I’ve been dying to read this book. I snagged tickets to R.F. Kuang’s Manhattan book tour and tickets came with a signed copy of Katabasis so I was holding out on reading it until then- and let me just say, it was everything I hoped for!

I was nervous about it because of the many reviews floating around online from early ARC readers. I saw things like:

• “This reads like a textbook.”
• “This is so boring.”
• “She uses too many big words.”
• “Is she writing with AI?”

Perhaps those critiques are subjectively fair. I’m not saying her novel reads like a textbook although it is academic. I mostly don’t get why someone averse to this style of writing would even pick up an R.F. Kuang novel in the first place.

So, I’m a big fan (in case you couldn’t tell) and I’m very aware that her trilogy The Poppy War is the series that infiltrated “booktok” and blew up on social media. While I loved that series, the book that really made R.F. one of my favs was Babel! Published after Poppy War, R.F. wrote Babel when she was older and naturally, farther along her academic journey. The Poppy War was an amazing fantasy series, with such dark undertones, and fits into the “dark academia” genre a bit more loosely- but Babel embodies everything I love most about R.F. as a writer, it’s smart and challenging. Katabasis fell closer to Babel– a fantasy that is heavily rooted in academics and thought work. I guess this was a long-winded way of pointing out that just because you liked The Poppy War does not necessarily mean you’ll enjoy Katabasis. But if you liked Babel you probably will.

Hell and an “everybody’s right” approach to religion

One of my favorite aspects of Katabasis is Kuang’s imagining of Hell. Instead of one universal underworld, each person experiences Hell in the shape of what’s most familiar to them- your hellscape is catered to your experience. For Alice the protagonist, Hell was academia and closely mirrored a university campus. For someone else, maybe it’s Corporate Hell with a level that involves back-to-back Zoom meetings where “you’re on mute” is a statement repeated on an endless loop and no matter what you do, you can never get your mic to turn on.

This makes total sense to me because truly, I believe that Hell is here with us. What better way is there to torture someone than with the familiar- the pains and sufferings that they’re already so deeply attached to.

As a Dante’s Inferno lover, I really enjoyed her references to chthonic texts as well. Don’t worry though, despite all the jokes on the internet, you do not have to do any “required reading” to understand the references, she explains them very well.

Existential dread but make it funny!

I resonate with Kuang’s humor deeply. In Katabasis there are a ton of bleak and Absurd musings on the meaning of existence, the temptation of oblivion, and just the true and utter pointlessness of it all.

Kuang herself mentioned during her tour that Katabasis reflects an emotionally dark period of hers and that shined through in Alice’s hopeless and bleak reflections.

Lighthearted but also semi-serious heads up: if you’re currently in a depressive state, I fear this book could make it worse.

It can be a little dark this way, but weirdly captivating. There’s one scene where the damned souls argue about morality when debating methods to escape Hell:

• Is it wrong to wrong a wrongdoer?
• Does intent justify the act?
• Is repentance about regret, or about the victim’s forgiveness?
• Is it enough to just admit guilt or must you genuinely feel that you did wrong to be absolved?

Some souls reject the whole framework entirely, treating morality like a construct that’s subjective and doesn’t matter. They even go as far as just contently accepting Hell as their new normal reality.

This was all very funny to me, but it’s my kind of humor and apparently, it’s R.F. Kuang’s as well! But if making light of existential dread is not funny to you, you may not enjoy it.

Is this book a romcom?

Not really.

There is romance in this novel, but I would not define it as a romance novel, so if that’s what you’re looking for (many people with ARCs seemed to be) I suggest you find a romance author to avert disappointment

I also suggest you read The Poppy War to get a feel for R.F. Kuang’s general approach to romance…

The synopsis is unrepresentative

I found the synopsis and overall marketing of this story to be a little bit misleading. The description of “students travel to Hell to free their professor so he can write them a recommendation letter” is just such a reduction. It made me expect something campier. Note: This is not a critique, I was pleasantly surprised.

Sure, there’s a touch of whimsy (think Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland or Willy Wonka rather than Disney’s). Sort of cutesy- but also sort of disturbing. People are, after all, burning in hell. And Alice’s motives are much darker than the jacket copy lets on.

Final Thoughts

Katabasis was a 5-star for me.

If you’re hoping for something lighter, more traditionally fantastical, or dripping in romance, this may not be your read. But if you’re here for humor that laughs in the face of oblivion, and musings on life, purpose, and Hell, then this is probably a great pick!