Review: Katabasis

Katabasis by R.F. Kuang
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

R.F. Kuang continues her dark academia era with a new standalone fantasy novel about two embattled, embittered grad students reading Magick at Cambridge, forced to follow their eminent (and eminently unlikable) advisor into the underworld because without him, their careers will never get started. And boy howdy is Professor Jacob Grimes one of the most disgusting characters Kuang has ever created - and considering her propensity for highlighting historical war crimes and the incurable racism of certain assbite people, that’s saying something. It also says something that racial issues are on the back burner at best in this book, when it’s been Kuang’s bread and butter for years. This one is a slow burn in hell, at times a real slog because it’s very clear that Grimes (a rapacious, womanizing, plagiarizing shit-for-brains) doesn’t deserve to be saved, and Alice and Peter deserve better than to force themselves through supernatural peril to save him. But the sunk cost fallacy and all that. And all the philosophy that Kuang can lob at us, because that’s also her bread and butter. And speaking of food and digestion, I was surprised to see Crohn’s disease incorporated into the narrative - that condition gets very rare representation to the best of my knowledge. I know a few people who might appreciate this book just for that…

View all my reviews