R. F. Kuang

Katabasis

I do feel like I’ve actually been through hell in the worst way possible.

Outside of the very unnecessary conversations about penises, I would’ve thought this was YA. I’m aware this is still an arc, and in between writing this and her final draft, she’s likely improved some things. But quite frankly, I was miserable from start to finish.

From a storytelling perspective, there was not a single likable character to latch onto and root for. RFK told us a lot of things — a LOT — but rarely ever showed them. The emotional beats didn’t have any impact because I never cared about these people. The “humorous” parts didn’t elicit a single chuckle. The supposed romance was the most contrived mess of predictable plot points I’ve seen in a long time. The info dumps sprinkled in ruined any momentum the book had and read like journal scribblings from when she first came up with the concept of the story. The academic moments felt like I was in an 8am lecture after Thirsty Thursday. It just did not work.

Much like how I wanted to see more of the secret society in Babel, I wanted to see more of Hell in this novel. Honestly, this could’ve been set in Baltimore for all I know. We spent so much time in flashbacks, it really didn’t matter. This entire project felt directionless, and wasted a day of my life. I have a lot more to say about RFKs tendency to self-insert and my inability to determine if her main characters are proud tokens with elitist mindsets by design or if that’s some of the author bleeding into the writing. However, I’m sick of thinking about this book and will pick that fight another day.

Nik ✨

I do feel like I’ve actually been through hell in the worst way possible.

Outside of the very unnecessary conversations about penises, I would’ve thought this was YA. I’m aware this is still an arc, and in between writing this and her final draft, she’s likely improved some things. But quite frankly, I was miserable from start to finish.

From a storytelling perspective, there was not a single likable character to latch onto and root for. RFK told us a lot of things — a LOT — but rarely ever showed them. The emotional beats didn’t have any impact because I never cared about these people. The “humorous” parts didn’t elicit a single chuckle. The supposed romance was the most contrived mess of predictable plot points I’ve seen in a long time. The info dumps sprinkled in ruined any momentum the book had and read like journal scribblings from when she first came up with the concept of the story. The academic moments felt like I was in an 8am lecture after Thirsty Thursday. It just did not work.

Much like how I wanted to see more of the secret society in Babel, I wanted to see more of Hell in this novel. Honestly, this could’ve been set in Baltimore for all I know. We spent so much time in flashbacks, it really didn’t matter. This entire project felt directionless, and wasted a day of my life. I have a lot more to say about RFKs tendency to self-insert and my inability to determine if her main characters are proud tokens with elitist mindsets by design or if that’s some of the author bleeding into the writing. However, I’m sick of thinking about this book and will pick that fight another day.

rory

Thanks to Netgalley for an eARC in exchange for an honest review!

After reading The Poppy War and Babel in quick succession, I was eagerly hoping for the ARC of Katabasis. Unfortunately, this one did not carry the same exhilirating feeling as Kuang's other books did for me.

The concept itself was intriguing to me and I was so excited for a deep dive into Kuang's take on Hell and the "hero's journey" of it all. Except I feel like only about 1/3 of the book is actually about Hell and the other 2/3 are scenes from the past. Which, in theory, would work if that's how this book had been going for. It almost feels like Kuang wanted to do dual timelines but instead a lot of the flashback scenes ended up feeling clunky and out of place.

I didn't feel put off by much of the literature and theory talk, though I am entrenched in that in my studies so it actually felt more of a comfort. However, I do see how it can come off a little much at times. There were explanations for nearly every reference made that spanned anywhere between a paragraph to three pages and this added to the clumsy pulled between scenes feeling for me. Alice and Peter were also profoundly unlikable to me for 3/4 of the book. I wanted so so badly to like them but every time they had a "rivals" moment it felt like a "well actually it's MY fault this happened...." competition and it was exhausting honestly.

Overall, I think this is the weakest of Kuang's books (though I have not yet read Yellowface) not only in character and plot development, but in prose. At times it felt more like a misguided debut than a sixth novel unfortunately. This hasn't put me off Kuang as an author because I do truly like her work but this just isn't one I can see buying for myself when it hits shelves.

Thanks to Netgalley for an eARC in exchange for an honest review!

After reading The Poppy War and Babel in quick succession, I was eagerly hoping for the ARC of Katabasis. Unfortunately, this one did not carry the same exhilirating feeling as Kuang's other books did for me.

The concept itself was intriguing to me and I was so excited for a deep dive into Kuang's take on Hell and the "hero's journey" of it all. Except I feel like only about 1/3 of the book is actually about Hell and the other 2/3 are scenes from the past. Which, in theory, would work if that's how this book had been going for. It almost feels like Kuang wanted to do dual timelines but instead a lot of the flashback scenes ended up feeling clunky and out of place.

I didn't feel put off by much of the literature and theory talk, though I am entrenched in that in my studies so it actually felt more of a comfort. However, I do see how it can come off a little much at times. There were explanations for nearly every reference made that spanned anywhere between a paragraph to three pages and this added to the clumsy pulled between scenes feeling for me. Alice and Peter were also profoundly unlikable to me for 3/4 of the book. I wanted so so badly to like them but every time they had a "rivals" moment it felt like a "well actually it's MY fault this happened...." competition and it was exhausting honestly.

Overall, I think this is the weakest of Kuang's books (though I have not yet read Yellowface) not only in character and plot development, but in prose. At times it felt more like a misguided debut than a sixth novel unfortunately. This hasn't put me off Kuang as an author because I do truly like her work but this just isn't one I can see buying for myself when it hits shelves.

ARC review, Deluxe Limited Edition EPUB copy (Release Date : August 2025)

Thank you to Harper Voyager and NetGalley for the advanced copy !

Two magicians go to hell to resurrect their dead thesis advisor so they can get their papers approved and graduate. While I picked this book up because of that premise, it is also the main factor that made it so boring and kind of pointless for me. R.F. Kuang is smart, yes, but she's not a good storyteller.

Magic (or Magick let's say) in this book are not paradoxes, the way the book tells you, but is actually a bunch of If-Else statements I've learned from coding subjects during my Grade 10-12 years. For a bunch of smart people they claim (or the author makes them out) to be, they say a lot of dumb shit sometimes. "You need to explain that to me like I'm five" ??? Kuang, I need to remind you this is not twitter. I thought it's because maybe she doesn't know where to draw the line on what's being said by Gen Z on social media apps versus the real world, but i looked up her age and she's not even old ? Personally, the people I'm around with and my friend group/s are the most brainrotted people I know but I have NEVER heard them say this in real life.

A love story ? Where ? Enemies-to-Lovers subplot ? Where ? Enemies ? Where ? Lovers ? Where ? The only thing coming close to a love story in this book is the main characters' love for hating academia and being a postgraduate.

Relationships and character arcs are reliant on backstories. To make a character round, Kuang conveniently brings up a specific memory, to show that this character is actually like this or that. For me, that doesn't make a character complex, it just makes them confusing. Everyone is flat. Everyone talks the same. If you remove the "Alice said" or "Peter said"s, I would argue that you can't tell where Alice ends or Peter starts. Side characters and Villain/s don't have a point either. Their main schtick is being that one fly roaming around your house. You get annoyed, you swat it, they go away for an hour or two then come back, and repeat. This book introduced 3 (or 4) side characters to progress the plot (not really) but when the scene is all done and the main characters go "ok", they just walk away like nothing happened and disappear from the book entirely or reappear when it's convenient for the plot to progress again. I'm not kidding when I say in the last chapters, one of the characters literally went 

insert that peace sign guy going invisible meme

 when he wasn't needed anymore. And as Alice always gets her way in the end, she continues to be flat. A lot of the chapters (specified below) just reads like lazy writing to me :/ . Characters are not likeable or unlikeable, I simply feel nothing towards them.

To the Kuang fanatics who would defend this book with their entire being, would make very unnecessary reading lists, and would tell you if you don't like this book; "You just didn't get it" and "You're not smart enough", let me tell you this. If the amount of literary references in a book would decide how smart an author is or how good the book is, then I would argue that ao3 authors would subjectively make a better writer than R.F. Kuang. Hell (haha get it ?), if we want to get into The Iliad references, then I would say that the Hannibal fandom / Hannigram writers have been doing it the best for more than a decade now. This is nothing new nor groundbreaking.

Chapters 3-6 : Okayy, interesting interesting

Chapters 7-10 : ..Kind of feeling sleepy the last few chapters

Chapters 11-33 : ZZZZZ Can this book just end ?

Chapters 34-35 : Welcome back R.F Kuang from Chapters 1-2, I'm interested again.

Hell is boring, magick is boring, characters are boring, and the story is boring. At least it ended the way I wanted it to end. I guess that made picking it up worth it ?? IDK :/

Just sucks that I only gave a shit again about the characters after 400 pages. As I said, I picked this up for the interesting premise, not for a badly written Substack post that I can't determine if it's another academia rant or a Greek myth info-dump. Disappointing, for a book that is probably the most anticipated release of the year.

Nica

2.3

ARC review, Deluxe Limited Edition EPUB copy (Release Date : August 2025)

Thank you to Harper Voyager and NetGalley for the advanced copy !

Two magicians go to hell to resurrect their dead thesis advisor so they can get their papers approved and graduate. While I picked this book up because of that premise, it is also the main factor that made it so boring and kind of pointless for me. R.F. Kuang is smart, yes, but she's not a good storyteller.

Magic (or Magick let's say) in this book are not paradoxes, the way the book tells you, but is actually a bunch of If-Else statements I've learned from coding subjects during my Grade 10-12 years. For a bunch of smart people they claim (or the author makes them out) to be, they say a lot of dumb shit sometimes. "You need to explain that to me like I'm five" ??? Kuang, I need to remind you this is not twitter. I thought it's because maybe she doesn't know where to draw the line on what's being said by Gen Z on social media apps versus the real world, but i looked up her age and she's not even old ? Personally, the people I'm around with and my friend group/s are the most brainrotted people I know but I have NEVER heard them say this in real life.

A love story ? Where ? Enemies-to-Lovers subplot ? Where ? Enemies ? Where ? Lovers ? Where ? The only thing coming close to a love story in this book is the main characters' love for hating academia and being a postgraduate.

Relationships and character arcs are reliant on backstories. To make a character round, Kuang conveniently brings up a specific memory, to show that this character is actually like this or that. For me, that doesn't make a character complex, it just makes them confusing. Everyone is flat. Everyone talks the same. If you remove the "Alice said" or "Peter said"s, I would argue that you can't tell where Alice ends or Peter starts. Side characters and Villain/s don't have a point either. Their main schtick is being that one fly roaming around your house. You get annoyed, you swat it, they go away for an hour or two then come back, and repeat. This book introduced 3 (or 4) side characters to progress the plot (not really) but when the scene is all done and the main characters go "ok", they just walk away like nothing happened and disappear from the book entirely or reappear when it's convenient for the plot to progress again. I'm not kidding when I say in the last chapters, one of the characters literally went insert that peace sign guy going invisible meme when he wasn't needed anymore. And as Alice always gets her way in the end, she continues to be flat. A lot of the chapters (specified below) just reads like lazy writing to me :/ . Characters are not likeable or unlikeable, I simply feel nothing towards them.

To the Kuang fanatics who would defend this book with their entire being, would make very unnecessary reading lists, and would tell you if you don't like this book; "You just didn't get it" and "You're not smart enough", let me tell you this. If the amount of literary references in a book would decide how smart an author is or how good the book is, then I would argue that ao3 authors would subjectively make a better writer than R.F. Kuang. Hell (haha get it ?), if we want to get into The Iliad references, then I would say that the Hannibal fandom / Hannigram writers have been doing it the best for more than a decade now. This is nothing new nor groundbreaking.

My reading experience summarized :

Chapters 1-2 : LOVED it, I am hooked !

Chapters 3-6 : Okayy, interesting interesting

Chapters 7-10 : ..Kind of feeling sleepy the last few chapters

Chapters 11-33 : ZZZZZ Can this book just end ?

Chapters 34-35 : Welcome back R.F Kuang from Chapters 1-2, I'm interested again.

Hell is boring, magick is boring, characters are boring, and the story is boring. At least it ended the way I wanted it to end. I guess that made picking it up worth it ?? IDK :/

Just sucks that I only gave a shit again about the characters after 400 pages. As I said, I picked this up for the interesting premise, not for a badly written Substack post that I can't determine if it's another academia rant or a Greek myth info-dump. Disappointing, for a book that is probably the most anticipated release of the year.

Katabasis

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