so-soUnpopular opinion:
I have mixed feelings. The book is very dark academia oriented, but I found the characters unlikeable, and Hell had a lot of boring moments. I wanted a scary, richly detailed, demonic Hell. This is not that, but it did make the professors look like monsters. It struck me as a little pretentious. I will have to sit with it for awhile.
pick4 Stars • R.F. Kuang‘s Katabasis (2025): Two rival Cambridge PhD students in analytic magick descend into a bleak, bureaucratic Hell to rescue their abusive mentor‘s soul after he dies without writing Alice‘s recommendation letter. A sharp, Dante-inspired satire of toxic academia, ambition, and self-destruction.
#Katabasis #RKuang #Bookish #suvataReads
so-soTwo “rival” graduate students descend into hell to rescue their advisor in order to get their letters of recommendation. Although I really liked the concept and found some of the pieces of academia very accurate, it took me forever to finish it and I realized that I just wasn‘t that excited to read it. I did find several parts pretty funny and I liked the literary references but it dragged a bit too much.
pickThis novel is weird and funny and original. I love the alternate-universe Cambridge and how Kuang incorporates different mythologies and literary traditions into the way Hell is built and how it operates. I also really enjoyed the relationship between Alice and her rival, Peter.
pickWhat began as a rescue mission in Hades turned into a story of finding the meaning of life while trekking through Hell and throwing in the most epic revenge tale since Edgar Allen Poe. A four-and-a-half star read only because I‘ve started rating R.F. Kuang novels compared to other R.F. Kuang novels
so-soDo you suffer from book fomo? I sure do. Katabasis is one of those “it” books this year, making all the lists. Is fantasy for me? Nope! Did I think this could work anyway? Not really but I travelled into hell with these graduate students anyway. I must admit, some of the philosophy and actual theories mentioned here were entertaining. But I didn‘t care about the romance and the fantasy elements were filler for my brain. But look at those edges!
A man finds himself in Hell's waiting room after dying in a car accident. Baffled, as he was convinced that he would be going to a heavenly afterlife due to his Mormon beliefs, he discovers that there is one true religion it just doesn't happen to be Mormonism (the reveal of the religion made me chuckle). He is then dispatched to a Hell that seems especially suited for him as someone who loved reading while alive. Based on Borges' story (CONT)
This whole description of academia (starting with that paragraph) was so accurate to my experience being in academia.
