i cracked open Babel and it stole my soul. i have so many pictures of its pages because everything R.F. Kuang says is memorable. but i also genuinely have no idea how to feel. i feel like i learned so much but then left my feelings behind. i cried multiple times. i was in shock. i was in awe. these young students made such a big impact. they changed the world. how necessary is violence? everything in this book led to its ending but i never saw it coming.
i’m a sucker for those endings where they tell their story and hand it off to someone else to spread. it just breaks my heart.
i fell in love with these characters and i lived through them. the way they’re written, you’re stuck with them until suddenly, it’s all ripped apart. all the allusions hit me so hard and i loved the footnotes. genuinely one of my favorite reads.