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4.01 AVERAGE
4.01 AVERAGE
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
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:
Complicated
4.3 ⭐️ a happy ending??? fr??? i actually enjoyed this a bit more than babel :]
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Chronic illness, Death, Emotional abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Blood, Gaslighting
Moderate: Eating disorder, Misogyny, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Without a doubt, one of the most beautiful books I have ever read.
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
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
This is my new favorite R.F. Kuang book. My words will not be able to do this book justice, but here we go. Also, I just want to note that I didn’t just read this book, I savored it, letting the academic wit, brilliant descriptions, and academic magic that is just plain fun seep into my eye holes slowly. Like the scholars in hell, I toiled over this review for too long trying to perfect my thoughts when I just needed to send them out into the world.
Alice and Peter are tragic in so many ways. They meet and immediately like each other - as colleagues and friends - but they are pitted against each other more times than not by their academic advisor Jacob Grimes, who is just an awful human being. Peter and Alice cannot see this though, as he holds their future academic fate in their hands. Then Professor Grimes dies and both of them decide to go to Hell and retrieve him from the afterlife so that they will have their advisor and all of the opportunities he affords back and available to them. You know, typical grad student stuff.
I love how R.F. Kuang can write out a plot that doesn’t feel like there are secrets to be revealed, yet as we go forward in present time, secrets from the past come pouring out all of the time, reframing how I think about what is happening with Alice and Peter. Jacob Grimes is a character you will grow to despise, yet we all also probably know a superior (boss, professor, or otherwise) like him. Kuang’s writing is as lovely as before in her last releases Babel and Yellowface, yet somehow even better. There are a few sections that may feel a bit dense, but push through those small parts of the book because it is so, so worth it.
There are tons of literary references to books that have previously described hell as these were quintessential for Alice and Peter to understand hell. But don’t worry! You do not need to have read any of these books!
This is perfect for anyone that loves Babel. This is perfect for anyone who has been in graduate level courses. This is perfect for anyone who loves a good tragic love story. This is perfect for anyone looking to go on an adventure to hell.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Thank you to @harpervoyagerus for the numbered ARC (still flabbergasted). All thoughts are my own.
Alice and Peter are tragic in so many ways. They meet and immediately like each other - as colleagues and friends - but they are pitted against each other more times than not by their academic advisor Jacob Grimes, who is just an awful human being. Peter and Alice cannot see this though, as he holds their future academic fate in their hands. Then Professor Grimes dies and both of them decide to go to Hell and retrieve him from the afterlife so that they will have their advisor and all of the opportunities he affords back and available to them. You know, typical grad student stuff.
I love how R.F. Kuang can write out a plot that doesn’t feel like there are secrets to be revealed, yet as we go forward in present time, secrets from the past come pouring out all of the time, reframing how I think about what is happening with Alice and Peter. Jacob Grimes is a character you will grow to despise, yet we all also probably know a superior (boss, professor, or otherwise) like him. Kuang’s writing is as lovely as before in her last releases Babel and Yellowface, yet somehow even better. There are a few sections that may feel a bit dense, but push through those small parts of the book because it is so, so worth it.
There are tons of literary references to books that have previously described hell as these were quintessential for Alice and Peter to understand hell. But don’t worry! You do not need to have read any of these books!
This is perfect for anyone that loves Babel. This is perfect for anyone who has been in graduate level courses. This is perfect for anyone who loves a good tragic love story. This is perfect for anyone looking to go on an adventure to hell.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Thank you to @harpervoyagerus for the numbered ARC (still flabbergasted). All thoughts are my own.
adventurous
dark
medium-paced
challenging
dark
tense
slow-paced
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I'm not used to feeling this way at the end of Kuang's books. Like everything is actually okay? Did I read the book right?
adventurous
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
okay im gonna be honest im smart enough to recognize when a book just isn’t my taste & i’m not the target audience, so like, yeah. that’s this book for me.
in the final act i saw a glimpse of what this book could’ve been to me, like a vision of the story it could’ve told, but unfortunately it still fell flat to me because then i started remembering a different fantasy book regarding complex theorems and the afterlife and sacrifice and a love story that was just better executed in terms of worldbuilding, the stakes, storytelling, structure, and development of compelling and interesting side characters. and then i realized this book fell flat. sorry rfk.
maybe i would’ve cared a bit more if this was a wlw story. my bad.
in the final act i saw a glimpse of what this book could’ve been to me, like a vision of the story it could’ve told, but unfortunately it still fell flat to me because then i started remembering a different fantasy book regarding complex theorems and the afterlife and sacrifice and a love story that was just better executed in terms of worldbuilding, the stakes, storytelling, structure, and development of compelling and interesting side characters. and then i realized this book fell flat. sorry rfk.
maybe i would’ve cared a bit more if this was a wlw story. my bad.
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
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
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I think this is the final nail in the coffin for me and magical realism novels. It was a real struggle to finish this book after the 40% mark, I had to really push myself to finish which means I read about 300 pages with little pay off in my opinion. A lot of people have done reviews on this book already so I won’t complain too much. A lot of the criticisms put forward about info dumping and the exposition I agree with wholeheartedly. There were times where Alice and Peter were in mortal danger but I actually forgot about it cause there were a couple of chapters of filler. The pacing and the building of tension is just really poorly done in this one. Alice had a lot of different facets to her character that I found compelling but I also found her annoying so it was really hard for me to fully invest. Peter as a character was basically a cutout. You are meant to emotionally invest in him much later in the book but by then all the over the top theory explanations made me lose interest in the characters.
For a book about two magicians going to hell to find their adviser, it was very boring. They hardly did any magic and hell was monotonous. The premise of the book is just so promising but the actual experience was SUPER dry. The one aspect of the book I could relate to was the constant feeling of inferiority Alice experiences in academia. It reminded me of my most stressed out times in college and not in a good way. To be clear I am not a philistine, I just like my nerdy fiction books to also be entertaining. Katabasis is a 2.75 stars for me which is a real bummer as this was one of my most anticipated summer reads. This book is barely fantasy in my opinion and I have learned my lesson. Magical realism is not for me!
Thank you to NetGalley and Harper Voyager for the ARC!
R.F. Kuang continues her streak of writing incredibly damaged characters. I'm not sure if it's fair to say there's less self-destructive tendencies in these characters compared to some of her earlier books, since trading a portion of your lifespan to go to Hell isn't exactly a winning move, but with each book she writes I enjoy her main characters more.
While there are definitely some things in here that don't make sense to me, such as side characters that don't really go anywhere or serve as a tour guide, the book was very enjoyable overall. Even these detours aren't major detractions, because with how lovingly so many references are worked into the book as a whole (ending the book with the same "stars" reference as each book in the Divine Comedy was fantastic), I was left wondering if I just missed the reference in some of these cases.
The pacing was also very enjoyable, and it was very gratifying to see one of my main complaints from her first books steadily improved on as she continues to release them.
TLDR, 4/5, a few minor tweaks to some of the side characters and extraneous plots would have easily put it into 5 star category for me.
R.F. Kuang continues her streak of writing incredibly damaged characters. I'm not sure if it's fair to say there's less self-destructive tendencies in these characters compared to some of her earlier books, since trading a portion of your lifespan to go to Hell isn't exactly a winning move, but with each book she writes I enjoy her main characters more.
While there are definitely some things in here that don't make sense to me, such as side characters that don't really go anywhere or serve as a tour guide, the book was very enjoyable overall. Even these detours aren't major detractions, because with how lovingly so many references are worked into the book as a whole (ending the book with the same "stars" reference as each book in the Divine Comedy was fantastic), I was left wondering if I just missed the reference in some of these cases.
The pacing was also very enjoyable, and it was very gratifying to see one of my main complaints from her first books steadily improved on as she continues to release them.
TLDR, 4/5, a few minor tweaks to some of the side characters and extraneous plots would have easily put it into 5 star category for me.