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4.14 AVERAGE
4.14 AVERAGE
adventurous
challenging
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Thank you a million times over to HarperCollins/Harper Voyager for the ARC for review, specifically thank you to Eric! It is such an honor to receive an advance copy of one of my absolute favorite authors’ newest release. :’)
As a huge fan already of R. F. Kuang, I had insanely high expectations going into this book, and I put off reading it for months. When I finally cracked it open, I really savored it as I read. I saw lots of reviewers treating this book as an almost inaccessible tome of references you could in no way understand if you didn’t prepare yourself by reading thousands of pages of classic literature. I’m here to say that I didn’t study for Katabasis and you don’t have to either! (But if you want to, you totally should!) I’m sure that it adds layers of depth and understanding to have already read Dante’s Inferno and Homer’s Odyssey and Virgil’s Aeneid, but I’ll read those eventually. Lol. Katabasis came first for me!
Katabasis, which literally means descent or a journey to the underworld, introduces us to two rivalrous graduate students studying Magick at Cambridge, Alice and Peter. They team up to descend to Hell and save their professor’s soul, knowing that if they do manage to return alive, they’ll be sacrificing half of their lifespans to do so. Academic success and their mentor’s recommendation is that serious!! As they journey through Hell, they discover that it’s entirely structured after a college campus, and the trials you suffer to potentially reincarnate are academic. They even meet former fellow Cambridge students that don’t want to reincarnate out of fear they’ll be less brilliant in the next life! I was surprised by how often this story was making me laugh. But like, conflicted laughter because that’s so depressing :)
Kuang is such a masterful writer, she can balance so many concepts into one story, from philosophy to mathematics to religion and mythology, and all bundled up into a dark academia fantasy book with academic rivals-to-lovers… And it still doesn’t feel overwhelming or trope-y! I can see why on the page people might think this book is inaccessible without education on some of the topics or why others might avoid it due to it seeming like another drop in the #DarkAcademia #EnemiesToLovers Bookstagram/BookTok ocean, but it’s entirely unique. It’s the perfect story to make you slow down and enjoy and think about what you’re reading, but it’s still fun and romantic and covers important topics! Personally, I felt very attached to Alice and her struggle with depression. Kuang never cuts corners on darker topics and I’ve always appreciated her honesty!
This is honestly of my favorite fantasy books I’ve ever read, which is cute because it’s just adding itself to the list alongside its siblings The Poppy War trilogy and Babel. It definitely calls back to Babel in many ways too, I think if you enjoy one you’ll also enjoy the other. A beautiful and heartbreaking exploration into life’s many choices and the sacrifices we make for academia and careers, and above all else, that human connection is what matters most.
adventurous
dark
funny
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
adventurous
informative
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
informative
lighthearted
mysterious
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
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
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
barely scraping my way into finishing this book before it comes out. thanks to harper for the ARC, it sat in my house for months before i finally had the wherewithal to crack the thing open and make it more than 50 pages in.
i think the reception of this book will be a bit divisive among crowds that have been subjected to any sort of marketing beyond what the description of the book is. there are people saying it's a romance or a romantasy—that's not true, and people who go into this book thinking that will come out unsatisfied if they even make it to the end of the book. it's being pushed as a fantasy novel, which i can understand, but it's less of a fantasy than babel (and if you hated the prose in that book, there are 50/50 odds on you hating this more or thinking that this is what you wanted out of that book instead) and the whole time i was reading i went back and forth with myself over whether or not i wanted to advocate moving this from the fantasy section to fiction at work.
the fantastical parts of this book are so far out of focus at times in favor of character introspection and development or commentary on what it's like to be a woman in academia with an emotionally abusivegroomer for a professor. these elements are well done, and the lack of magick isn't destressing or annoying or anything, but there are plenty of books about going to hell that aren't considered fantasy novels. there are plenty of epics with fantastical elements that are viewed as regular old fiction, and i think that katabasis falls more into that category than it does over with babel or the poppy war.
as hard as it was to get things going for me with this, i liked it by the time i finished it, but not as much as babel or yellowface, hence the 4 stars and not 5. alice and peter are both solid characters and kuang's version of hell is pretty interesting (until it kind of starts to dwindle away at the same time that things start to drag near the end, which was a weird experience) and i hope that anyone who reads this has experienced a college level philosophy class for at least a semester. its not that it would make you a better reader, just that it will make this book a little less painless when things start to get wordy.
this might just be the long lost cousin of the atlas six, so take that however you want to!
i think the reception of this book will be a bit divisive among crowds that have been subjected to any sort of marketing beyond what the description of the book is. there are people saying it's a romance or a romantasy—that's not true, and people who go into this book thinking that will come out unsatisfied if they even make it to the end of the book. it's being pushed as a fantasy novel, which i can understand, but it's less of a fantasy than babel (and if you hated the prose in that book, there are 50/50 odds on you hating this more or thinking that this is what you wanted out of that book instead) and the whole time i was reading i went back and forth with myself over whether or not i wanted to advocate moving this from the fantasy section to fiction at work.
the fantastical parts of this book are so far out of focus at times in favor of character introspection and development or commentary on what it's like to be a woman in academia with an emotionally abusive
as hard as it was to get things going for me with this, i liked it by the time i finished it, but not as much as babel or yellowface, hence the 4 stars and not 5. alice and peter are both solid characters and kuang's version of hell is pretty interesting (until it kind of starts to dwindle away at the same time that things start to drag near the end, which was a weird experience) and i hope that anyone who reads this has experienced a college level philosophy class for at least a semester. its not that it would make you a better reader, just that it will make this book a little less painless when things start to get wordy.
this might just be the long lost cousin of the atlas six, so take that however you want to!
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
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 may be my favorite RF Kuang work to date (Yellowface excluded). I’m ever the fan of paradoxes, mythology, and everything mind bending in between. Kuang’s dedication to her magic systems being based on logic and fundamentals truly shines in her writing, especially when intertwined with real life literature and research. I loved this work, the rawness in the writing and pulling from her recent life experiences.
At the panel in London, Rebecca mentioned how much of her husband she put in this novel. You can see the love and care she put into not only writing said character, but also the philosophical quandaries he contributed to Katabasis as well.
Set in the 80’s, this work explores more than magick; focusing on second wave feminism, power dynamics, and of course the meaning of life.
Great Kuang work for cat lovers <3
At the panel in London, Rebecca mentioned how much of her husband she put in this novel. You can see the love and care she put into not only writing said character, but also the philosophical quandaries he contributed to Katabasis as well.
Set in the 80’s, this work explores more than magick; focusing on second wave feminism, power dynamics, and of course the meaning of life.
Great Kuang work for cat lovers <3
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
dark
emotional
mysterious
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
What a fantastic book!
When I read the synophsis, it ticked so many boxes, had so many buzz words. Now that I've read it, this book smashed those boxes and buzz words out of this world. R.F. Kuang does such a good job of incorporating engaging plots with deeper themes. And not just one theme, but multiple themes. Also R.F. Kuang's writing is just superb and the narrators from the audiobook complement it so much. If you want to read this book, pick it up!
Thanks to the publishers for a copy of the ebook and audiobook in exchange for my honest review.
When I read the synophsis, it ticked so many boxes, had so many buzz words. Now that I've read it, this book smashed those boxes and buzz words out of this world. R.F. Kuang does such a good job of incorporating engaging plots with deeper themes. And not just one theme, but multiple themes. Also R.F. Kuang's writing is just superb and the narrators from the audiobook complement it so much. If you want to read this book, pick it up!
Thanks to the publishers for a copy of the ebook and audiobook in exchange for my honest review.