Babel - R.F. Kuang

⭐ 8.0/10

(Originally written by Magdalene)

It was impossible not to go into this book without expectations, since I have been hearing about it nonstop on Booktok and elsewhere. It was written by the same author who wrote The Poppy Wars, which I read but didn't care for even though everyone else raves about it, but I was willing to give this one a try because it revolves around language and translation. It's a quite long fantasy, alternative history novel.

It's about Robin, a Chinese boy who gets taken to Oxford when he's young as a language prodigy, and eventually starts to attend Babel, the translation school at Oxford where they use translation for silver-working (magic, essentially). As Robin attends school, he enters a secret society and learns about a revolution that's happening to disrupt England's colonial takeover.

This book is complex, and there's a lot going on. The author is obviously incredibly intelligent and knows her stuff, and I loved the deep dives into translation theory. I was very impressed by the book, but to be honest, I never fell in love with it. I never really connected with the characters, even though they were deeply fleshed out, and there was just so much misery and suffering. I do think it's worth the read though, and I can see why there's so much hype and love for it. It just wasn't completely for me, and I think it's possible that there are people out there that don't want to admit that they didn't love it either when it seems like everyone else did.