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sirissacgluten 's review for:
Katabasis
by R.F. Kuang
slow-paced
Loveable characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I adored the Poppy War trilogy and also really enjoyed Babel, but R.F. Kuang’s latest book Katabasis did not work for me.
It follows two postgrads in magick at Cambridge who journey through the layers of Hell to rescue their advisor and bring him back to earth. The world-building suggests that Hell is a twisted mirror of a college campus that begins with Pride as a campus library and then devolves into a more desolate wasteland.
I found this to be limiting—does Hell appear this way for the millions of people who die without a college education? Kuang is an academic writing about academics, so I see her vision, but it became grating over time to have such a narrow portrayal. The constant references to scholars, both real (Dante, Lacan, Proust) and imagined creates a one-dimensional world catering primarily to Dark Academia Girlies, and despite some references to Chinese mythology, feels very limiting.
My other frustration with the novel was the constant interruptions of the plot for long flashbacks that felt like afterthoughts rather than part of a cohesive narrative. I don’t think this structure is inherently flawed, but I found it unconvincing in this particular story. Kuang’s novels are sometimes quite heavy-handed in their themes (something I don’t always mind, personally), so this plot/character structure seemed to be an attempt at telling a more morally complex and thorny narrative — which unfortunately didn’t work for me. Without explaining too much about a central relationship in this novel told entirely through these clunky flashbacks, I was reminded of Kate Elizabeth Russell’s wonderfully nuanced and heartbreaking My Dark Vanessa…in a way that made me appreciate that novel more than this one.
In the end, I was left unsatisfied with the characters’ trajectory and their relationships. I was disappointed, especially because I think Kuang is a talented and creative writer. I have a feeling I will be in the minority on Katabasis, and I hope other readers will find it much more enjoyable than I did.
1.5/5: A convoluted love/hate letter to academia that did not resonate with me (and I’m an academic!). Fans of The Secret History or Babel—or big Dante lovers—may adore this, but despite my enjoyment of those books, I didn’t connect with Katabasis.
Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
It follows two postgrads in magick at Cambridge who journey through the layers of Hell to rescue their advisor and bring him back to earth. The world-building suggests that Hell is a twisted mirror of a college campus that begins with Pride as a campus library and then devolves into a more desolate wasteland.
I found this to be limiting—does Hell appear this way for the millions of people who die without a college education? Kuang is an academic writing about academics, so I see her vision, but it became grating over time to have such a narrow portrayal. The constant references to scholars, both real (Dante, Lacan, Proust) and imagined creates a one-dimensional world catering primarily to Dark Academia Girlies, and despite some references to Chinese mythology, feels very limiting.
My other frustration with the novel was the constant interruptions of the plot for long flashbacks that felt like afterthoughts rather than part of a cohesive narrative. I don’t think this structure is inherently flawed, but I found it unconvincing in this particular story. Kuang’s novels are sometimes quite heavy-handed in their themes (something I don’t always mind, personally), so this plot/character structure seemed to be an attempt at telling a more morally complex and thorny narrative — which unfortunately didn’t work for me. Without explaining too much about a central relationship in this novel told entirely through these clunky flashbacks, I was reminded of Kate Elizabeth Russell’s wonderfully nuanced and heartbreaking My Dark Vanessa…in a way that made me appreciate that novel more than this one.
In the end, I was left unsatisfied with the characters’ trajectory and their relationships. I was disappointed, especially because I think Kuang is a talented and creative writer. I have a feeling I will be in the minority on Katabasis, and I hope other readers will find it much more enjoyable than I did.
1.5/5: A convoluted love/hate letter to academia that did not resonate with me (and I’m an academic!). Fans of The Secret History or Babel—or big Dante lovers—may adore this, but despite my enjoyment of those books, I didn’t connect with Katabasis.
Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.