This is a very good book.

To even put into words how captivating and well-written this book was feels impossible, which is ironic considering how much of this book is about words and language. R.F. Kuang writes with a sort of detail and intelligence that is insane. I swear I learned more in this book than I did across any of my own education, and never once was the subject matter disinteresting. There must’ve been years of studying and research put into it. For all that it was a novel focused on the main character, it was also a fascinating dissertation on language, literature, philosophy, and history. To be fair, that might not be for everyone—if you’re not interested in dense, heavy, detailed discussions on those topics, this might be a difficult book to get through. Personally, I loved it.

Babel is, to me, the book that all dark academia is trying to be. It has all of the tropes that we know and love — the university setting, the close core friend group, the darker element that draws us in — but it adds a depth that’s often lacking in the genre.

I love the main character. I love the way that he learns to define himself, and that his struggles are so realistic. This book captures the feeling of being othered so well that it hurts to read. Kuang also centers this book not just around a specific academic setting, but around a difficult and messy historical setting. It clearly hits close to home, and it maneuvers a convoluted and horrifying past without shying from the gruesome details. The racism, misogyny, and classism is not easy to read. Though it’s comforting that — unlike some authors — Kuang condemns these actions and attitudes, they are nevertheless traumatizing. Check triggers before reading.

Babel is heartbreaking, it’s excruciatingly detailed, and it’s fascinating. It very well might be my favorite book of the year. I can’t wait for this to be published so I can make everyone I know read it.

This book was a beautiful work of art. I felt so many things for the characters and the world throughout reading it. Babel touches on so many real world issues while mixing in a little bit of magic. It makes you think and want to live it. You can tell how much research went into this amazing book. The characters were so dimensional, we learned so much about them. The impact of the ending was so meaningful yet harsh but I loved it. There was a point in the book that I thought was a little slow, and I now realize the author was giving us time to fall in love with Babel and our Bablers. I adored this book, I will definitely be recommending it!

I was lucky to receive an e-ARC of this novel through NetGalley. Thank you!

To call this book a masterpiece is a gross understatement. The way RF Kuang entertains the magical system with academia, and real history is impeccable. All aspects of the novel felt completely fleshed out and believable. This false history was so well executed that one could think that this is true history.

How Kuang tackles the colonizer-colonized power imbalance through the use of (actual - sorry deniers) historical facts and through the use of language as an additional exploited resource was phenomenal. The portrayal of the key players (countries) of the time period were so vividly accurate.

As for the characters, I absolutely adored them all save for Letty. She is the embodiment of all I aspire NOT to be as a white woman ally. I understand she had "redeeming" qualities BUT nothing she could do in the future could make up for her toxic treatment of the friend group especially Victoire. I hope this serves as an eye opener for those who believe they are doing well when in reality they are not. Do not fall into ignorance, learn.

The novel's pacing and its divisions into different books were sublimely executed. If I were teaching a linguistics class, or a literature class I would find a way to incorporate this into the curriculum. I could write pages and pages on this novel but I will end with saying that you just have to experience it for yourself.

The prose, the characters, the settings, the history...all together exceptional.

Full review to come closer to pub date! Loved the commentary here and I’m looking to whatever RFK writes next!

This was EVERYTHING and way more!

I do not even have the words to properly explain how much I love this book!!!!

This book is so clever and so brilliant. The magic system is one for the nerds, especially the linguistic nerds and I was LIVING!!! The entire book is one for the academics! I loved it!
The characters were amazing! The way R.F Kuang wrote them made you want the absolute best for them at all points in time.

As an international student myself, this book raised a lot of the questions and thoughts I had previously had and answered them in a very thoughtful and thought-provoking way.
This book is simply AMAZING.

I cant go into my full feelings without making this very spoilery but just know, this will live up to all the hype and it will be worth reading every single page.

Robin is a young boy when he’s wrenched from his home in Canton and taken to England as a combination ward and experiment of an distinguished Oxford scholar. Soon, it’s Robin’s turn to enter the illustrious university. His cohort– consisting of an Indian Muslim young man, a young woman from Haiti, and a white English woman— quickly become a family, united by their differences from the rest of the Oxford population. But excelling in this world is not the same as being seen as an equal, and Robin must weigh his love for Oxford against the knowledge it will never accept him.

Incandescent. Genius. Heart-wrenching. Brutal. These are just a few words to describe this brilliant book about the violence of colonialism and racism. It’s set in a world not dissimilar to our own, except much of the world is driven by linguistic magic of which Great Britain is the undisputed patriarch. I’ve read that R.F. Kuang was inspired to write this after her own terrible experiences with racism, and the book is a visceral indictment. Highly, highly recommended.

AMAZING!! This was beautiful and educational and so fricken quotable. This will be a book of the year FOR SURE. I loved the characters when I was supposed to and hated them when I wasn’t, I couldn’t predict the ending (and panicked 30 pages before the end with the tiny amount of space that was left) and yet I was as completely satisfied??? Kuang is a genius and she’s out here calling out the colonizers

I feel the need to preface this review with an important piece of context about myself: I adore linguistics and language. Though I have little formal education in it, it’s something of a pet passion of mine, and I would consider myself relatively well versed in the subject, at least for someone who hasn’t gone to school for it. This has significantly coloured my expectations for this book, and generally predisposed me to enjoy it.

I love when you can see an author’s background and passions illustrated within their work. In Babel, it is evidently clear that Kuang is both knowledgeable and passionate about language. At times it is incredibly indulgent, and I find it absolutely delightful. I can see why some people might not like this as much as I do. At points in the book, you get a snapshot of the lectures that the students in Babel receive, which amounts to a paragraphs long explanation about language, the technical and ethical problems inherent in translation, etc. Brief asides about etymological connections are frequent. I don’t think any of the concepts discussed are particularly advanced or inaccessible, especially since Kuang explains them clearly, but some readers may find it tiresome. Personally, I loved it.

Kuang is not shy about the racist and sexist attitude of 19th century England. She doesn’t try to rewrite it to have more modern sensibilities. At times it can be uncomfortable to see these prejudices manifest, but they are as important, as central, to the story being told as the philosophy of language and translation. Some characters use racist slurs, so people sensitive to that should be forewarned.

As for the story itself, I adored it. There are touches of Great Expectations mixed with all the politics of Imperial Britain. The interactions and relationships between the main four felt comfortable and relatable. I ended up reading the entire back half of the novel in pretty much a single sitting, I was so entranced. It gets brutal, but that much is hinted at even as early as the title page. There is enough room left at the end for a follow up, but not so much that it feels like it needs one. Regardless of whether Kuang writes more in this world, the story told in Babel is complete and stands on its own.

Ultimately, this book just felt special to me. It felt like a book that was written for the demographic of specifically me. It was magical to read. I find myself caught between trying to hoard it to myself because it’s *my* book, and trying to force everyone I know to read it so they can feel the same way this book made me feel. More than anything, though, I’m happy to have read this book, and hope that many more people will find joy in it.

R.F. Kuang is an absolutely fantastic author. This book really takes you to Oxford and shows you the trials and tribulations that minorities and those who are poor can face. I am truly floored by how hard it really hit my emotions from start to finish. I did find the book a little bit hard to get into because there was quite a bit of information to learn and the quick adapting to the plot that was occurring. However, this book is so beautifully well written that you will quickly get through the world building and find yourself deep into the arms of Babel. This is a novel that will definitely stick with me for a while because of the undertones of reality that were intertwined within this book.

All of the characters had fantastic development and you really can see them stick to their truth and see where their strength comes from. The plot is very deep but also such a tense adventure that you’ll want to read it in one sitting. Overall, this was an amazing story and I would 100% recommend this. 4.5/5 stars from me!

I was given an e-arc but was not paid. I am leaving this review voluntarily. Thank you for the opportunity.

Such an absolute thrill to be back in Kuang’s gorgeous, brutal prose. One of my favorite things about Poppy War was the time spent in the academy before everything turned to war, so I was so excited to get more dark academia in Babel—tea and lemon biscuits and robes and reading old texts until sunrise, UGH can’t get enough.

Kuang writes with delicious descriptions, where you see every inflection and feel every slight the cohort experiences. Watching the way they (Victoire more than anyone) had to maintain politeness and poise in the face of ignorance, condescension, and racism was bleak, and written in a way that you carried their anger with you after you finished the book.

It felt like a stand-alone but also like it offered Kuang space to continue to play in this silvery world, and I’d be excited to see more. I’d recommend this to anyone with a taste for fantasy. Other than just the sheer length being daunting, it was a quick absorbing read.


Thanks so much to NetGalley for this ARC; I out loud screamed when I was auto-approved.

I feel so privileged to have been approved to read this eARC of Babel. What an honor, to have read such a comprehensive and brilliant novel about human perseverance and the struggle for morality to prevail.
As you enter the world of Babel, you are introduced to Robin Swift who has been “saved” by the mysterious Professor Lovell. From then on, the reader is invited to experience all the highs and lows of Robin’s life as a ward of the Professor and his entry at Oxford. What unravels during Robin’s career at Oxford is not only deeply unsettling in its horrid, thinly veiled lies, but is an ever-growing battle of Robin’s soul. Robin is seeing first-hand how destructive the British Empire is and will continue to be unless he can do something. I deeply appreciated the inner struggle he was battling with; should he betray the thing that has essentially saved him, preventing such senseless violence to happen?
I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. To be frank, the number of pages in this novel was intimidating! I feared that the slow pace of the book would make it hard for me to keep my interest. However, my concerns quickly melted away, all thanks to the beautiful prose. Babel is one of those novels that intensely captivates you until you’re clutching the book (or in this case, my iPad) as you read the final pages. It’s so consuming, that you must cover the pages of the book with your hand and read line by line, so the temptation to stray your eyes ahead does not spoil what comes next. It’s THAT good!

Thank you SO much to Netgalley and Avon/Harper Voyager for the opportunity to read Babel in exchange for a review!

Babel is a fantasy world of the early 1800s rooted in thematics of race, historical imperialism, literature, and language creating the well-known and favored 'Dark Academia' storyline. It is done so well with the magical aspects of silver not straying too out of bounds, that it entirely feels like this could be an alternate history of the world we currently inhabit.

Without giving too much away as I do not want to attempt at explaining this story to you (that should keep to the hands of R.F. Kuang herself), we follow the four core main characters Robin, Ramy, Victoire, and Letty. All plucked out of their individual and complicated lives, creating their class at Oxford University's prestigious Royal Institute of Translation or better known as Babel. Each struggled with figuring out how to navigate around the Univ as outsiders while desperately trying to find solace within each other despite their apparent differences. Yet their forefronted similarities ultimately brought them together to create that comfort with each other to lean on. I applaud Kuang for how she characterized each of these four, regarding their upbringings, beliefs, privileges, and complicities, especially within their positive and negative traits. Not every interaction between these four was joyous and happy—their differences had them at each other's throats, annoyed, and sometimes entirely disappointed in one another. It surely is a growth of rage, so take that as a warning that there are things that will hurt, bring anger, and frustration upon the reader.

Everything revolves around silver and to make the silver work, that revolves around fluency in language, which is why Babel is soo important to London making it powerful and what ultimately made Oxford wealthy. The four are put through brutal studies in each of their specialized languages, we see them going through hysterics over how hard they each work to pass and be accepted the following year. However, their knowledge is serving the power, and they are seen as all too important but expendable overall. This puts them caught between two different options for life yet neither is all that ideal. It all comes down to a breaking point and a decision on which path to follow and what to sacrifice or are willing to sacrifice.

Kuang is marvelous. I had seen that this book was put into motion based on the racism Kuang herself experienced and bore witness to during her time attending Oxford and for that this read felt even more real and stung deep. This book is jam-packed with knowledge from her own studies and experiences. This will be one of my top reads of 2022, I know that as of right now.

Babel was, in some ways, the ultimate dark academia book, being both quite dark and quite academic. I appreciated the periodic footnotes for the academic feel they gave, and certainly got a good few flashbacks to college from the thorough descriptions of classwork. Fundamentally, though, this is a book about where academia meets colonialism, and explores the violence inherent to that intersection. Parts of the story felt like a revenge fantasy against the colonial powers that be-- which I imagine could be quite validating to those who have been victim to those powers, even with said revenge being anything but quick or easy. R.F. Kuang is really unparalleled when it comes to showing the ways destructive systems leave no one unscathed, while keeping the focus on those most affected and letting those characters be full, messy, angry, and tragically human.

AAA this was so so so good! the dark academia vibes just gave everything to me. RF Kuang is for sure an auto buy author for me, after the poppy war, I've just loved everything.

This was brilliant.

On TikTok, RF Kuang joked that her villain origin story is that she experienced so much racism at Oxford that this book was born, and I could feel this as I read it. The blurb also describes it as "a thematic response to <i>The Secret History</i> and a tonal response to <i>Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell</i>" which I found apt, but there are also really amazing themes of race and belonging. This is dark academia with international politics and a deep look at marginalization and justice. It manages to explore identity and allyship. And there's a good dose of linguistics.

This is the story of a different world of the 1830s, one where translators are vaulted for their ability to work silver which keeps the world running. This silver work keeps bridges standing, roads safe, and ships afloat. It has the power to kill and heal. Our main character leaves his home in Canton (Guangzhou) under the guardianship of an Englishman to one day be a translator. We follow as he struggles to figure out his place in the world and where his loyalties lie.

This book is also about a found family, and parts are joyful. But it's also violent and heartbreaking. I loved Kuang's debut novel, <i>[book:The Poppy War|35068705]</i>, and this was a much more epic book in every dimension. This solidifies, for me, that Kuang is a force to be reckoned with, and I'll read pretty much anything she writes from now on.

I’m also just floored by the amount of research that must’ve gone into this book. Kuang holds multiple degrees (from Cambridge and Oxford and is currently working on a PhD at Yale), and you can feel her academic rigor throughout this whole book.

<i>I received this book from Harper Voyager and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. </i>

Babel is a fantasy novel out to interrogate the genre. That’s not particularly rare—books subverting typical fantasy tropes are common—but Kuang is doing something much more academic and unique. Babel is as academic as it is action-packed, a dissertation on colonialism wearing the clothes of Harry Potter.
Kuang has high ambitions, and she almost entirely succeeds. The central metaphor of the book—a magic system involving translation—is an extremely clever illustration of colonial powers’ insatiable appetite for resources. Robin’s journey is compelling and believable, as are his relationships with his three fellow translators. Kuang takes time to develop his entire cohort, to varying success—Ramy and Valerie occasionally feel thin. By the third and fourth acts of the novel, Kuang is freely smashing the conventions of her genre to create something new.

I’m not sure if I’ll ever have the right words to review this book but wow. It’s phenomenal. If you’ve read The Poppy War, you know what you’re getting into with this one. The first half of the book I found myself giddy at the beautiful life Robin gets to finally live at Oxford. Then….a lot of stuff goes down. My illusion was shattered - and I think that’s precisely the authors point. This is not a happy book, but it is a very important book.

Also…a magic system through the bond of silver and language?! Utterly brilliant.

A riveting dark academia, historical fantasy title that interrogates the history of colonialism and empire making. The linguistics based magic system was clever and the use of footnotes added to the reading experience. Babel is filled with complex and nuanced characters and R.F. Kuang tells a gripping, heartbreaking, and, ultimately, hopeful tale of resistance and revolution.

4.5/5

Babel is a coup de maître — the dark academia to end all dark academias. It's a single brute strike that arches with its unhurried development and later releases the blade with a sudden cataclysm; it's violently ruminative and thoughtfully intense.

Kuang's evolution as a writer is evident, as is her entrenchment into the act of writing itself. The novel is at once accessible in prose while demanding of the reader that they should think. Babel's message is blatant, but it's one that necessitates the relaying of a cold, explicit truth — the themes are relayed and then combed through again and again, each time with renewed urgency, each time with a layer of understanding restaged. As a reader, I not only absorbed but also learned so much from its deeply-rooted history and well-researched elements.

Where Babel loses some of its potential momentum is, as many have iterated, its characters. I debated for a long time whether Letty's huge presence was written as a condemnatory display of casual racism gone awry, or whether the space she takes up purposefully serves to portray how people of color are backgrounded in their own stories by their white peers. Either way, it was disorienting to see how her character was afforded so much complexity and time when so many others — Ramy, Griffin, Anthony (and in the beginning, Victoire), etc. — fell flat and into one-dimensional arcs. Robin, meanwhile, serves as a great vehicle for Babel — quietly observant, self-conscious, flawed — but I wish there was further space permitted to the discussion of his feelings in a more intimate sense, rather than his emotions being relayed to the point so sterilely. The gravity of his ideological switch isn't treated with as much weight as I think it could have.

But goddamn, even with these shortcomings, the plot navigates towards an incendiary climax. I was shell-shocked by the novel's denouement and utterly decimated by how it tackled its content. Where dark academias often err are failing to perform institutional critiques, but Kuang turns it on its head by making such critiques the focal point. There's no ambivalence, even as much as the book turns to Oxford in bittersweet address and embellishes the pursuit of knowledge — such issues require violent overturning, as Robin learns.

It's rare to see so much passion pouring forth in a book. Kuang penetrates deep into linguistic history and anti-colonial themes with all the force of The Poppy War and then some, probing searchingly into the complexities of the English empire with a nuance that's incredible when paired with the book's astonishingly original magic system and cast of characters. The meaning lost in the act of translation and its transformation into an imperial weapon was parsed so thoroughly — and with such fervor — that it's impossible to not be riveted.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing a free eARC in exchange for an honest review.

5⭐️

Long review incoming- this was dark academia at its best, and I ended up falling in love with this book.

Babel is a thrilling, compelling, brilliant read by Kuang. She deftly navigates the double edged sword of academia, and I’m in awe of the portrait she’s painted of 19th century Oxford. There are so many things to love about this book: the unique magic system of silver working, the “found family” of the cohort of translation students, the Robin Hood-esque secret society, and the commentary on the dark undercurrent of colonialism. Babel is equal parts poignant and entertaining.

“An act of translation is always an act of betrayal.”

Robin, our protagonist, is a Chinese-born student that was transplanted by his guardian to London, and raised in a purely academic, emotionally-void setting in preparation for a place in Oxford’s Royal Institute of Translation.

Once there, his journey navigating Babel is a sobering examination of the paradox of studying abroad, and the propaganda of western teaching. Foreign language and English’s roots in foreign tongues are the whole foundation of Babel, yet the “privilege” of studying here chips away at human connection and heritage in favor of assimilation and work that is purely for the benefit of the “cultured” empire. It was heart wrenching watching Robin grapple with internalized racism and the exploitation of his knowledge.

The betrayal of translation is not just distortion of an original meaning, but the devastating irony that Robin tucks away his Chinese identity even though it is what earned him a spot at Babel. He inhabits a white, British identity, when all along it is his native tongue that he is heralded for, and his native tongue that can help dismantle an empire.

“…unjust were the foundations of its fortunes.”

This book tackles tough themes, but in an unbelievably engaging, cognizable manner. The dichotomy of London and the class divide was superbly illustrated. Attitudes towards Robin and his cohort because of their skin or gender or birth place, or the white students’ stance that Oxford merely filled a diversity quota, are sadly still relevant topics today.

Perhaps the biggest paradox is that it is outsiders who inscribe words on silver bars which keep London wealthy and operating, yet the scholars often required a white counterpart to vouch for their ability to perform maintenance on the very bars they created; it is the knowledge that the cohort’s work betrays their own homelands.

On another note, the relationship between Letty, Robin, Remy and Victoire was truly a rollercoaster. The characters were well fleshed out, and I enjoyed the progression of their development both as individuals and as a cohort. Though set in another century (and another country), I was easily transported to campus, experiencing Oxford vicariously through them.

“She learned revolution is, in fact, always unimaginable. It shatters the world you know. The future is unwritten, brimming with potential. The colonizers have no idea what is coming, and that makes them panic. It terrifies them.”

The resistance versus empire theme was gripping, and I so appreciated how Kuang had different characters approach reconciling their utopian bubble of Babel with the horrors both outside their tower and abroad. Arguably the biggest lesson here was that acknowledging inequality means examining our foundation of privilege. The writing manages to make the reader feel optimistic at some points, and utterly hopeless the very next.

“She knows her greatest obstacle will be cold indifference, born of a bone-deep investment in an economic system that privileges some and crushes others.”

At times, the issues that Robin and cohort face feel impossible. One of the saddest parts of the book is Robin’s realization that he cannot rely on the decency and goodness of people to see what is right, but rather he must convince them to care.

As a nerd, I was head-over-heels with the etymology woven throughout, especially the examples of false friends, and the explanation of how Chinese radicals can inform character meaning. I also really loved the addition of the footnotes. This was simultaneously the most academic, most poignant, and most interesting work I have ever read.

Thanks you endlessly to Harper Voyager for the ARC.