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adventurous
dark
informative
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Great concept for a book, but somewhat lacking in execution. Alice and Peter, two magical Cambridge PHD students, decide to go to Hell (Dante and Greek version of it) to find their recently deceased professor to get a recommendation that will propel their career.
I think it's intentionally absurd that someone would choose to go to hell for a professor recommendation especially since the sacrifice required to make the journey is half your remaining life. The book is a metaphor and commentary on the life of academia, particularly PHD programs and the sacrifice students make. But much like RF Kuang's other work, the commentary is very surface level and gets its point across very quickly.
This would be fine, but unlike Yellowface which is a standard length novel, this clocks in at 540 pages or 18.5 hour audiobook. And my biggest problem with the book is it starts off great, but quickly gets dull with moments of interesting passages sprinkled throughout. The main problem of the book is the setting. Hell has never been so mundane. If you're expecting scary, and unsettling, or even otherwordly, you will get hardly any of that. Instead Alice and Peter stumble their way through the eight levels of hell reflecting on their lives and past decisions. The parts I actually enjoyed were the flashbacks. The Cambridge settings was far more compelling than Hell, and I don't think that was the author's intention.
The setting should have been far grander, but instead I felt nothing. This book might have been stronger if you just scrapped the hell part and focused on the conflict with professorial advisor at Cambridge and reduce the book length by 25%.
And the ending was completely predictable so lacked any emotional impact.
Despite the plot being mediocre, I did find myself interested in Alice's and Peter's life and the quality of the writing was generally good. This is why I'm giving this book 3 stars rather than 2. I overall enjoyed it for what it was, but the book could have been far more entertaining given its premise.
I think it's intentionally absurd that someone would choose to go to hell for a professor recommendation especially since the sacrifice required to make the journey is half your remaining life. The book is a metaphor and commentary on the life of academia, particularly PHD programs and the sacrifice students make. But much like RF Kuang's other work, the commentary is very surface level and gets its point across very quickly.
This would be fine, but unlike Yellowface which is a standard length novel, this clocks in at 540 pages or 18.5 hour audiobook. And my biggest problem with the book is it starts off great, but quickly gets dull with moments of interesting passages sprinkled throughout. The main problem of the book is the setting. Hell has never been so mundane. If you're expecting scary, and unsettling, or even otherwordly, you will get hardly any of that. Instead Alice and Peter stumble their way through the eight levels of hell reflecting on their lives and past decisions. The parts I actually enjoyed were the flashbacks. The Cambridge settings was far more compelling than Hell, and I don't think that was the author's intention.
The setting should have been far grander, but instead I felt nothing. This book might have been stronger if you just scrapped the hell part and focused on the conflict with professorial advisor at Cambridge and reduce the book length by 25%.
And the ending was completely predictable so lacked any emotional impact.
Despite the plot being mediocre, I did find myself interested in Alice's and Peter's life and the quality of the writing was generally good. This is why I'm giving this book 3 stars rather than 2. I overall enjoyed it for what it was, but the book could have been far more entertaining given its premise.