Do you like Dark academia? Are you an avid historian? Do you also love dystopian settings? If you answered yes, then read Babel by R.F. Kuang. Babel is about a young boy whose life was taken by Cholera and on the way, a professor takes him to China. Later on, he is taken to Oxford, England in 1828 and is thrown into a crazy adventure while getting some lessons in language so that he can join the prestigious royal institute of translation that is known as Babel.

Whenever I’m about to read or watch something, I always have an instinct which is to try it out before you judge. But when reading Babel the story takes too long to get to the point, while I stopped at chapter 3, it takes a little too long to read and drags for a while. But on the other hand, I did like how it tackles themes like colonialism and racism that affects the main characters. Even though I stopped at Chapter 3 I’ll probably give it another chance and look at what I’m missing throughout the book so I can understand it better.

If anyone wants to read Babel they can go ahead and read it, but for me, personally, I thought it dragged on for a while. I thought the plot looked interesting because people on Tik Tok were calling it an amazing and beautiful book but I personally did not like it because it kept on dragging and it was all repetitive. Maybe if I read more of it, it can change my mind? Who knows? Overall, if you are a fan of dystopian and/or Dark academia literature, then you will for sure love Babel because that is the whole theme of the book.

Heck, if I could describe it anyway, it would be Harry Potter meets dead poet’s society in a higher academic dystopian fantasy setting. If you enjoy these types of themes, or if you want to be transported to a fictional universe, then Babel is the book for you because you’re most likely going to feel like you’re inside the story, so happy reading!