Babel

By R. F. Kuang

This book reminds me of why dark academia is a favorite subgenre of mine. It reminds me of my love of languages, of how I think I could have been happy in that career field too, my overall love of learning, and my never-ending appetite to learn.

Even though I didn’t receive this ARC directly, a big thank you to Harper Voyager and HarperCollins for printing this lovely ARC so it could find its way into my hands! I feel so lucky to have been able to read it!

I really don’t know what to say about my feelings on it. That said, I think it’s a read you need to go into fresh and ready. I wish I had read a lighter, “palate cleanser” before picking this up. And that I hadn’t read it during an exhausting time outside of reading. I think, between not doing a cleansing read and being mentally spent before picking this ARC up, it lead to me not enjoying it as much as I should have. In my opinion, you definitely can’t go into this book with a book hangover from another heavy or dark read. That’s nothing negative – some books are just like that sometimes.

There were moments where I was deep into it, that I loved it, that I didn’t want to do anything but read. And then there were moments that dragged, that I felt the need to push through, moments where I didn’t feel hooked. In the end, I think my recommendation will be the most heavily conditional of all my recommendations so far. Because, while it was good, it’s definitely not for everyone.

If you want to go into the decision on whether to pick this read up or not on more than my review, you can find the Goodreads summary here.

Before getting into my recommendation, let me describe how I would “frame” this read. It feels as though Kuang built a fantasy world, including all the societal impacts those changes would make on a historical world, and then wrote what I can only describe as a marriage, or a cross, between a research paper and a biography, with a hint of textbook. But not just one biography. It’s an in-depth biography of Robin Smith, and a short, maybe summary biography of Ramy, Victoire, and Letty. That’s not quite a perfect description, because I enjoyed the biography “bits” more than I typically enjoy biographies, but it’s unique in a way that more closely resembles a biography, in my opinion.

Recommendation: If you love academia or love learning [or, at least, love reading about it], and you don’t mind the book being a little heavy [especially in terms of academia/study, racism, and history], this book is for you. I’m loving the little bits of knowledge I’m picking up as I go, especially in the footnotes, so, if that sounds like your thing, pick this one UP. That said, please keep in mind that I’d also describe this book as dry and heavy. I know that doesn’t sound like praise, and, for some, it isn’t, but if you’re looking for something similar to The Poppy War, I found this read to be rather different. The Poppy War, while not dry, was also a different kind of heavy. I mean none of that negatively, but I know some would appreciate that knowledge up front. Ultimately, I enjoyed it, but it doesn’t even begin to compete with any of my favorite reads, and I don’t know that it leaves me wanting to reread it.

But onto non-spoilery thoughts.

Robin has had an interesting life, honestly. To go from the life he had in Canton to the life he had with Professor Lovell in London to the life he has at Babel in Oxford, he’s had quite the range of experiences. Of course, not all are good experiences, but when is life only good experiences?

I know I mentioned other characters earlier, but no true details were discussed, and so I’m going to keep my “only what Goodreads would tell you” rule going here. As muchas I’d love to discuss them, I’ll want to do that and after the spoiler line. Speaking of which . . .

**SPOILER ZONE AHEAD! THIS IS YOUR WARNING TO TURN BACK NOW IF YOU DON’T WANT SPOILERS! YOU CAN ALWAYS GO READ AND COME BACK – I’LL BE HERE WAITING!**

Alright, my biggest struggle with this book: Victoire straight up states that Letty, “cannot allow her to roam free”, and, “even the idea of Victoire is a threat.” I just don’t know that I agree there. Letty’s betrayal? 100%, I agree. Especially after reading her short “biography”. But to chase Victoire to the end of her days? I just don’t know. There IS always the chance that what’s meant is that VICTOIRE believes Letty won’t leave her be and will chase her down when she won’t actually, but that doesn’t feel like the case to me here. [Obviously, Letty and Victoire are Kuang’s characters, and therefore she knows them better, I’m just stating my opinion.]

That said, I don’t know that I can put my finger on why this book was sometimes a struggle for me. I loved it at times and struggled [hard] sometimes, and I just don’t know why. Like I mentioned earlier, Life was making me tired [honestly, usually exhausted], especially work, though hopefully that’s over now, or maybe it’s because I read a lot of books that asked a lot of me lately without letting myself recover, or maybe I just wasn’t in the right headspace for this book at this time. Depending on how reading in September goes, I’ll likely read it again then, fully published and with its final edits, and see if that makes a difference.

Moving on and back to the book content, can we talk for a second about how deep and complex these characters AND their backstory are? Beautifully done and well woven into the story and playing off each other. I think Ramy’s is my favorite, although he’s not my favorite character. [Speaking of which, I’m so excited to see the Mermild bookmarks done for this book for Illumicrate!] I’m not sure I have a favorite character, but perhaps Victoire? that said, I feel like Victoire is the character I know the least [ofthe cohort, at least], and I 100% believe I’d read a “biography” or novella about her to learn more about her.

The magic system is so interesting and unique. I’d never thought of the act of translating in quite this way [though I’ve known, what feels like always, that “things” are” lost” in translation], and translating that into not only a magic system but also the societal and worldly impact it would have is just brilliant.

This review I may come back and update/edit because my thoughts are still trying to figure themselves out over this book.

That said, I hope you enjoyed my half-baked thoughts and feelings on Babel, and I’m hoping to finish and post more reviews soon! Stay kind, stay safe, and read on!