Dey's reads

Hello again, ’tis me!(have you watched the new Enola Holmes movie??!)

Today, I’m going to be talking about one of my most anticipated reads since last year, that I finally got around to. Below is my review of the one and only: Babel by R.F. Kuang!

No spoilers, as always ;-p

Blurb:

Genre: dark academia, historical fiction.

1828. Robin Swift, orphaned by cholera in Canton, is brought to London by the mysterious Professor Lovell. There, he trains for years in Latin, Ancient Greek, and Chinese, all in preparation for the day he’ll enroll in Oxford University’s prestigious Royal Institute of Translation—also known as Babel. The tower and its students are the world’s center for translation and, more importantly, magic. Silver-working—the art of manifesting the meaning lost in translation using enchanted silver bars—has made the British unparalleled in power, as the arcane craft serves the Empire’s quest for colonization.

For Robin, Oxford is a utopia dedicated to the pursuit of knowledge. But knowledge obeys power, and as a Chinese boy raised in Britain, Robin realizes serving Babel means betraying his motherland. As his studies progress, Robin finds himself caught between Babel and the shadowy Hermes Society, an organization dedicated to stopping imperial expansion. When Britain pursues an unjust war with China over silver and opium, Robin must decide . . .

Can powerful institutions be changed from within, or does revolution always require violence?

My little synopsis of Babel:

Babel is about this Chinese kid named Robin (or rather renamed). He was taken from his homeland at the age of 11 to live with this very cold English man named Richard Lovell. He spent his days studying his *** off to pursue his studies at the Translation Institute of Babel. This is supposedly one of the most prestigious universities where “magic” comes from, where he can use his natural gifts to make change.

My review:

Now, I’ve read The Poppy War series and Yellowface by this author. While Yellowface was good enough, The Poppy War is one of my favorites, I just can’t forget it! So when this new book came out, guess who’s eagerly waiting to read it? Yeah, me! (amongst others)

I fell in love with her plot twists and the depths in her books and was ready to dive right in this next one.

Having said all that, I must admit finishing Babel was a conflicting experience for me. On the one hand, it’s exactly the type of thing I expected and its vibes are really right up my alley. HOWEVER, there are certain things that put me out and were a bit surprising (in a negative way).

Let’s start with the good, shall we??

Despite being a chunky book, it’s exactly the type of vibes you’d expect from R.F. Kuang. It’s dark academia, tackling big themes: colonialism, racism, misogyny, and corruption amongst others. It was fairly easy for me to get into it and by the end, the choices made by each character seemed inevitable…extreme? yes (for some), but inevitable nonetheless.

It’s quite heartbreaking to see how far colonialism have affected each character’s story. It’s like a beast that takes and takes and doesn’t get sated. Sometimes, the afflicted even seems/feels “willing.” This portrayed the experience and the feelings associated with it well.

Things to consider/improve:

Let’s move on to the bad, or not good enough parts, of which there are two main points. First, this is not a “show don’t tell” story, it’s a show every two sentences why and how exactly THIS IS BAD. Each time…It gets on one’s nerves after the first few times.

Second, while we have a lot of diverse characters, they’re all rather bland. I didn’t feel that deep connection with them, and they were defined by their nationality (to put it simply). I would have actually loved to see more POVs from Robin’s friends. There were two chapters from two different people that I recall, and it was very brief and just there for the plot. It would have been more interesting to see more of their backstory and motivations.

Did you read Babel? Do you have a book recommendation with similar vibes but better execution maybe?

PS: I’m reading one of the books from my list of books I want to read before 2026 ends and we’re off to a bad start! I think I’m gonna DNF🥲. Would you like to guess?