sparksbooks 's review for:

Katabasis by R.F. Kuang

5.0

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

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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.