Babel by R.F. Kuang

This book was incredibly hard to become invested in and as much as I wanted to like this book, the premise sounds amazing, I just could not root for any character and the pace was agonizingly slow. The preface warned the reader that this was a story and there are differences from real history to make the story work, which alarmed me since a novel even if it is fictional history should not need this warning. Upon reading, the preface is understood there are so many footnotes about the characters, references made, languages used, etc. The reader seemed to get the background of characters from footnotes. The author is getting her PhD and the story reads more like a term paper at times than an actual story with character development and arc. The premises sounded amazing, but the slow moving pace looses this reader’s interest. The author has an impressive education and background, but this book just took a great story premise and dragged it out for so long that the reader starts to question the direction of the plot.