A review by curshellove
Katabasis by R.F. Kuang

3.75

Even though I love all of RFK previous books, this one falls short. It wasn’t a bad book, but it just wasn’t as enjoyable as her previous works. First, Alice was not a very interesting character. She was just flat, everything about her was dull and boring. She had no substance, or no outstanding characteristics and that actually made her annoying. She understands misogyny and the hardships  women face in male dominated academic spaces. She also knew her professor preyed on students, so she took it upon herself to not only  “see what the hype was all about” but also take a life threatening trip to hell? Thats another thing, the entire plot was predictable and repetitive. This actually shocked me, because the world building in Babel was amazing. The romance between Alice and Peter was also surface-level. The miscommunication, the banter, the one-sided distrust, all of it was boring. I actually rolled my eyes when she found the equivalent exchange notes because I already knew where it was going. There is also a lot of unnecessary infodumping which was difficult to keep up with. I do not think this was a bad book by any means, but I did expect much more. I think it’s because she doesn’t typically write “romance” books, and I think that’s understandable. I refuse to say that this is a bad book, because it really isn’t. I think it would be good  for someone that hasn’t read her previous books, because they won’t have anything to compare it with. I just feel as if it could have been better than it was. Overall 3.75/5.