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adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
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
Oh Katabasis, what to make of you. Before I actually held the book in my hand, I had heard so much about it. People on the internet tell you to prepare before reading. They give you an entire list of books to work through before digging into Katabasis. Others say R.F. Kuang thinks her readers are dumb.
Now, there is a whole lot of buzz around the book, and in the end, none of it really mattered. Was this Kuang’s best book? Absolutely not. I would go so far as to say it is her most light-handed book so far. It still makes you think in the ways Kuang likes to engage her readers, but it’s not heavy. It doesn’t go as deep as The Poppy War or Babel did.
Was it still a fun read? Absolutely. I had a great time with it. At times, I even felt like Kuang tried to make this more of a satire. She didn’t quite pull through with it, but it had funny bits. It had sad bits. It had bits that make you think.
Unfortunately, it also had unnecessarily long sections that made the pacing weird — and that’s ultimately the reason I give this 4 and not 5 stars. If you like academia pieces (I wouldn’t necessarily call this dark academia), if you enjoy explanations, musings, and fantasy, this book is for you. And you really do not need to prep anything to understand this book. It’s fine.