Katabasis by R.F. Kuang (feat. my anxiety nails RIP)

🕯️🪦☕️📓

“And if falling in love was discovery, was letting yourself be discovered the equivalent to being loved? For it tickled Alice to hear Peter make observations about her; to announce facts she’d never noticed about herself.”

Rating: 4 ⭐️

Review: If you want to be enveloped by pure, undiluted dark-academia—something with angsty romance, a spiraling heroine, and a sharp critique of normalized academic abuse—READ KATABASIS.

This follows two Cambridge graduate students’ descent into Hell. Their mission: to find their academic advisor and bring him back to the land of the living (let me just say—he’s a reeaaal piece of work).

Something that I LOVED is that this follows the classic heroine’s journey story arc! There are still external forces at play, but the bulk of the action centers around Alice’s internal conflict and character growth.

There’s a solid magic system (though Hell does make space for wonkiness). I rated it four stars because this flexibility led to some confusion on my end, and that was hard for me to entirely let go of.

There are lots of literary allusions, but trust me!! If you’ve taken a high school English class, you can pick up on a lot of it! I’m sure there were plenty of references that went over my head but I still had a great time.

All in all—prepare for things to get a little weird and just roll with it. And get ready to feel a rollercoaster of emotions and gain a new appreciation for heartfelt hugs and cups of tea 🥹