Holy shit. She is absolutely brilliant, and I'm so glad she's getting the accolades that she deserves. This one took me a long time to read, hence the late review, but I'm blown away by it. 5 stars.

Please note in an exchange for an honest review, I received a copy from the NetGalley. Thank you!

I really enjoyed Babel. There were some issues I had with it but overall, I honestly enjoyed the experience and recommend the book.

I'm going to be honest, sometimes it gets a bit slow and if you find the etymology things boring--I would recommend skipping the book just because the book is so dependent and info dumps so much of it.

Genre wise, I would lean more on the historical fiction side of things. The "fantasy" side mainly consist of a magic system that, while prominent, isn't the real focus of the book.

Does it feel a bit preachy at times? Sure but if you're genuinely interested in a read about the effects of colonialism I would give this a try. I'd like to think of Babel as a boring textbook about colonialism your professor wants you to read with a spin of a dark academia setting.

Welp. I know what book is taking home all the awards for this year.

Full RTC. Maybe. I dunno anymore. All I know is that YOU SHOULD READ THIS DAMNED BOOK.

I received an ARC from NetGalley

Babel is one of the most amazing, unique, and smart book I have ever read. The writing was absolutely fantastic. Kuang did a wonderful job with her research and weaving history and fantasy together. The characters were written perfectly. There is absolutely nothing bad to say about this book. I highly recommend you read this!

After an initial attempt, I was unable to connect with this book on a level that would allow me to finish it and leave a fair review. Others will surely enjoy this more than I did.

Advanced Reader’s Copy provided by NetGalley, Avon and Harper Voyager, and Harper Voyager in exchange for an honest review.

My fellow readers, I've read Kuang's The Poppy War trilogy, I know what this author can do to readers, I thought I was going into BABEL fully prepared for what would happen. I was not. Where The Poppy War trilogy was brutal physically in the violence that happens on the page to the point that it was uncomfortable to read (which was the point), BABEL is just as brutal intellectually. Kuang does not hold back in shining lights on the ugly truths of colonialism and academia... and even of etymology. Also, BABEL has footnotes and that just makes me adore Kuang even more. I love a good footnote in general, but these add even more depth and breath to the discourse happening within the plot.

Even if my loyalties lie with Cambridge (where I did my own summer study abroad program), the Royal Institute of Translation (known as Babel) was fascinating as was the concept of silver work and its connection to language. Having Robin and Ramy build a friendship over exploring Oxford and learning how to punt made me fondly remember my time at Cambridge and it added a realness to this novel that made everything that happens that much more brutal because of it. Readers have a front row seat watching these first years grow within Babel and as friends along with being asked to truly witness the corruptness of colonialism. And readers are also asked to bare witness to the destruction of both. Without giving anything away, I NEED just one or two more chapters so that the plot could continue a little bit more.

Kuang is brilliant as always, and BABEL has easily joined a handful of other novels that I will try to get as many people to read as possible. I cannot wait to see what Kuang has in store for readers next, all I know is that BABEL confirms they are now a must-read author for me.

Oxford, translators, anti-colonialism, and a revolution? Yes, please! Babel is an absolute tour de force of dark academia and is most definitely my favorite novel this year, if not in my top 10. It was an absolute privilege to read.

Full of delightful footnotes and translations, Babel is a dream for English and foreign language majors. Combined with a compelling plot line that highlights the injustices of colonialism and characters that have depth and distinctive personalities, I absolutely could not put this one down.

If you love the power of the written word, pretentious historical fantasy with rich magical realism, and a wholly unique storyline that will keep you on the edge of your seat until the very end, then Babel is not going to disappoint. I have a strong suspicion this one is going to linger for a long time and will certainly be in every one of my family member’s stockings this year.

Thank you to NetGalley, Harper Voyager, and R.F. Kuang for the opportunity to read this advanced reader’s copy in exchange for an honest review.

Beautiful story and strong voice. A telling story about language and colonization. Babel is passionate, scathing, incendiary, fervent. It has all the inevitability and gravity of a tidal wave, a massive force crashing into me, sweeping me away. Here, I find that language has failed me once again, because I cannot write a sentence or a paragraph or a whole review that will quite capture how I felt when I finished Babel. I will leave it for you to discover, because if you pick up just one book this year, make it this one.

Babel is a masterpiece. It's dark academia with a fantasy twist on the surface, but at its core Babel is a searing and prescient look at the widespread effects of colonization on humanity and technology. Kuang layers so much work into the 19th century setting and history, but the technological advancements that come with the fantasy elements forces readers to reckon simultaneously with the past, present, and future of governments that capitalize and exploit people and places that they do not own.

Babel isn’t a hopeful story. There is no happy ending, no hand-holding for readers unwilling to see this for what it is. Kuang builds a world of intrigue and illusion only to strip it down, peeling layer upon layer until readers can't see anything but the horror and have to confront the realities behind a world where everything seems too good to be true. It is. It always is, and if you don't finish Babel thoroughly sickened, you've missed the entire point.

I want to start out by saying this was one of my most anticipated reads of this year and I really wish I could’ve loved it, but sadly I didn’t. This book was just not for me and that’s okay. I hope it finds whoever it is meant to.

Babel is a thematic response to The Secret History and thematic response it is. This book, like her series before, highly focuses on colonialism, the exploitation of people in colonized areas, trade being a major influence on politics, war, rich vs. poor, and a colonized or marginalized character trying to liberate themselves from oppression.

Like I said before, Babel is supposed to follow four uni undergrads that are plucked from their lives to be expendable translators, sponsored by benefactors, for this spec-fic version of England and the tower of Babel. However, it mostly follows Robin, who is primarily focused on compared to the other three in the group: Ramy, Letty, and Victoire. I can say that Robin is probably the best written out of the group since you spend the most time with him in the story, however even this fell flat by the ending – there’s little to no character development with Robin. He’s naïve, he’s cowardly, and the mixed-race kid of the group who struggles with his ties to Canton and England. Ramy comes from a more prominent family in India and basically just fights with everybody over everything, sometimes just to get a rise out of another character. Victoire is French Kreyole and is just there to be a sort of peacekeeper between the group. Letty also came from a prominent family in England, and she’s fleshed out to be the evil white lady that doesn’t see color until it affects her and nobody in the group really likes her, she’s just there to be a catalyst of future events. I guess I should’ve put spoiler warnings for that since you won’t find that out until well after 50% into the book and only through 3 chapters that give you this info. Other side characters are reduced to footnotes in the book, and this makes it hard to even care about the plot or chaos that occurs nearing the end of the book.

You wade through a sea of slow, info-dumping with snippets of the plot peeking out to keep your interest every 25% or so. This book reads like a narrative non-fiction book with a sprinkle of magic that could or could not have been in this book. The magical mechanics could’ve been removed, and the plot would’ve probably remained the same, however it would take out the etymology and the power of language Kuang highly focused on throughout the book. The mechanics of this fictional world relies on words, their translations, and the exploitation of expendable, overworked people from poor or foreign backgrounds. Its very much reminiscent to the needs that allowed the Industrial Revolution to occur (which is also present in the book but powered through silver and words instead of coal and steam engines), but whatever. I will say that the book does seem like something Kuang is highly educated in and well researched on. However, this didn’t keep me interested. Throughout the entirety of this book, I felt like I was reading somebody’s peer-reviewed academic journal. I love reading about these subjects, I love history and often read about these things as I study them in university but even that didn’t make it enjoyable for me. The subjects felt forced and that there was no room to think for myself on these things; this extends to even her characters where if they are the villain – that’s all they are, nothing more.

Overall, this book was a bombardment of themes she’s already explored, arguably more entertaining in the Poppy War series, but more in depth in Babel. The use of footnotes to gloss over characters, motives, and events instead of 1) just leaving them out or 2) putting them in the story and elaborating on them made it extremely hard to get through or care about certain characters or things other than the theme of the book which may have been Kuang’s intent for all I know. I really wish I could’ve loved this, but I ended up finishing it out of pure spite by the end, instead of enjoyment. It’s a well-written book, on themes that should be discussed, but it was overall not enjoyable to me. The characters were stereotypical, the plot twists were predictable, the chaos and death I was supposed to care about – I didn’t when the characters weren’t developed enough for me to care. I’m sad with this one man, like I said it was one of my most anticipated reads for me this year and it was just a let down of all sorts.

Wow! This may be one of the best books I have read in a long time. I wanted to slowly sip this book so that I wouldn't miss anything, but the ending keeps you reading, and before I knew it I was done. A very powerful book.

“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.”

Holy SHIT, this book. I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it since I finished.

The Secret History and Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell are two of my all-time favorite books, but I also acknowledge how extremely white both of those books are. Babel takes tropes from those books: a close-knit cohort with single-minded pursuits in academia, interesting ahistorical footnotes, a building sense of dread and wonder - and twists them in a way that results in a scathing and insightful commentary on whiteness, on empire, on colonialism, on translation.

I took a few linguistics classes in college and have always been fascinated by the history of words, so that element of this book was also extremely up my alley. The amount of research in this book!! Words literally are power, and seeing that become the magic system here was very cool.

I don’t want to give too much else away, because I want everyone to be as surprised as I was by the turns this book takes. I will say that I thought the pacing was pretty perfect, especially considering the page count and the amount of info included. I came to love most of the characters and legitimately cried at the end. And then I was numb for about 24 hours.

I’ll say one other thing. I once really wanted to go to Oxford for grad school…I can safely say that is no longer a desire of mine. Good on ya, R.F. Kuang.

I was invested in Babel from beginning to end! With passion, conviction, and plenty of research, Kuang crafts a powerful novel about colonialism, student revolutions, language & translation as tools of empire, and as the title says, the necessity of violence.

Following Robin Swift’s journey from Canton to London to Oxford’s Royal Institute of Translation in the 19th century, Babel keeps the reader attuned to his every emotion—his eagerness and enthusiasm, his doubt and denial, his rage and resolution. I felt a heart-crushing devastation when he experienced abuse and racism, empathy for his internal struggles, joy for the first time he feels the warmth of found family.

Well-paced and constantly thought-provoking, BABEL ardently escalates to its stunning conclusion. I’ve preordered three different editions but I think I’ll need a fourth copy for highlighting and annotating when I inevitably reread it.

Lastly, there are lengthy passages about linguistics, etymology, and translation theory, and I loved it all. Although I loved the Poppy War trilogy, Babel feels like Kuang's best work to date and I will eagerly await her next book.

ARC provided by the publisher via Netgalley

I hestitate writing this review because I don't think I will do the book justice. I really enjoy academia as a genre though sometimes I feel like I can't keep up (I'm not as smart as the characters and that is no fault of the author haha). This book sucks you in and I felt I was learning alongside Robin in preparation for going to Oxford. It is very well written and I do think people who don't have a time focusing like me will love it. At times I felt like it read more like a textbook than a novel which really got me struggling to get through. I also wish there was more to the fantasy element, but it works as a historical fiction/academia.

I hate to admit that I struggled to actually continue this book. I genuinely felt like nothing really happened for extremely long stretches of time. This book is a linguists love letter to languages which would have been fine if I wanted to read something academic like that, but as a work of fiction it misses the mark. I also feel calling it "dark academia" is a misconception that lead to disappointment. It feels more like an alt history fantasy.

What can I say that hasn't already been said? This book is a masterpiece, and its an urgent, necessary response to the fetishization of (white, imperialist) academia that "dark academia" has perpetuated for a long, long time. It's also got a phenomenal plot, fabulously developed characters, Kuang's customary immersive, staggeringly beautiful prose, and plenty of true facts and details for both the linguistics and history buffs out there. As for the ending...I wept. It was so good and so powerful.

This book is a masterpiece. It is a fantasy with a familiar setting, with the addition of a few tweaks such as enchanted silver. The book begins in 1828 when Robin Swift, a young Chinese boy dying of cholera in China, is nursed back to health by Dr. Lowell, who arrives from England just in time.

Dr. Lowell has been Robin's patron since he was born and has long range plans for him. He has paid for his upkeep and schooling in China, with an emphasis on languages. After Robin improves, he brings him to England to continue his education, particularly in linguistics. He plans for Robin to eventually attend Oxford and to study at Babel, a tower on the Oxford campus where the main study is language - every language, including dead ones.

Silver plays a big role in this book. Enchanted silver has many uses, including aiding in deciphering the true meaning of words. Robin slowly realizes that more is at stake then the pure joy of being a scholar. There is a sinister use for this understanding of language - power and domination. The Hermes Society, another Oxford group, opposes Britain imperialism. Robin is also courted by that group.

I learned a lot by reading this book, and began to look at history from a different angle. To the victor goes the spoils, and the victors also write the history books. I received a review copy of this book from the publisher Avon and Harper Voyager via NetGalley and voluntarily read and reviewed this book.

This book has made me look at translation in a different light. I have never realized how beautiful it all could be. R.F. Kuang has a way of sucking you into a story and making you empathize with every character, even the ones you hate. A book that makes you think about the unfairness and beauty of scholastics and politics. I enjoyed reading every single page and look forward to anything R.F Kuang writes!

That ending shook me to my core.

by far one of the best books I’ve read this year. Perhaps the best book I’ve ever read. I can’t even translate (haha) my awe, appreciation and love for this book.

It truly is a timeless piece of literature.

This has got to be one of the most incredible books that I have read all year- the prose is beautiful and complicated and honest, the characters are well rounded and heartbreaking and infuriating, and plot weaves together elements of real life history together with fantasy flawlessly. What R.F. Kuang did with Babel is something that I believe will be appreciated by generations for years to come and something that I think everyone should pick up. The story moved at an excellent pace and the development that the main character, Robin Swift, as well as his three closest friends- Ramy, Victorie, and Letty- go through is incredibly compelling and left me heartbroken by the end of the book. I don't want to give too much away as I went into this book knowing only the most basic elements of the plot from the blurb and I feel like it was all the more impactful of a read because of it, but I will say that this is one of the best pieces of Dark Academia literature I have read in a long while. Babel's critique of high academia and its roots in colonialism and exploitation is well thought out and the importance of language to the story highlights these points flawlessly. I was emotionally invested in each moment and never once did I feel bored, even the footnotes describing historical events and etymological backgrounds kept me hooked. Everything about this book just hit perfectly and even with my expectations going into it being high, R.F. Kuang managed to exceed them.