Zakiya Daniel’s Reviews > Babel > Status Update

Things are getting serious! We’re pushing them to the brink, holding out until the end! 😬 Bated breath!

This book is crazy! 😭 In a strange, conflicting, tumultuous way. I love it and hate it, but I can’t stop reading!

My anxiety is through the roof, but ai can’t stop reading! 😵‍💫

I might have to file for worker’s comp or something for the number of times my jaw has been hitting the floor these last few chapters!! 😩

P.S. I’m simultaneously listening to and reading along with this book, and the narrator is PHENOMENAL.

The secrets, the gaslighting, the lying! I don’t know which side to take because I don’t know who to trust, who to believe anymore! 😩

Something’s going on at Babel… (with Griffin’s class???) but I can’t quite put my finger on it. Makes me a little uneasy. I’m curious, but also wary of finding out. 😬

Whew! 😮‍💨 This last chapter had me reliving the terrors and anxieties of grad school comprehensive exams!

I think these past few chapters really captures the nature of universities as their own sort of isolated institutions—circumstances and political climates change around them and yet they (mostly) remain steadfast. It also captures very well how college students can fall out of love with their institutes once the “new-car smell” from freshman year wears off.

Take a moment to comprehend the magnitude of loss that you’d feel if you could no longer speak, think, or even dream in your mother tongue—the disconnection from your culture, your history, an expanse of knowledge that you might never regain access to... Really gives more tragic weight to the phrase “use it or lose it” when it comes to language-learning.