Katabasis – Past Midnight Book Reviews & More

My Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

Spice:

Title: Traitor Wolf (Bonded by Fate Duet, #1)

Author: Leia Stone

Format: ebook (borrowed, KU)

Pages: 408

Publication Date: 9/19/25

Categories: Young Adult, Romantasy, Werewolves

The weapon that hasn’t chosen anyone in a thousand years has chosen me, a Dreg-born girl with no magic.

Forged by the Creator and feared across the realm, the King Killer was never meant for someone like me. But the moment I touch it, the wolves come running, snarling, fighting, and bleeding to claim me.

Only one survives.

A wolf with a traitor’s mark burned into his skin.

And now we’re bonded.

Last night, I was digging through trash in the Elite district when a dying highborn collapsed at my feet. With his final breath, he pressed his trial mark into my chest and gave me his place in a deadly competition I was never meant to enter.

If I win, my entire bloodline, all forty of us, gets magic. The Dregs will rise overnight and the Elites will never forgive it.

My bonded wolf says he doesn’t care about me, that he only wants my blade. But he guards me like I matter, trains me like I have a chance and when they try to kill me, he tears them down like I belong to him.

I didn’t ask for this, but I’m not backing down. Not even for the wolf who could break my heart.

Content Warning: violence, death

+ I haven’t read a Leia Stone book in awhile but I loved the book cover of Traitor Wolf (something about that pink color!) and saw someone give a good review of this on TikTok so I wanted to try it out.

+ In this world of Elites versus Dregs, Brynn is a Dreg, she’s poor and magicless. But one night looking for food for her starving family, turns her life around. An Elite Heir gives her an invitation to the Arcane Trials – the winner gets magic for themselves and all their bloodline. This could help turn their lives around, but a Dreg has never been in the trials, and no one wants her there. As a competitor in the trials she has to bond with a wolfkin (a werewolf), who will protect her, and she bonds with Kaelric.

+ This is a fast moving story with the usual tropes found in a romantasy novel. There is secret identity, magic, magic trials, a sword that speaks into Brynn’s head, fated mates, the rich versus the poor, and a little romance.

+~ I think the romance grew too fast. One moment Brynn is very annoyed with Kaelric, but he’s handsome and helps her out with the trials and her family, so she falls in love with him. It’s also convenient that they are mates, but I just felt like all of it happened too easy. So I actually liked the ending, because there is conflict between them and I actually liked that this one isn’t spicy. Maybe in the next book? Not sure.

~ The world-building is sparse, so it makes it an easy read, but I wanted just a little more. But that’s just me – for anyone who doesn’t like heavy world-building, you will like this one.

~ The trials went by fast and felt a little weak. No one wants her there but there wasn’t really a villain, and I don’t count Corvessa because she was barely in the book. Yes, she wanted to take Brynn out but we know basically nothing about this villain. Even Cassian, who is Brynn’s sponsor, we know a little about him but everything felt a bit surface level.

Final Thoughts:

I thought this was an easy read. I’d say it’s light fantasy, very surface level and the type of book you can binge in one sitting. I’ll definitely be reading book two to see some character growth and also to see where the story goes.

Book Links:

Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble

Other Books I’ve Read From This Author:

House of War and Bone by. Leia Stone | Book Review ⭐️⭐️⭐️

The Dark Bond by. Leia Stone | Book Review ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Dark Bite (Vampire Hunter Society, #1) by. Leia Scott | Book Review ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

My Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

Spice:

Title: Katabasis

Author: R.F. Kuang

Format: ebook (Libby) /hardcover (owned)

Pages: 560

Publication Date: 8/26/25

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.