The necessity of violence.

This book has received a lot of attention and rightfully so. It scratches the dark academia itch perfectly while also criticizing elitism, colonialism, and various types of exploitation. The language is rich and beautiful and the book is clearly very thoroughly researched. I highly recommend listening to the audiobook, which is read superbly and includes accurate pronunciations of terms in many languages.

Anyway, I didn't expect myself to read a chonk of a book about translators, especially not if there's also a magic system, but here we are! And I don't regret it! I've shied away from fantasy (including urban fantasy, which I guess this is?) in general as an adult reader but this may the book that converts me to exploring the genre.

Recommended widely, but especially if you wanted to like the classic dark academia books but found the elitism frustrating, enjoy lots of footnotes, and think etymology is cool.

More thoughts here: https://youtu.be/PzkEfMJg21M