Babel, or The Necessity of Violence

For what? This book was this long for what? There was not nearly enough story to warrant this many pages of boredom. The etymology aspect was fascinating. The history and anti-colonialism was gripping. I didn't like how the 4 main characters were written though. I feel like they were shallow and one dimensional. I couldn't tell you much about them outside of their one personality trait. Letty's white woman tears, Robin's cluelessness, Ramy's disdain for the rest of the group, and I couldn't even pinpoint Victoire's personality (and she lived the longest...). Robin has a complete personality shift in the last book, but he just took the one personality trait from Griffin. It was frustrating. The magical aspect with the enchanted silver was interesting in concept, but felt corny in this setting. If this could be rewritten as just historical without the fiction, it probably would have been better for me. Or I would have much preferred to read from Griffin's perspective within the Hermes Society. This is clearly a historical period the author has studied tremendously. I don't know if she has studied character writing as thoroughly.