I want to start out by saying this was one of my most anticipated reads of this year and I really wish I could’ve loved it, but sadly I didn’t. This book was just not for me and that’s okay. I hope it finds whoever it is meant to.

Babel is a thematic response to The Secret History and thematic response it is. This book, like her series before, highly focuses on colonialism, the exploitation of people in colonized areas, trade being a major influence on politics, war, rich vs. poor, and a colonized or marginalized character trying to liberate themselves from oppression.

Babel is supposed to follow four uni undergrads that are plucked from their lives to be expendable translators, sponsored by benefactors, for this spec-fic version of England and the tower of Babel. However, it mostly follows Robin, who is primarily focused on compared to the other three in the group: Ramy, Letty, and Victoire. I can say that Robin is probably the best written out of the group since you spend the most time with him in the story, however even this fell flat by the ending – there’s little to no character development with Robin. He’s naïve, he’s cowardly, and the mixed-race kid of the group who struggles with his ties to Canton and England. Ramy comes from a more prominent family in India and basically just fights with everybody over everything, sometimes just to get a rise out of another character. Victoire is French Kreyole and is just there to be a sort of peacekeeper between the group. Letty also came from a prominent family in England, and she’s fleshed out to be the evil white lady that doesn’t see color until it affects her and nobody in the group really likes her, she’s just there to be a catalyst of future events. I guess I should’ve put spoiler warnings for that since you won’t find that out until well after 50% into the book and only through 3 chapters that give you this info. Other side characters are reduced to footnotes in the book, and this makes it hard to even care about the plot or chaos that occurs nearing the end of the book.

You wade through a sea of slow, info-dumping with snippets of the plot peeking out to keep your interest every 25% or so. This book reads like a narrative non-fiction book with a sprinkle of magic that could or could not have been in this book. The magical mechanics could’ve been removed, and the plot would’ve probably remained the same, however it would take out the etymology and the power of language Kuang highly focused on throughout the book. The mechanics of this fictional world relies on words, their translations, and the exploitation of expendable, overworked people from poor or foreign backgrounds. Its very much reminiscent to the needs that allowed the Industrial Revolution to occur (which is also present in the book but powered through silver and words instead of coal and steam engines), but whatever. I will say that the book does seem like something Kuang is highly educated in and well researched on. However, this didn’t keep me interested. Throughout the entirety of this book, I felt like I was reading somebody’s peer-reviewed academic journal. I love reading about these subjects, I love history and often read about these things as I study them in university but even that didn’t make it enjoyable for me. The subjects felt forced and that there was no room to think for myself on these things; this extends to even her characters where if they are the villain – that’s all they are, nothing more.

Overall, this book was a bombardment of themes she’s already explored, arguably more entertaining in the Poppy War series, but more in depth in Babel. The use of footnotes to gloss over characters, motives, and events instead of 1) just leaving them out or 2) putting them in the story and elaborating on them made it extremely hard to get through or care about certain characters or things other than the theme of the book which may have been Kuang’s intent for all I know. I really wish I could’ve loved this, but I ended up finishing it out of pure spite by the end, instead of enjoyment. It’s a well-written book, on themes that should be discussed, but it was overall not enjoyable to me. The characters were stereotypical, the plot twists were predictable, the chaos and death I was supposed to care about – I didn’t when the characters weren’t developed enough for me to care. I’m sad with this one man, like I said it was one of my most anticipated reads for me this year and it was just a let down of all sorts.

Disclaimer: I received Babel as an ARC and I'm voluntarily leaving this review.