573 reviews for:

Katabasis

R.F. Kuang

4.01 AVERAGE

arsilyn's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous dark mysterious reflective medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

emilyhays's review against another edition

3.0

slow-paced

promiscuousreader's review against another edition

4.75

adventurous challenging dark inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Wow. I feel like i went on a spritual journey with this book. 

charlotte_b17's review against another edition

4.5

adventurous dark informative mysterious slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

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Lucky enough to have received an arc of this book (ty!) 🫶🏻. 

I am extremely worried about how this book has been marketed. This is not a romantasy, it is 500 pages of history, and philosophy set in a fantastical version of Cambridge as Kuang sets out to embody Dante’s Inferno. If you are going into this thinking that it is a traditional love story I believe you will probably feel a) Cheated or b) Hate it. It was dense and a lot slower pace wise than the previous books I’ve read by Kuang however I loved it. It was interesting and odd. I adored Alice and Peter. I think I related to the feeling of drowning in academic papers and surviving on caffeine while your famous tutor neglects. However, I will say they are far more dedicated than I ever was. I do think the middle section could have been trimmed down a little but apart from that I enjoyed it throughly. I do wish they’d have included the Babel footnotes as well because while I got a lot of the references I am sure to have missed some (by some I mean many). The hours of research that must have gone into this book astounds me. I will say as a PSA that I am a R F Kuang fan (if Rebecca has no fans I would be dead) and enjoy her style (academic paper with fun fantasy elements with large brilliant blocks of description) so this was always going to be at least a 3 star. 

lala_books's review against another edition

5.0

challenging emotional medium-paced

Loveable characters: Complicated

plibrarian's review against another edition

4.5

adventurous challenging dark funny reflective slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

vierdefleu's review against another edition

3.5

adventurous dark funny reflective tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

a_raptor_named_arsenic's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful reflective tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

lily_cak3's review against another edition

3.5

adventurous slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

juliahanadi's review against another edition

4.0

challenging dark reflective slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes