After loving The Poppy War, I knew I would be enthralled by another R.F. Kuang book, and boy was I right!

Oh Babel, my most hyped book of 2022. There were no let downs here, only an overwhelming build of dark academia intensity until that incredible incredible finale. For any dark academia fans, this is an absolute must read.

I write this review long after I initially read the book, and I read the book amidst a Covid fever, so my recollection of the plot itself is lacking. Yet while I don’t remember details, I can say that this is truly a story that builds and builds, with no intention of every letting the reader go. Babel is set in an alt-history Britain in the years upcoming to the Opium Wars, and Oxford has slowly learned that to keep expanding their translation-fueled dominance over the country, and the rest of the world, new languages must be brought in. And thus begins a colonization of a different sort, where a country and culture’s own language is used against them in subjugation, fueled by children taken old enough to remember their first life, and young enough to never wish to return.

Or at least, that’s Oxford’s goal. In truth, our main cast of Robin, of Chinese descent, Ramiz, of Indian descent, Victoire, Haitian Creole, are not as willing to let go of their past lives as expected. One of the strongest themes, naturally, in this book is colonization in every form of the word, but the one that resonated with me the most as a 2nd-gen Chinese-American was the experience of navigating a country and culture that you can’t quite call your own, amongst people who look nothing like you. Because while their classes at Oxford are ripe with diversity, Robin and his cohort must still navigate the larger world, and that world isn’t always friendly.

I must admit, the only RF Kuang work I read was Poppy War, about a month or two after publication. I don’t have the greatest recollection of the book, aside from Rin’s everburning rage (good) and frustratingly modern-feeling writing (bad). Kuang has leveled up since. It makes sense that a story about the particular usage of words would have such rich, academically oriented prose to match. Kuang is able to build up the emotions, in particular Robin’s growing rage, in such a slow-burning, subtle way that when certain plot events happen and characters begin to snap, it’s the only logical conclusion.

I often gripe that books marketed with the Dark Academia label doesn’t have enough focus on the academia side (no, cramming to pass a highschool class doesn’t count). For me, Dark Academia has to have an emphasis on the academic field of choice. It’s about the unhealthy hyperfocus on a chosen specialty, the slow spiral to insanity and the ever-growing disconnect from reality in pursuit of that One Topic. In Babel, that looming rabbit hole descent is ever-present and Kuang truly makes it known. Especially in the first half where the academic naivety was yet to be broken, the character’s hyperfocus on the translation, on their language of choice, was one of my favorite parts to read. Also a shoutout to the heavy useage of footnotes, always a fan.

Overall, I rate this book a 5/5. Is it perfect? No. Kuang tends to be heavy handed at ensuring the messaging of certain themes gets across, but this is perhaps the one time it works without ruining the story. But overall, the usage of translation as a magic system, the unrelenting dissection of English colonialism, and the emotional rollercoaster Babel will take you on makes it truly a masterpiece.

Rating: Really Enjoyed It, 4 stars

Babel is one of the most anticipated releases of 2022 for many in the SFF community, and I am glad to have had a chance to read an early copy (thank you to NetGalley and Harper Voyager for an eARC in exchange for an honest review!)

I have realized that Dark Academia as a subgenre doesn't always work for me, but I was really hopeful that RF Kuang's writing would make it work for me. And it did! For the most part.

What is it about:
At the heart Babel: Or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators' Revolution, is a story about colonization and the British Empire. Robin Swift is a young boy who grows up very poor in the docks of Canton . His family falls ill to cholera and as Robin awaits the same fate, he is saved by an Oxford professor who takes him back to London and ensures he has the best language tutors available for the goal of eventually attending Oxford and studying in the Royal Institute of Translation, or Babel. This opportunity represents everything that Robin has dreamed of: safety, stability, and a place to belong; however, he finds that if he were to devote his life to Babel, it may just mean betraying his homeland of China. He falls in with a secret revolutionary society and must determine how best to proceed. This book is ultimately a commentary on colonization from the side of the colonized.

What to know going in: there are some content warnings that should be observed, including causal racism, sexism, violence, and child abuse. There are definitely more so look into that if you need them. Also, this is a very low magic book. Silver when combined with language produces the magic system that allows for some manipulation of the environment, such as faster boats, more stable carriages, and constantly warm food plates, and it is considered a science more so than a magic. This book is also fairly dense and slow paced for much of the book. These things aren't good or bad in my opinion, but something to consider when deciding whether to pick this up.

What worked for me:
+ Babel is a straight-up masterpiece in terms of writing, tone, and use of language. It is evident from this work that Kuang is an incredibly intelligent and talented individual. The vast amount of research that had to have gone into this book is kind of mind-blowing. Her background in translation and her love of languages definitely shines in this
+ The societal commentary that this book offers was really unique in that it is our society and is not. This is a fictionalized version of the British Empire, but it could easily be applied to any of the Western colonial empires. The treatment of colonized nations, nations that are viewed as barbarians, and the individuals from these nations, was utterly atrocious, but the worst part is that it isn't surprising.
+ I feel that the way she wrote our quartet of main characters was really well done. We have Robin, or main character, Ramy, Victoire, and Letty in the same cohort at Babel. Ramy and Victoire are also people of color from colonized nations, and Victoire and Letty are women. Each person in this cohort are only allowed at Oxford because they were accepted by Babel. The juxtaposition between Letty, a white, English aristocrat, and her fellow cohort members was really well done. Robin was the most well-fleshed out character, but I really enjoyed seeing all the characters interact
+ We are really just slice of life, attending classes and chilling with our characters for the first half or so of the novel, and it felt like golden days of college. I really enjoyed it.
+ I'm not going to speak on the accuracy of her depiction of racial minorities or how well that was handled, but from an outside perspective it felt very well done. I think that The pain, the frustration, the anger, and the feeling in general really came through.

What didn't work for me:
- The main reason that this book wasn't 5 stars for me was that while I really enjoyed the slice of life style at the beginning, the pacing, or more possibly the focus, was just a smidge off for my personal taste. At some point around the halfway mark, I started to grow more frustrated with the characters, and I think it was because I felt that we sat with them for too long in some instances and started to skim over other instances that I was more interested in. Some of the interpersonal relationship pieces began to be glossed over in favor of the political pieces, and I desperately wanted more of those quiet moments with the characters, just living their lives with them to better understand the changing dynamics between them as they progressed through their education. I would have loved to get perspectives aside from Robin's to better understand the group dynamic. Then when the pacing started to really pick up and events started to push the plot forward, I wasn't as emotionally invested in the characters as I wanted to be.

Overall: despite this not being an absolute favorite, I had a fantastic time with it, and I HIGHLY recommend this book. It really highlights Kuang's talents as an author, and proves that she will be a behemoth in the SFF space moving forward.

Babel: Or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators' Revolution releases on August 23, 2022. Thank you to NetGalley and Harper Voyager for an eARC in exchange for an honest review - all thoughts and opinions are my own.

Thank you NetGalley for this ARC, in exchange for an honest review!

Wow. I am speechless. I have never read anything by R.F. Kuang before; I had no idea what to expect. This was one of the best books that I’ve read this year. The atmosphere was fantastically written. I’ve learned so much about the origins of words and about the inconsistencies of translation. You can tell that a tremendous amount of research was put into it. I grew very attached to the main characters. I have been angry, laughed, and brought to tears; it was truly a rollercoaster of emotions from start to finish. I think that it’s best to go into this book blind. It covers some very serious topics that some may find uncomfortable, but I would definitely tell people to give it a shot. I am looking forward to reading more of R.F. Kuang’s books in the future!

Robin Swift is a young Cantonese boy, orphaned by the plague that swept through Canton in the 1820s. He is claimed by Professor Lovell who becomes his guardian and takes him to England. He spends the rest of his childhood training in classical languages to prepare him to enroll in Oxford’s institute of translation known as Babel. His life at Oxford is difficult, not only because of the studies but also due to bigotry and racism, but he settles into a comfortable routine and even makes some friends. As time continues, he begins to wonder if Oxford isn’t as noble as it seems, and what sorts of secrets might be hiding within the tower’s walls.

This is a difficult book for me to rate. I really enjoyed the premise and the plot and thought they were well executed overall. I’ve got a soft spot for the Dark Academia setting/atmosphere, and this work did well at incorporating these feelings throughout the book. There was also a lot of meaningful and well written history incorporated throughout, adding to the setting and depth of the work. I learned many interesting and painful things about the colonization and economics of this time.

I enjoyed that the main characters were from different ethnicities and backgrounds. This allowed the author to explore the varying ways that colonization, education, and displacement affected different people in a way that was enlightening and meaningful. However, it was not done historically accurately, but was rather much more modern in its approach. While this isn’t inherently a bad thing, the author chose not to stray from rigid historical details in other areas that weren’t meaningful, which led to the whole thing feeling unbalanced (see next paragraph). The author also used some modern terms relating to race and sexism, which was ironic considering this work was all about the intricacies of language in the 19th century. As for the characters, I enjoyed Robin as a protagonist and felt that his development and depth was adequately explored. I had a more difficult time connecting to the remaining characters, though.

The book does have some slight fantasy elements – essentially though it’s a commentary on the industrial revolution just using some slight silver magic to add to the industry. Since this is a work with fantasy elements, I was hoping the author would stray a bit from a true retelling of history and add in alternative events, changing the outcome in some meaningful way, shape, or form. The magic of silver just felt like an afterthought that was thrown into the work to make it a pseudo-fantasy novel. The author’s note is also defending the inclusion of a make-believe building onto Oxford’s campus for her novel as well as oysters. But this is a work of fiction…These things combined detracted from this work for me.

This book is written as an exploration of language, colonization, racism, sexism, identity, and as a critique of academia (which was awesome). These are heavy topics and the author focused very deeply on language and etymology, especially as it related to the magic system. I love this idea, but the way it was executed in the work wasn’t engaging. The characters would engage in lengthy dialogues about the origin of words and their “match-pairs” in other languages; this topic would also be explored through paragraphs of exposition. While this was interesting at first, the abundance of these discussions drastically slowed down the plot and became less and less engaging to read. There were also several other instances where the work felt repetitive, further slowing down the book.


The amount of linguistic exploration so dramatically slowed down the plot and character development that it made this work much more boring for me than it should have been. I did enjoy the work overall. Many thanks to NetGalley and Avon and Harper Voyager for sending me a review copy of this work, which will be published on August 23, 2022. All thoughts and opinions expressed are my own.

normally book tend to impact me with time, the more i dwell on them the more the influence me but feeling the visceral impact this book was having on me on real time was overwhelming. its definitely already up there with my favourite books of all time…maybe even my favourite!

the next few days, as i think about the story it’s entirety, from a craft stand point and how the set up in the earlier acts result in the most heartbreaking yet satisfying pay off ever, i know i’m just gonna even more awestruck & emotional then i am now (i’m currently sobbing)

R. F. Kuang had done it again. Can’t wait to re-read, but through audiobook next time when it’s officially released. But for now i will continue sobbing over my ipad at my finished arc. Proper review when the books out.

Thank you Netgalley for the free ARC, provided in exchange for an honest review.

While Babel also shows the horror of violence and resistance and complexity of bringing about change, it is quite different from The Poppy War. The first half is world and character building. Four new students go to Oxford to study at Babel, a translation academy whose main goal is creating translators who can program silver, the method of magic that runs England, contributes to it's success at colonialism and power, and relies upon pairing words from different languages to work. Three of the four students are foreignborn, and their obvious foreign, nonwhite appearance means they cannot fully assimilate into white, British society. While, their language skills are the future of silver, they are treated by all, even their guardians, as other and not as good as. When Robin learns that his guardian is working with partners to take over China and all silver production, he is determined to bring down the British Empire at the expense of everything. While slow to get into the action, this book is a masterpiece.

Possible Triggers:
Death | Murder | Domestic Violence | Rape | Racism

Characters:
The story follows behind a single main character (Robin Swift) and his companions throughout his academia.

I don’t want to go into too many details about the people that Robin Swift spends his time with because I don't want your enjoyment to be coloured by my bad descriptions. I’ll just say that the friends he made, felt like making new friends as well. All the emotions.

Every twist and turn between the characters in this book was absolutely devastating. R.J Kuang is a freaking literary beast in terms of really making you feel what the characters are feeling. This is one of those books that when you are deep in the story you have to almost pull yourself away to check in and see if you are feeling absolutely torn to shreds, or if you are just latching onto the characters feelings and letting them drag you through their pain. 10 of 10 would suffer again.

Points of Interest:
+ The magic system in this book is vastly different then I was imagining. It's ridiculously important to the story as a whole, to the world. I’m gonna dub it macro-magic. Vast and huge consequences for its attainment and advancement, but also not used in stereotypical ways (spells and such). Not your standard sorcery.
+ Can we talk about how wonderful it is to have all the extra information included with the asterix(s?). I learned SO MANY THINGS. I love that not only is this book strongly steeped in education, but that it also taught me so much along the way. This book absolutely ticked the ‘learn something new’ box every day I read it.

Final Thoughts:
I want to preface this with how difficult it is to even write about how/what this book took me through.

What is even this book? How can I even begin to explain what the book is when I can't put it into words that can draw relevance to anything else I've read. Historical fiction and magical realism combined? This book is so difficult to even attempt to categorize. I think there is something special about how this book bridges so many different genres in such interesting ways.

The first 50% of the book was pretty slow. There was a lot of back history and the growth of the main character (Robin Swift) from youth until his current ‘todays’. While it wasn’t fast paced, it was absolutely necessary and I don't think the second half of the book would have had the impact it did without it. That being said, after the first 50% of the book, things quickly started progressing faster and faster, with the true impact of everything you learned in the first half of the book clinking into ominous place.

I felt that this book had a lot of very hard truths that are important to acknowledge, learn from, and understand, while at the same time doing it in a way that is accessible to everyone who is reading the story. Like her ‘Poppy War’ series, some of the events in the book are heavily influenced (is influenced the right word? These things actually happened) by things that happened in history.

This was not a happy read. I wouldn’t say it was enjoyable exactly. It was deeply thought provoking. It was real and devastating and points out so many failures of humanity that we are struggling with today to find the right paths to correct. I strongly recommend this book to everyone. It’s important to confront hard truths, and if those truths need to be dipped in fantasy to make them easier to understand, then I think this is an excellent way to reach many people. This book keeps sneaking back into the forefront of my mind.

Babel is simply outstanding!

Let me begin by stating that I have not yet read The Poppy War series, so I cannot make comparisons to R. F. Kuang's previous work. Not knowing what to expect, I was astounded by the depth and breadth of this "Dark Academia" fantasy. While it checks all the boxes for the genre as an historical urban fantasy that follows an academic cohort as they master their magic, it is like no other fantasy work I have ever read.

Here, we follow the story of Robin Swift, an orphaned boy from China who is "rescued" by a British gentleman and brought to England in the early nineteenth century to master the arts of silver making magic and translation. Robin is groomed through his early education at the direction of his guardian with one goal in mind; he is to attend the Babel Royal Institute of Translation at Oxford University. Together with three other select students, we follow his cohort through their education and coming of age. But as they learn and mature, Robin and his friends must come to terms with the colonialist system they find themselves both victims of and complicit with. Each must grapple with conflicted identities and loyalties and decide what is worth their lives (or their deaths).

As both an avid fantasy reader and an academic in language and literature, I found the way Kaung anchors the magic system of this world within the context of language as nothing short of genius! The magic of silver lies in how it bridges the gap between words in one language and another, capturing nuances that is often lost in translation. As a result, Kaung makes literal the essence of language as power within the context of nineteenth-century British colonialism. Robin and his cohort are important precisely because they are experts in their home language, but their privilege only extends as far as their abilities can be used for Britain's colonial ends.

As a white American woman and an Anglophile at heart, who has spent much of my life romanticizing how wonderful it would be to study at Oxford, read in the Bodleian library and even walk the courtyards in customary robes (yes I am that big of nerd completely), this is a difficult read---as it should be. Kaung pulls no punches in her critique of empire and the way in which economic supremacy is built on the labor, suffering and loss of the other. There is no denying that academia has been and still is embroiled in upholding these systems, even as it seeks to critique them. Every reader of Babel should come in with a willingness to see what is in front of them and to acknowledge the reality of what they see. I will not be surprised if some readers come away from the novel mad, seeing it as too political, heavy-handed or emotionally charged. These are tough subjects to tackle and honest critique of power is always uncomfortable- if it were it would not be doing its job. The stakes here are real, but the journey is worth it.

In short, Babel is a rare, beautiful, and important work of fiction that has the potential to shape our conversations and thinking for years to come. Read it!

Thanks to NetGalley and Avon Harper Voyager books for allowing me access to an e ARC of this novel in exchange for a a fair review.

Thank you to Avon, HarperVoyager, and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

All I have to say is wow! Babel by R. F. Kuang is an absolutely amazing, tour de force adult fantasy novel that will be a classic for ages to come. The story is set at Oxford University during the Victorian era. The protagonist, Robin Swift, is an orphan from Canton, who has been brought to England by a rich benefactor named Professor Lovell. Robin is given an education in many languages, and in exchange, when he enrolls in Oxford, he is required to work for Babel, the university's Royal Institute of Translation. But translating words isn't just a menial task in this world. In this world, translation is a form of magic that can be used for attack and conquest. When Robin learns what Babel really does, will he go along with it, or will he find a way to rebel?

Here is a magical excerpt from Chapter 1:

"Professor Lovell knelt beside the bed. He drew a slim silver bar out of his front pocket and placed it over the boy’s bare chest. The boy flinched; the metal stung like ice.
‘Triacle,’ Professor Lovell said first in French. Then, in English, ‘Treacle.’
The bar glowed a pale white. There came an eerie sound from nowhere; a ringing, a singing. The boy whined and curled onto his side, his tongue prodding confusedly around his mouth.
‘Bear with it,’ murmured Professor Lovell. ‘Swallow what you taste.’
Seconds trickled by. The boy’s breathing steadied. He opened his eyes."

Overall, Babel is a dark academia novel that will appeal to fans of The Atlas Six or VIta Nostra. One highlight of this book is how well thought-out and intricate the plot is. I can tell that the author is so, so intelligent, and it shows on every page. The parallels between history, colonialism, and the fantasy world that she created is absolutely amazing. Only a genius could have written this book. Another highlight of this book is Robin, the protagonist, who is from the Canton region. As a Cantonese-speaking reader of Chinese descent, I am so happy to see Asian representation in the fantasy genre. I am so happy to support this author for this reason.

If I had to complain about 1 thing, I would say that the book was a bit long and took me a week to read. In the end though, after finishing, I understand why it had to be that long. There wasn't any filler. Every part was necessary to tell the complete story of Babel. Also, I feel like many readers will bond over the length of the book - just like how we appreciated the experience of reading the 800+ page book Crescent City by Sarah J. Maas, for example. I feel completely satisfied with the amount of time that I spent reading this book, and I even feel like I learned something important about contemporary politics. If you're intrigued by the excerpt above, or if you're a fan of fantasy books in general, you won't regret checking out this book when it comes out in August!

“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.”

Oh I understand what you’re trying to say R.F. Kuang 😭 Make no mistake, this book may fall under the fantasy genre, but it’s so deeply rooted in history and imperialism it feels like it really happened this way. The monsters in this book are practically one and the same with those who have shaped our current world.

Through our four main characters (Robin, Ramy, Victoire, and Letty), we get an insider look into the academic setting of Oxford in the 1830s and the rampant racism, classism, and misogyny that’s often hidden from public view. All four friends are institutional outsiders, both despised and desperately needed by the same system that employs them.

In a steadily growing rage that roars from the pages, this book is a scathing condemnation of British and European colonialism. Magic in this world is just another resource to exploit, and much like their real life counterparts did, when it runs dry the powerful embark across the sea to exploit other lands and people.

Ultimately, our main characters wrestle with a relevant question to what we face today: Can powerful institutions be changed from within, or does revolution always require violence?

I hope you pick up Babel and find out what answer these beloved characters give, because if there’s only one book you read this year, let it be this one. It is the relentless resistance of those who reach their breaking point. This is no feel-good story, albeit an exceptional one. Prepare for heartbreak and the triumph that is Babel.

I received a copy of this from NetGalley in return for an honest review.

Love! Love! Love! R.F. Kuang does it again. She has such an imaginative writing style that drew me in from the very first page. I love that this is a standalone. It goes to show that not only can Kuang write an amazing series, but her standalones leave nothing to be desired. This gave me everything I hoped for and more. It had the overall feeling and atmosphere of dark academia but added a whole other layer of fantasy on top of it.

The main character, Robin Swift, who was taken as a child and brought to London to be "educated", was such a great character. I loved that we uncovered things as he did. I am growing tired of unreliable narrators and he was really a breath of fresh air.

I thought Babel touched on so many important themes. Racism, colonialism, friendships, community, and classism are all discuss while still remaining entertaining. These themes, which were explored in depth, were not bogging down the story. Instead, they enhanced the plot. I thought the use of footnotes were great as well! A lot of the time I feel like footnotes are thrown in to add something stylistically, but these footnotes I felt added information. The exploration of the various languages and origins of certain words were definitely surprising on how much I enjoyed them. Many times when a book starts to feel educational rather than entertaining I get bored, but there's something about Kuang's writing style that is so good. She feels like a fresh voice, and her creations are some of my favorite.

100% recommend and I can tell this will be one of my favorites, if not my favorite read of the year.

This is a great academia book. I loved it. It was a bit hard to read at times but otherwise good! Thanks for the arc!

i think i'm just not smart enough for this. I WANTED TO UNDERSTAND AND ENJOY IT SO BAD?????? but i could barely get past 30%. i will definitively buy the physical copy, and maybe that will help me finish it. rf kuang, i remain a fan of you!!!!

This book appealed to me on so many levels, and it delivered on every single one. This book is a masterpiece, truly. Each of the characters had clear motives, and I found I could sympathize with everyone; even if I thought they were misguided, I could still see where they were coming from and why they did the things they did. Babel is clearly well-researched, and so much love and care was put into it. I can't wait for everyone to read this and love it.

Rebecca Kuang is just such a fantastic writer. I have struggled to write this review for some time because I don't know how to articulate the feelings I want to express accurately.

The main point I want to emphasize is that this isn't your traditional dark-academia-fantasy-driven novel. The historical intricacies were so beautifully weaved in with a profound critique of imperialism, racism, and other social commentaries. Classic tropes don't apply. This could so easily be historical fiction with sprinkles of fantasy because, let's be clear, there is a magic system. Anyone interested in late 1800s history and linguistics will go absolutely feral with this story. Have tissues prepared because this is a heavily emotional book. The title, Babe, or The Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators' Revolution, is brilliantly named.

<i>I would like to thank Netgalley and R.F. Kuang for the privilage of recieving an advance copy in exchange for an honest review. </i>

I say honest, however I can in no way be unbiased when it comes to R.F. Kuang because I am 100% a fangirl at this point, but I am going to try. I also don't want to discuss specifics about the plot because this isn't out yet (you should read this yourself anyway)

Firstly: One of the reason's I'm such a huge fan of R.F. Kuang is because she writes fully realized, morally grey characters and pits them in situations that test their morals. It's <i>fascinating.</i> In The Poppy War, we had impulsive, angry, spiteful Rin, trying to decide whether to save the world or burn it down. In this story, we have a much nicer, kinder and more likeable hero named Robin Swift, an orphan from Canton who is trying to reconcile the "privilages" he's been given (even though he's never asked for them) with everything that's been ripped away from him. We watch him struggle with his identity as a third culture kid, raised to be a perfect little British boy but always feeling like an outsider.

I also love that when she wants to address an uncomfortable issue, she doesn't beat around the bush. Remember that one chapter in The Poppy War inspired by the rape of Nanking? I had never been so ICKed out by a book, and it was 1000% worse because it was inspired by real life events. She depicts real life situations in ways that make readers absolutely SQURIM. She does that again here too, except the issues are sexism, colonialism, classism and racism. These themes are blown wide open dragged over the pages and it is absolutely ruthless. It's like a car crash - it's horrifying and fascinating and you <i>cannot. look. away.</i> because you can't just say "oh this is fiction, it never happened" because you know in a way it DID HAPPEN and this author is just giving a voice to people who have been erased. You can feel every bit of scathing criticism and anger toward the perpetrators of these historical injustices; it gives me shivers just thinking about it.

Also, I think that this is one of the rare cases where comparisons to A Secret History are apt; there are a lot of similar themes here. We have an academic setting, students who are totally immersed in their studies and their only "friends" are their cohort, corruption, greed. It's all there. Also about the setting - fans of historical fiction should know the author's note also states that she put an incredible amount of time into accurately depicting Oxford University, and that aside from the whole magical realism aspect, this rang true for me. It seemed to be just a slightly more exaggerated version of actual historical events.

Lastly, I was not expecting a dark academia / alt history / magical realism to make me feel feelings. The situations Robin is placed in, and how he feels about them are strangely parallel to things I've felt before. There's really a lot to unpack here and this book asks a lot of it's readers.

In order to give some semblance of appearing unbiased, if I had one piece of criticism: this book takes a while to get going. It's a bit of a slow burn for the first half but trust me, you do not want to DNF this. It took me 5 days to read the first half but I blew through the second half in 24 hours.

5 stars and it's on my favorites shelf.

PS: this book has footnotes. if you're into that. (i am)

This book was fantastic. It was my first read by R.F. Kuang and I was blown away by the writing and the realness of her characters. It took me longer to read this than it usually would but that's simply because the book is so packed with meaning and hard truths that I needed time to diggest between chapters. My biggest regret is that we didn't get more romantic relationships between the characters, but I understand that this was not the point of the story.

I have already started recommending this to nearly everyone in my life,

Babel review
Kuangs book is the perfect mix of race and academia. This story talks about race in a way I have never read before and throughly enjoyed. Kuang doesn’t shy away from some uncomfortable parts and delivered a lot of truths that we all maybe noticed but just never had the word for. I found myself identifying with Robin because he shows what it’s like to be a token poc in a place that commodifies you. His whole existence is from a place of what you are and now who you are. I enjoyer the sense of intrigue in this book and how Kuang is able to thread little notions of betrayal into seemingly Idyllic points of the story. It further proves how masterful she is with a pen. At points where I thought dragged or were full I found myself making deeper connections or theorizing what was soon to come. Kuang gives you pieces of a puzzle in the early chapters and you’re left puzzling over them figuring out what goes where and how your theories line up with the actual truth.
5 stars. My favorite read all year.

This book is a masterpiece like everything else written by this author. This is a dark academia with exceptional character development and world building. I was hooked from the beginning and felt so many emotions while reading this. I’ll read anything this author writes and Babel did not disappoint.