Babel, or The Necessity of Violence

WHAT THE FUCK


my first 5 stars this years...wow

i have so many thoughts i can't parse right now but just wow.

for someone who doesn't particularly enjoy historical fiction nor do have the patience to understand tedious fantasy lexicon, babel has such way for me to be able to understand it all so easily. my reading went on breezily that i didn't even feel any tiredness or ‘umay' despite the long chapters. it was just so good and the writing reels you in even when it seemed like there's nothing particularly eventful going on.

i have to admit that in the middle of reading i got so worked up during professor lovell and robin's ‘stand-off' that i ended up consulting good ol google for reprieve and got spoiled so i knew who survived and who didn't (actually, i only knew about victoire and robin's bcs i've read a two sentence spoiler. so letty's and ramy's was still a shock to me) and upon being spoiled i got vaguely disappointed because as a normal person i was rooting to robin too hard and doesn't want him to perish.

but boy, when i get to that part, i started to understand the motives and thought-process about his chosen path that i just can't be mad about how it all ended. i was screaming, crying, losing my mind throughout the end. like, when his last thoughts was just about remy...man it's like i was with him during the collapse of babel.

AND that part when victorie mentioned griffin's letter about them not being the only ones. CHILLS, LITERAL CHILLS.

r.f kuang, i was not familiar with your game. thank you for showing me a beacon of hope from what it seemed like a thoroughly helpless cause.