Categories: Dark Academia, Fantasy, Historical Fantasy
Two graduate students must set aside their rivalry and journey to Hell to save their professor’s soul, perhaps at the cost of their own.
Alice Law has only ever had one goal: to become one of the brightest minds in the field of Magick. She has sacrificed everything to make that a reality—her pride, her health, her love life, and most definitely her sanity. All to work with Professor Jacob Grimes at Cambridge, the greatest magician in the world—that is, until he dies in a magical accident that could possibly be her fault.
Grimes is now in Hell, and she’s going in after him. Because his recommendation could hold her very future in his now incorporeal hands, and even death is not going to stop the pursuit of her dreams. Nor will the fact that her rival, Peter Murdoch, has come to the same conclusion.
Content Warning: violence, death, sexual harassment, gore, suicidal ideation, depression
+ I dove into this book without seeing many reviews for it. I just knew there was hype because it is R.F. Kuang and I loved The Poppy War series, but those are the only books I have read from her. I still have Babel on my TBR list but have never gotten around to it. I was pleasantly surprised with Katabasis!
+ Alice Law is a grad student who needs to go to Hell to get her professor back. Peter Murdoch her classmate/colleague/competition, goes with her. There are a lot of philosophers, academics, mythology mentioned in here, and I have heard of some of them and studied some of it in school, but I loved how we are taken on this journey to Hell with this students who have studied so much about magick and Hell. I didn’t know have the things they were talking about. These two are brilliant minds and it shows, because it hurt my brain to hear them go on and on about this philosophy or paradox, or equations of something or other. But I thought it was also fun, even though it was a lot to process, because I could have never been like Alice and Peter.
+ Hell was a fascinating place and in this book, it’s a campus. Which I actually thought was funny. There were lots of humorous parts in this book actually! I really loved how there was action with the Kripkes, strange bone-like creatures that were out for blood! I find so many of the characters they met along the way, whether they be mythological personas or former people from their college, very fascinating. They all stood out in their own ways with their own motivations while in Hell.
+ Alice is an amazing, flawed character, probably some readers will find unlikable but she is who she is! She’s obsessed with succeeding, to the point of it being unhealthy but has to learn, while in Hell that it’s all futile when the man she admired is really a monster who pitted her and Peter against one another. She has been basically been abused by this professor but her admiration of him was clouding out all the bad things happening with him. She also faces that she is depressed. Her journey through Hell was actually her salvation where she realized so many things about life above, finding her voice and power and about love. I also thought Peter’s backstory was tragic.
+ Although this is a dark academia book taking place in Hell, there is room for love. And Alice and Peter are just two people who didn’t have time to even consider love while they were so consumed with their higher learning endeavors. But their time in Hell helps them work through some of the misunderstandings, lack of communication, and distrust. It’s kind of sad that it took this for them to see that love was there between them.
+ I loved all the questions, themes and messages in this story. It explored women in academia, pursuit of higher education and how toxic it can be. I also love how it explores Alice’s descent into a person who is filled with bitterness, anger, revenge, but also hopelessness and how she evolves through her journey in Hell.
~ This is dark academia – emphasis on academia. Now because there was so much academia name dropping and so many I never heard of since I’m not and will never be pursuing knowledge to that degree. I did have to read a little of this day by day to process it better. At times it did get bogged down with too many mentions of philosophers and their philosophies that I needed a mental break. Honestly, I can see how Alice lost herself when her whole world was surrounding academia and nothing else.
~ This is dark – there are mentions of suicidal ideation, sexual harassment, even some parts that I considered horror. But also, I thought this book had humor as well, still there are dark themes explored by Alive and Peter.
~ Though I loved the people we came across in Hell, the landscape and world building of Hell at times felt lacking. Maybe Hell is lacking? I mean, yes it gave me gloomy, stark vibes, but I felt like we were just moving through these levels quickly and not really getting a feel for what they look like.
Quotes From The Book:
“To learn is the most godlike thing we do”
Katabasis by. R.F. Kuang
“She had not realized, until that day, how humans needed to forget to function.”
Katabasis by. R.F. Kuang
“Professor Grimes had instilled in her a deep horror of ever being made an idiot.”
Katabasis by. R.F. Kuang
“This was a paradox her mind could not accept, that someone could be in the world one moment and simply be gone in the next.”
Katabasis by. R.F. Kuang
“It was all so unfair, she thought. You thought people were giants, and they devastated you by being so human.”
Katabasis by. R.F. Kuang
Final Thoughts:
I was going back and forth between a 4 and a 4.5 star for this book but I enjoyed so much of Alice’s journey within herself and I liked the combination of academia, fantasy, horror even, and romance. I wasn’t expecting the humor but I loved that. Did I have to read it little by little because there was a lot to process? Was some of the info-dumping a little clinical? Yes, but I felt like my brain got a workout – but in a good way. Because once upon a time when I was in college I did love learning about Dante, philosophy, and logic…but come on, it’s been so long I’ve been in school! 😅 I’ve been reading a lot to escape and not think so that this book forced me to think – I actually totally appreciate it! I was highly entertained by this book! I still need to read Babel, but I look forward to reading more books from R.F. Kuang.
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