julianahall 's review for:

Katabasis by R.F. Kuang

2.0

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Thanks to Netgalley for an eARC in exchange for an honest review!

After reading The Poppy War and Babel in quick succession, I was eagerly hoping for the ARC of Katabasis. Unfortunately, this one did not carry the same exhilirating feeling as Kuang's other books did for me.

The concept itself was intriguing to me and I was so excited for a deep dive into Kuang's take on Hell and the "hero's journey" of it all. Except I feel like only about 1/3 of the book is actually about Hell and the other 2/3 are scenes from the past. Which, in theory, would work if that's how this book had been going for. It almost feels like Kuang wanted to do dual timelines but instead a lot of the flashback scenes ended up feeling clunky and out of place.

I didn't feel put off by much of the literature and theory talk, though I am entrenched in that in my studies so it actually felt more of a comfort. However, I do see how it can come off a little much at times. There were explanations for nearly every reference made that spanned anywhere between a paragraph to three pages and this added to the clumsy pulled between scenes feeling for me. Alice and Peter were also profoundly unlikable to me for 3/4 of the book. I wanted so so badly to like them but every time they had a "rivals" moment it felt like a "well actually it's MY fault this happened...." competition and it was exhausting honestly. 

Overall, I think this is the weakest of Kuang's books (though I have not yet read Yellowface) not only in character and plot development, but in prose. At times it felt more like a misguided debut than a sixth novel unfortunately. This hasn't put me off Kuang as an author because I do truly like her work but this just isn't one I can see buying for myself when it hits shelves.