Anonymous #1 6d

Like not to hate on you, genuinely I just want to know why

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Anonymous #2 6d

This post was inspired by babel LMAO

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Anonymous #1 6d

Too long to explain but mainly the plot is flat and the characters all act the same. The bad guys are also cartoonishly evil

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Anonymous OP 6d

…which book? I could see this about Katabasis tbh. I haven’t read Poppy War yet

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Anonymous #3 6d

Well yes, but at the bare minimum at least she attempts to bring you (mostly) up to speed on what’s important. Like academics will always write and sound a certain way. If that’s not your style that’s ok.

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Anonymous OP 6d

Ah that’s disappointing. I wanted to like her books so bad, seems like everybody else does 😭

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Anonymous #2 6d

Please just read it for yourself and make your own opinion. My opinion and OPs opinion aren’t the same, which means yours and ours won’t. And our interpretations may not even be close either. Other people can recommend but they cannot *know* if you’ll enjoy it

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Anonymous #1 6d

That is very true, but I also have a very long tbr list of books that I absolutely 100% want to get to. A book that I’m already not sure about and that I’ve now heard several pretty mixed reviews on isn’t going anywhere near the top. With the number that’s already going take me years to read, I’d probably never get to it anyway 🫤

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Anonymous #2 6d

I’m gonna be so real, I think people’s opinions of her writing are clouded by the college workload. She’s an academic and it shows. She has multiple graduate degrees. She knows her shit and she’s done her research so of course her writing is also going to read like that. If anything, I highly encourage you to put it on the list and reconsider reading it after graduation when you’re no longer forced to read research and dense books for classes all the time

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Anonymous #1 6d

I’ve never so highly recommended a book like Babel, but I’m so serious when I say that book will be in English classrooms in 10-15 years because of how important it is in calling out power structures

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Anonymous #1 6d

I’m in my clinical semester and don’t have any books to read for class, but that wasn’t even a problem for me with her books that I did read. For me it was a weird balance of mature themes with ya writing/plot. And the pacing was … interesting. Just didn’t land for me. But I am glad that you enjoy her works! I’m sure there are several books that I love that don’t work for others and vice versa. Thats the best thing about reading, theres something for everybody 🫶

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Anonymous #1 6d

Academic writing is my least favorite. It just feels pretentious and performative. I absolutely cannot stand it which is why I’ve been putting off her books. Especially Babel, I can’t stand dark academia either. Might try the poppy war because I hear it’s the least pretentious of her books

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Anonymous #2 5d

Yes I was going to say that. It wasn’t the “academics” that turned it off for me but rather the characters writing and dialogue. It all seemed pretty cliche.

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