Medical content, Hate crime, Mental illness, Sexual harassment, Toxic friendship, Colonisation, Cultural appropriation, Gaslighting, Gun violence, Panic attacks/disorders, Racial slurs, Racism, Slavery, Violence, Death of parent, Misogyny, Drug use, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, and War

leeshajoy's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark 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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Torture, Racism, and Colonisation

Moderate: Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Vomit, and War

winterjasmine's review

challenging dark emotional informative 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation, Racial slurs, Classism, Death, Racism, Violence, and Xenophobia

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Suicide, Child abuse, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Murder, Sexism, and Misogyny

Minor: Blood, Sexual harassment, Drug use, Grief, Alcohol, and Cultural appropriation

oceanelle's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional informative mysterious 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? Yes

5.0

Absolutely fucking brilliant. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation, Xenophobia, Racial slurs, and Racism

Moderate: Suicide, Classism, Murder, Emotional abuse, Death of parent, Bullying, Toxic friendship, Suicidal thoughts, and Physical abuse

butlerebecca's review

adventurous challenging emotional informative inspiring reflective 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

Wish this was 100 pages shorter but feels ridiculous to give this less than 5 stars

Truly baffled by how one person can make a book that’s both academically specific and written with such beautiful prose

It took adjusting to adapt to the magical realism/fantasy elements but I really like how it simplified and represented the complicated facts of colonial empire

Learned a lot too - felt like what people do with hiding medication in peanut butter for dogs - like oh here’s a novel whoops bonus you also just read a textbook! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Classism, Death, Xenophobia, Alcoholism, War, Colonisation, Death of parent, Racial slurs, Racism, Drug use, and Murder

Moderate: Suicide

psitstorrie's review

dark emotional inspiring mysterious reflective 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

This book is extremely well written. The characters are so complex and flawed from the start, the prose is gorgeous, and overall it is incredibly thought provoking. The magic system is simple, but effective. History, language, revolution, academia, and comradely are the main focuses, and seeing how the characters and situations evolve is fascinating. I cannot recommend this book enough

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Racial slurs, Sexism, Toxic friendship, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Grief, and Colonisation

Moderate: Islamophobia, Physical abuse, Death of parent, War, Classism, and Child abuse

jrae_miller's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark sad 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism, Murder, Gun violence, Violence, Grief, Colonisation, Torture, Death, Suicidal thoughts, Racial slurs, Physical abuse, Cultural appropriation, Islamophobia, and Racism

Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders, Bullying, Suicidal thoughts, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Blood, Xenophobia, Toxic friendship, Medical content, Sexual harassment, Gun violence, Torture, Sexism, Murder, Cultural appropriation, Drug use, Alcohol, Violence, Death, and Classism

mereas's review

dark emotional 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

A contemporary classic in literature. By the end, I felt simultaneously ruined and astonished by Rebecca F. Kuang's work. She covers the most existential questions in the frame of language and translation. The foundation of etymology and epistemology in the scene of colonialism and systematic oppression are narrated under one boy, Robin Swift, who is half-Chinese and half-English. I found the saddest aspect to this novel being that we never truly know his native name, of which was chosen by his late (Chinese) mother, and I cannot fathom the weight immigrants hold when they are told their names are too hard, complicated, or otherwise foreign for the English man. This also includes the erasure that colonial structures translate upon the foreign body, for they are left with no name nor grave. Rebecca F. Kuang leaves us to question whether protest and resistance should be violent or nonviolent to produce systematic change, in similar vein to the Civil Rights Movement.

Besides the foundation to this historical fantasy, the found-family trope touched my soul. I am a sucker for the most of unlikely friends to become a group of four. Between the lines, there are undertones of queer sentiments that also resonated with me, though they do not go further than just that. This, I did not mind because the characters are constantly in survival mode whether physically or emotionally. The reality underneath Rebecca F. Kuang's words is like a goldfish peaking above the water's surface--the social arguments always felt natural and fluid, which hurt the most.

Language holds so much power, yet it can just as easily be lost.
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On a side note, I love to find authors' favorite diction. Rebecca F. Kuang is biased to: teeter, tranquility, translation.
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"'What you don't understand,' said Ramy, 'is how much people like you will excuse if it just means they can get tea and coffee on their breakfast tables. They don't care, Letty. They just don't care'" (356).

"'Because you're a good translator.' Ramy leaned back on his elbows. 'That's just what translation is, I think. That's all speaking is. Listening to the other and trying to see past your own biases to glimpse what they're trying to say. Showing yourself to the world, and hoping someone else understands'" (535).

"Oxford relied on silver, how without the constant labour of its translation corps, of the talent it attracted from abroad, it immediately fell apart. It revealed more than the power of translation. It revealed the sheer dependence of the British, who, astonishingly, could not manage to do basic things like bake bread or get safely from one place to another without words stolen from other countries" (471). This, made me question what else can stand in for silver. Oil. Petroleum. Fast fashion. And, at what cost?

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Slavery, Death, Sexism, Xenophobia, Suicide, and Racism

Moderate: Child abuse, Classism, Death of parent, Pandemic/Epidemic, Blood, Body horror, Grief, Drug abuse, Colonisation, Physical abuse, Murder, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Addiction, and Panic attacks/disorders

navayiota's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring mysterious 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? Yes

5.0

A love letter to all who suffered and continue to suffer. A modern classic, heartbreaking and perfect. I cried in the night, staying up late to finish this behemoth of a book. My new favourite of all time.. Bless Kuang and her brilliant mind. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Slavery, Murder, War, Abandonment, Alcohol, Classism, Colonisation, Suicidal thoughts, Police brutality, Xenophobia, Suicide, Blood, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Grief, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Torture, Toxic friendship, Confinement, Death of parent, Misogyny, Death, Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Suicide attempt, Violence, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Islamophobia, Drug abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Car accident, Addiction, and Deportation