Reviews - Katabasis | The StoryGraph

573 reviews for:

Katabasis

R.F. Kuang

4.01 AVERAGE

sorodeeznuts's review against another edition

3.5

adventurous challenging dark mysterious reflective slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

When I heard RF Kuang was releasing another novel, my excitement was through the roof, and I couldn’t wait to get my hands on her writing. 5/6 of RF Kuang’s works read… she never fails to amaze me, but this one, like Babel, was just a touch disappointing. As one of my favorite authors, I hold her to a higher standard compared to others I may read. And a dark academia fantasy where 2 academic rivals journey to Hell to bring back their mentor from the dead? This should’ve been something I ate up, a premise made exactly for my tastes, but it just falls flat. While I admit I liked the execution of Katabasis more than Babel, Babel’s thesis was a lot more ingenious and clever, and the themes of colonialism presented in Babel were a discussion long needed. But Katabasis was fun in a way that Babel hardly was, at least for me.

But my main problem with this book, like Babel, was that they were so damn slow. Reading how intellectual and brilliant the theories Kuang wanted to discuss were a delight, but there were a lot of slow, dragging parts in the novel that could have been edited or even cut out,

especially when Alice was alone.

There were a lot of references to mythologies, philosophical ideas, and logical syllogisms, which were all interesting and all, but I feel like I missed out on a lot of the easter eggs and even bigger points Kuang might have been trying to express. I also love reading about different myths, so reading about the Weaver Girl and seeing familiar words like Hades, Cerberus, etc, excited me all over again. However, it felt like there was not enough story and too much introspection. Even the appearance of the big bad "villains" started and ended in the blink of an eye, which made them seem like a joke. Alice, as a main character, was confusing to me, and until now I can't decide if I like her, which made sense as she was a morally grey character, but being in her head for the majority of this novel felt annoying and also boring. I wish we got to know our main characters better and a LOT earlier on in the story. I wish we were given more of Peter's thoughts from his perspective. I do like Alice's arc and realizations with

feminism and this internalized misogyny she had felt realistic

. I appreciate what Kuang tried to discuss while relating it to women in the academe. I LOVE how things ended with Grimes, and how Alice handled things with him. Also, one last bone to pick I have was the ending, as it felt too abrupt for me, and I wished Alice and Peter had

been able to be more forthcoming and open about their feelings and communicate better. So SO many things could've been fixed had they communicated. It felt like she brought him back to life, whooshed back into the mortal world, and tada, the end!

I know I said the book kept dragging on, but the last few pages could've been edited better. Lastly, I love Elspeth, and I liked Gradus.

I yapped too much, but I just wanted to put all my thoughts somewhere. I still like this book, but I wish loved it like I loved The Poppy War trilogy.