Okay, so that book was way way way better than the first one The story was as smart as adventurous has mysterious Unfortunately, I only give it three star and a half because at some point there were just buying time to make the book longer in my opinion It was a very good book, but I’m gonna take a break from the saga and read one or two other books so I can come back and not be bored at the story

Those who know me, knows I am an R.F. Kuang devotee. She is one of my favorite authors, so naturally, I began reading this book with high expectations.

Katabasis had a very solid, remarkable start. R.F Kuang truly has a talent for setting the idea for her readers, no matter how complex it seems. I know we have all seen the tiktok that went viral for suggesting “books to read in preparation for Katabasis”, and while multiple references were really inserted left and right, I do believe that whoever has a basic knowledge of Greek mythology can still keep up without difficulty. It’s all the math you have to worry about /lh.

Setting aside their rivalry and differences, we follow two graduate students, Alice and Peter, as they descend into Hell to return their professor back into the land of the living. For the first half of the novel, they proved their determination to accomplish it. But as the chapters went by, they slowly began to lose sight of their goal. That, and not to mention the amount of times we were sidetracked due to the lengthy narrations. The thing is, while the descriptive and in-depth style of writing worked for Babel, here it simply, heavily, overshadowed the story itself. I know it’s dark academia, but a journey to Hell would also entail plenty of adventure, no? It was the textbook sort of information overload, and this is coming from someone who enjoyed the life out of Babel—because for that novel, we at least maintained a balance.

In my own opinion, it doesn’t matter whether you can follow the references or not. What good are these if none of them lead to anything more than just a reference?

Now, despite the extensive history we read about our two main characters, neither Alice nor Peter stood out to me as much as R.F. Kuang's other characters. It truly is a shame to say so, since they had an impressive introduction too. But as far as the book went, they were both so underdeveloped. Dare I say, even neglected. Their personalities at the beginning were not retained throughout the later pages—it was as if they were slowly being wiped into blank slates the longer they were in Hell. Whether or not this was on purpose, I have no idea. All I know is that I was more attached to the side characters than either Alice or Peter. Good gods, I just did not care about them, I’m sorry.

Originally a 4/5 rating, I thought a flat 3 was more fitting. Partly because I also deducted .50 due to a part where an animal was murdered gruesomely towards the end. I understand how vital it was for the story to progress, but... Well. I, unfortunately, am just very queasy when it comes to animal death and cruelty. Always mind the TWs, folks.

Regardless of everything mentioned above, I have high hopes that, since this is still an ARC, there might be a chance for improvements before it is officially published. I wanted to love it. Truly, I did, and the unique magick system had me floating in wonders. There were themes that genuinely resonated to me as well, but alas, I have to be honest and say that this is my least-liked novel of R.F. Kuang’s. It even took me two weeks to properly write a review because I was so confused, so conflicted.