Take a photo of a barcode or cover
4.0 AVERAGE
4.0 AVERAGE
challenging
emotional
medium-paced
Loveable characters:
Complicated
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
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
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
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
challenging
dark
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
emotional
reflective
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
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
My feelings toward Katabsis changed greatly over the process of reading it - I initially found the characters immensely difficult to root for, and being in their heads because of it was tough. As shown in her previous works, however, RF Kuang writes beautifully and engagingly - by the of the novel I was completely emotionally invested, caring deeply about Alice and Peter depiste their (seemingly apparent) flaws. The ending was almost heartwarming, in a strange way.
The mental health representation here is spot on, and because of that I would give a large trigger warning. I’m also unsure if I would ever re-read it - I felt positively grimy at times during this reading experience. The slow unravelling of the different perspectives, and how even those with a supposedly “perfect” memory coloured their experiences with their own subjectiveity, was really interesting - but I do wonder if it would be most effective first time round.
A phenomenally well-executed book, Katabasis gave my brain lots to chew on, and my heart plenty to feel - but I am unlikely to revisit it any time soon.
Thanks to HarperVoyager and Edelweiss for the ARC.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicidal thoughts
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
adventurous
challenging
dark
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
ugh review didn’t save so rewriting
quick summary
- i’ve been super hyped for this book since i learned the premise
- i was worried i overhyped it + i was seeing some mixed reviews
- im so glad i read it because it was amazing i got thru it in like 2 days genuinely could not put it down
now for more coherent thoughts
first i love how this book started off and got right into the action with alice going into hell. i’m so glad there wasn’t a bunch of exposition because i really enjoyed learning about the details of her motivations as the book went along. like from the onset of the book i feel like i viewed alice as a straightforward protagonist— she was determined to fix her mistakes and seemed like a clear victim of the professor. but i feel like as the book goes on and we get to know her better she becomes more morally gray to a certain affect. and then by the end i think she overcomes the flawed parts of herself and it really circles back to being excellent character development. i will probably come back to her later. but next i want to acknowledge how cool the presentation of magic was in this book. i’ve read a couple books where it is presented in a scientific way but the imagining of it as paradoxes and logic puzzles was so beyond cool like rf kuang your brain… it felt just so innovative and creative that i can’t help but gush about it. i feel like most other authors would leave details like this in the abstract. but kuang just explained every one of the tricks and i feel like it made the world so much more immersive. being completely honest i didn’t understand most of what was being said (it was very vibe based) but i feel like it struck the perfect balance between being too complex and too simple. i thought it was cool how alice and peter skull set was divided between linguistics and math. speaking of alice and peter. many thoughts. first peter would honestly def be my type 🙁 and i cannot blame alice one bit #oxfordstudyatcambridge . like my girl was so down bad for him and i could really just relate to her sm because i would also pine after a guy for a long time but never actually properly communicate my feelings (even after he offers to sacrifice himself while we are in an unbreakable trap). next, i didn’t necessarily feel giddy reading any of their scenes but i did root for them a lot. it was a little frustrating for them to have the miscommunication trop with the “if alice” but i can see why it would make sense in alice’s head. like i would also be offended if i got accused of eating out of someone’s hand. i will say i was a big fan of the toxicity between the two. sometimes in enemies to lovers books, the girl perceived the guy as the enemy while the guy is just clueless and in love w her. and that’s cute sometimes but also makes it seem like women r errational. but there are genuinely times where both peter and alice are mean to each other (alice more so) but i think it makes their reconciliation stronger. i will say that alice was giving femcel vibes sometimes and idk if that’s even fair to say but honestly she was just being real 🤷♀️ like certain times she would talk abt peter or other women w such resentment that it bordered on being a little problematic. this transitions into my thoughts on the next major theme of the book, alice’s relationship w professor grimes and being a victim. i don’t think ive ever been so utterly floored by how power dynamics in a book have been written. because of the amount of romance i read i feel like there tend to be a good amount of books where a character has dealt with predators in their backstory. however it was a really central point of this story and it was done masterfully. when the book starts out, i thought that alice would kind of get over her idealization of grimes pretty quickly. and then as the book went on, u just witness the incredible lengths that she goes through to protect and defend him. at first u obviously feel bad for her because it’s so clear how much his manipulation has worked. then as you learn more and more about how alice herself disregarded women continuously and passed judgement on them, you almost start to give up on her. like ok fuck u have fun with ur creepy professor. i feel like u can almost compare it to trad wives. like on one level, i empathize with you as a victim of a world that convinced u that ur role as a woman was to serve a man. but on the other, i dislike them for furthering their narrative on to other women and defending their situations. like the way alice talked about feminists was insane to say the least and i honestly found some satisfaction in seeing her get humbled by that female professor. at the same time, it was also insane to see her get just brushed off when she asked for help. i think the ultimate lesson was very much reminiscent of “i never thought the leopards would eat my face.” alice thought she would be the one to rise above all the messiness of womanhood but in the end, she couldn’t escape it. i think the insane length of this character development just made the ending so much better. like her finally sacrificing professor grimes was the best payoff for an incredibly grueling journey. i think that one thing that was handled a little bit questionably was the food. like there are very clear themes of eating disorders here and i think they connected pretty well to my thoughts above. but like, there was just so much discussion about it. how alice was so much better at surviving hell because she had grown accustomed to better food and how amazing it felt on earth to go long periods of time without eating. this plot line was ultimately resolved as we saw how she eats the jaguar (?) and rats. and i think it is cool how there was the implicit lesson that she became more strong when she was actually nourished. i understand that the glorification of the hunger was a result of the unreliable narration but it just felt a wee bit triggering to read. god my fingers hurt from writing this much and i’m incredibly sleepy. but i think i wanna finish off by saying that i loved the character of elspeth and how alice kind of came to understand her despite originally disregarding her. like idk every reveal was so crazy. i remember my jaw actually dropping when i learned what alice was going to do to grimes. and that ending was amazing and im so glad it was happy even though it should not have been. amazing book 10/10 i could literally keep gushing about it if i wasn’t abt to pass out from sleepiness.
quick summary
- i’ve been super hyped for this book since i learned the premise
- i was worried i overhyped it + i was seeing some mixed reviews
- im so glad i read it because it was amazing i got thru it in like 2 days genuinely could not put it down
now for more coherent thoughts
first i love how this book started off and got right into the action with alice going into hell. i’m so glad there wasn’t a bunch of exposition because i really enjoyed learning about the details of her motivations as the book went along. like from the onset of the book i feel like i viewed alice as a straightforward protagonist— she was determined to fix her mistakes and seemed like a clear victim of the professor. but i feel like as the book goes on and we get to know her better she becomes more morally gray to a certain affect. and then by the end i think she overcomes the flawed parts of herself and it really circles back to being excellent character development. i will probably come back to her later. but next i want to acknowledge how cool the presentation of magic was in this book. i’ve read a couple books where it is presented in a scientific way but the imagining of it as paradoxes and logic puzzles was so beyond cool like rf kuang your brain… it felt just so innovative and creative that i can’t help but gush about it. i feel like most other authors would leave details like this in the abstract. but kuang just explained every one of the tricks and i feel like it made the world so much more immersive. being completely honest i didn’t understand most of what was being said (it was very vibe based) but i feel like it struck the perfect balance between being too complex and too simple. i thought it was cool how alice and peter skull set was divided between linguistics and math. speaking of alice and peter. many thoughts. first peter would honestly def be my type 🙁 and i cannot blame alice one bit #oxfordstudyatcambridge . like my girl was so down bad for him and i could really just relate to her sm because i would also pine after a guy for a long time but never actually properly communicate my feelings (even after he offers to sacrifice himself while we are in an unbreakable trap). next, i didn’t necessarily feel giddy reading any of their scenes but i did root for them a lot. it was a little frustrating for them to have the miscommunication trop with the “if alice” but i can see why it would make sense in alice’s head. like i would also be offended if i got accused of eating out of someone’s hand. i will say i was a big fan of the toxicity between the two. sometimes in enemies to lovers books, the girl perceived the guy as the enemy while the guy is just clueless and in love w her. and that’s cute sometimes but also makes it seem like women r errational. but there are genuinely times where both peter and alice are mean to each other (alice more so) but i think it makes their reconciliation stronger. i will say that alice was giving femcel vibes sometimes and idk if that’s even fair to say but honestly she was just being real 🤷♀️ like certain times she would talk abt peter or other women w such resentment that it bordered on being a little problematic. this transitions into my thoughts on the next major theme of the book, alice’s relationship w professor grimes and being a victim. i don’t think ive ever been so utterly floored by how power dynamics in a book have been written. because of the amount of romance i read i feel like there tend to be a good amount of books where a character has dealt with predators in their backstory. however it was a really central point of this story and it was done masterfully. when the book starts out, i thought that alice would kind of get over her idealization of grimes pretty quickly. and then as the book went on, u just witness the incredible lengths that she goes through to protect and defend him. at first u obviously feel bad for her because it’s so clear how much his manipulation has worked. then as you learn more and more about how alice herself disregarded women continuously and passed judgement on them, you almost start to give up on her. like ok fuck u have fun with ur creepy professor. i feel like u can almost compare it to trad wives. like on one level, i empathize with you as a victim of a world that convinced u that ur role as a woman was to serve a man. but on the other, i dislike them for furthering their narrative on to other women and defending their situations. like the way alice talked about feminists was insane to say the least and i honestly found some satisfaction in seeing her get humbled by that female professor. at the same time, it was also insane to see her get just brushed off when she asked for help. i think the ultimate lesson was very much reminiscent of “i never thought the leopards would eat my face.” alice thought she would be the one to rise above all the messiness of womanhood but in the end, she couldn’t escape it. i think the insane length of this character development just made the ending so much better. like her finally sacrificing professor grimes was the best payoff for an incredibly grueling journey. i think that one thing that was handled a little bit questionably was the food. like there are very clear themes of eating disorders here and i think they connected pretty well to my thoughts above. but like, there was just so much discussion about it. how alice was so much better at surviving hell because she had grown accustomed to better food and how amazing it felt on earth to go long periods of time without eating. this plot line was ultimately resolved as we saw how she eats the jaguar (?) and rats. and i think it is cool how there was the implicit lesson that she became more strong when she was actually nourished. i understand that the glorification of the hunger was a result of the unreliable narration but it just felt a wee bit triggering to read. god my fingers hurt from writing this much and i’m incredibly sleepy. but i think i wanna finish off by saying that i loved the character of elspeth and how alice kind of came to understand her despite originally disregarding her. like idk every reveal was so crazy. i remember my jaw actually dropping when i learned what alice was going to do to grimes. and that ending was amazing and im so glad it was happy even though it should not have been. amazing book 10/10 i could literally keep gushing about it if i wasn’t abt to pass out from sleepiness.