m4rtt4's reviews
327 reviews

There are 4 months left of this year, but I am pretty condifent to have found my best book of 2023, as well as one of the best I've ever read: Babel by R. F. Kuang.

Set in the 1830s' Oxford, on a surface level Babel may seem like any other dark academia book where its main characters major in (ancient) languages, but there's so much more as nothing can ever exist in a vacuum; even the coziest corners of a university library are a reflection of the outer world, and little by little the students find themselves in a secret rebel society to fight against the injustices of the white supremacist British Empire (specifically the Opium Wars in this book).

Heavy content warnings for racism, xenophobia and colonisation, as well as violence and death — even though fictional as a whole, almost every individual element of the story still continues to happen in some way in our modern world, as our societal systems were built on this racist and exploitative history that should not be erased or belittled because we supposedly have "abolished the bad things so and so long ago". Through the character of Letty I was rightfully made uncomfortable about my whiteness; the call-out was a much needed reminder of how there is so much oppression I will never understand or have to experience just because of the way I look.

As much as I loved the plot and the writing, half of the time I was just fangirling over Kuang's expertise in liguistics and the massive amount of research that must have gone into creating a historical setting so realistic and interesting. I have studied 7 languages, and though I can call myself fluent in barely two of them, studying languages and new concepts, whole new worlds behind the words will always be a huge passion of mine. So yeah, I really loved all the educational footnotes, even the lengthy ones that took up half a page and even those with Chinese charactes I had no idea how to read (maybe some day I will).

There was also just the right amount of fantasy for my liking — it did exist, but not by any supernatural means or creatures — it was tied to languages, the every-day magic we all use because no words are ever just words. Here am I as well, trying to create deep meanings with complex sets of characters to convey you a message: Go read Babel, NOW. For your own good.

Mediocre writing and with unoriginal horror, but the plot twist was very well crafted. The book did manage to creep me out, but just a little.

funny, magical and fast to read✨

You know a story is well created when you can stretch a single murder mystery into 3 books! Things wrapped up nicely in this finale, and even though I guessed the final plot twist quite early on, I wasn't disappointed or bored but rather excited to see my own predictions become true. This one wasn't as thrilling as the second one, The Vanishing Stair (my fave in the trilogy), and so it doesn't deserve that high of a rating because

the snowed-in part seemed to drag on for ever and ever and also there were too many scenes where they just read Edward King files with nothing exciting happening

but yeah, still a great book which I binge-read quite fast.

Naoko❤️‍🩹 I truly loved her.
Actually I really liked all the female characters, though they all more or less were also used as vessels for fulfilling the author's sexual fantasies — especially Midori, her personality at times was so pick-me-girly for the sole purpose of getting Watanabe's sexual attention.

This one was a re-read, and I must say I felt it so much more now at 20 — the main characters' age — than when I first read it at 16 years old. I've read all Murakami's novels, and even though I kind of miss the magical realism that was almost nonexistent in this book, it didn't really need it either as it was deep enough just like this. I just wish the metaphor of the "well" Naoko talked about in the beginning had appeared later on in the story, it should have had a greater purpose. Overall a very melancholic yet great reading experience, but for your own good, do consider skipping this if things related to suicide trigger you.

never been a fan of the Edward King plotline (imo it's unnecessary), but apart from that I liked everything else in this book and just absolutely could not put it down. A perfect story to binge-read!! + I loved that this book focused more on the mystery part and not all that teen relationship drama like the first one.

"It's me, hi, I'm the problem, it's me."
Emotional, raw and tangible with some real good examples of how to do and not do your relationships, though it would have been better if I had related more to Alderton's life experiences (but do I wish to relate to alcoholism though?...)

All the parts where the story of her life went on were interesting and nice to listen to, but the more life guide -like parts that tried to be funny weren't really funny at all and made me cringe and wish they had been cut out. Still worth reading/listening to, especially if your sense of humour is different from mine lol

The part about getting older in the very end was my favourite one, as I have been experiencing a continuous aging crisis since I was effing 13 and it's still going strong now at 20, I'm absolutely horrified about turning 30 and yes I keep rambling on and on but yeah read this book especially if you are in your 20s or 30s thank you and bye

A good start for the series, though it was very obvious from the text that it's a part of something bigger and doesn't really work as a standalone. The characters felt pretty shallow and stereotypically one-dimensional, but I could brush that off as the book's focus was more on the murders and the atmosphere really managed to creep me out at times — also the surroundings of the boarding school were well created and described. I'm excited to read the sequel, but I seriously hope it's got some more depth and action in it🤞🏻

I'm not usually the one to long for major 'third-act conflicts' in romance, but 'twas not the case with this book — the couple got (kind of) together so early and so little happened afterwards that I would have been satisfied with anything tragic :') this book really ticked off every single romance stereotype, and yes, I might not have had the perfect mindset while reading this book, but all the predictability made it all the more boring and harder to submerge myself in as nothing managed to surprise me. Not necessarily a bad book, just awfully average.

Mielenkiintoista, mutta myös raskasta tekstiä. Kuuntelin kirjaa aina podcast-jaksojen tyylisesti tapaus kerrallaan, siihen se sopi erinomaisesti — varsinkin, jos olet itse rikoksen lisäksi kiinnostunut laajasti henkilöiden taustoista sekä ongelmista suomalaisessa systeemissä. Vaikka kukin tapauksista on monien, epäonnisten vaikuttimien summa, tuntui kirja silti välillä sympatisoivan rikoksen tekijöitä vähän liikaa miun mielestä. Vain vähän, enimmäkseen olin täysin samaa mieltä erityisesti laajemmalla yhteiskunnallisella tasolla vaikuttavista asioista, kuten rangaistuslaitoksista ja lastensuojelusta sekä niiden puutteista. Siltikään mielessäni ei kävisi hetkeäkään syyllistää tapahtuneesta lastensuojelun yksittäisiä työntekijöitä tai yksiköitä, kuten valitettavan monet tuntuvat netin kommenttikentissä tekevän, vaan ongelma on paljon laajemmalla tasolla — ehkäisevien palveluiden tarpeen aliarvioinnissa ja aliarvostuksessa, ja sitä myötä resurssien puutteessa. Ongelmia ei vähennä myöskään se, että valitettavan usein yksilöt nähdään mustavalkoisesti joko rikollisina tai ei-rikollisina — kun kerran erehtyy tekemään jotain väärin, on heti muka jo menetetty tapaus, avun ulottumattomissa pimeällä puolella. Henkirikokset ovat asia erikseen, niissä kaikki sympatiani ovat aina uhrin puolella, eikä niitä ole mielestäni riittävästi sovitettavissa millään systeemillä, mikään ei korvaa toisen menetettyä elämää. Nämäkin tapaukset olisi voitu ehkäistä niin monin keinoin..