I really liked this book a lot but the fatal flaw to me was how the revolutionary group was so secretive and careful and then just lets her go out for a walk in the end. I don't want to be too specific because it is a big spoiler but it was out of character for how they operated.

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I agree with almost everything you said. I don't think Victoire's section should have been moved, though, since without some changing it wouldn't make sense. >!I'm referring to how that section showed her escape.!<

One issue I have with the book is that it kept telling us everything that was going on instead of showing us. I loved the beginning, but it really lagged in the middle. The text kept saying, "They were best friends" but didn't give enough in-scene examples for me to believe this. It left me feeling unconnected to the side characters even though the book was 545 pages. >!My lack of connection was so bad that when Ramy died I nearly yawned and said "Moving on."!< I wish that instead of pages of summary, we got pages of small scenes with the characters. Instead of telling me they were studying/eating at a cafe, tell us the conversations they had.

Even though the ending was emotional, I feel like I was more sympathetic to the characters because of the situation going on and not because I felt for the characters themselves.

I also agree with the person that said the scene with Letty was odd. I was thinking, >!"Someone go with her. She's going to snitch."!<

It could have been one of the best books I ever read, but it ended up being okay. I gave it 3/5 stars, and my friend gave it 2/5.

One of the things that bugged me the most was the lack of real thought towards the world-building. We're told the British Empire is only able to maintain power through the control of silver magic, yet it seems to hold the same power that it did in our world at that time. For example, the victory at the battle of waterloo supposedly was only achieved because of the silver ships, but that victory happened without silver in the real world.>! Ultimately, it made the ending fall flat because we know what that empire is capable of without silver anyway.!<

I'm about halfway through and how they manage the return from Canton is super frustrating.

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I gave up maybe 2/3rds of the way through.

I liked the premise and the initial worldbuilding, but the exploration of race and imperialism was blunt and simplistic--like it was pretending to be saying something interesting, but was really just using those injustices as a source of plot-necesssry hardship for the protagonist.

This alone didn't bother me too much. I was enjoying the book and probably would have finished it, but then the plot shifted towards action about halfway through. This was jarring, and never quite felt real. Similar to my criticism above, because it never felt as emotionally impactful as it seemed to think it was being, everything felt a little melodramatic and "PG-13 pretending too hard to be R" like I was reading a edgy YA novel (to be fair, I felt that way about her previous books).

And maybe I just stopped too early, but the themes around "translation" didn't seem to be going anywhere.

Overall, I like that she's changing things up and think she has a lot of promise as a writer, but this felt a bit amateurish, or maybe just rushed.

I feel the Kuang doesn't do good character development, in any of her works. Babel was better than the Poppy War, by far, but I think she has a ways to go as a writer in this regard.

I enjoyed Babel more than her previous works, and I liked the connection of language. In fact I feel that the book is much more about the being an outsider bit and the examination of language than anything else.

Side note for you, when doing hidden text, don't put a space after the !, otherwise it doesn't take.

I think I fixed it. On my phone, the areas are blocked without removing the space, so I could not tell. Thanks for the heads up.