Alexis: Happy September🍂 It’s the perfect time of year for dark academia!
Katabasis: The Greek word for the journey into the underworld.
Katabasis is R.F. Kuang’s newest novel. It follows two rival magick academics from Cambridge, Alice and Peter, who venture into Hell to save their academic advisor, Professor Grimes—after all, his accidental death may have been Alice’s fault.
The Writing
If you’ve read Kuang’s books before, I would describe the tone of this one as a mix between Babel and Yellowface. It’s academic, yes, but it’s also funny. While I read Katabasis, I was often struck by how often I was laughing. Her actual writing is witty and smart yet—you guessed it—full of humor.
The References
I sped through this book. It was exactly what I was in the mood to read. I appreciated Kuang’s intense take and criticism of academia. And, listen, I have a BA in English and an MFA in Creative Writing, and, once upon a time, I took Latin for 3 years and learned a lot about Roman and Greek mythology. So you can be sure that I was nerding out over all of the literature and mythology references.
I will say, though, I feel like they make total sense in this book. The way Kuang delves into literature, mythology, and even magick theory echoes the way that Alice and Peter think and solve problems. And, without giving too much away, since Hell mimics Cambridge, it perfectly fits into both the above and below worlds.
The Characters
As for the main characters, I thought Alice and Peter were both well-rounded. Did I root for them to find Grimes and get the hell out of, well, Hell? Yes. Did I find their flaws frustrating at times? Yes. Did I understand them, though? Also yes. They’re the perfect academics to venture into Hell, and when we finally get their backstories halfway through, they feel earned, and they really worked well for their character arcs.
The Romance
While I think the marketing of this book sometimes focused too much on the romance, I can honestly say that the romance is a subplot of a subplot, so if you’re more of a dark academia person vs. a romance person, you’ll still enjoy the story. However, if you’re more of a romantasy reader, you’ll still appreciate the rivals to lovers trope.
The Story
While I wouldn’t call Babel a fantasy book, but more a historical alternate history with fantastical elements, I appreciated that Katabasis was both a dark academia and a fantasy book. The magick system uses chalk and pentagrams, and I found it fascinating as a whole. I love a good classic hero’s journey, and I was interested in all of the side characters and side quests we met along the way.
Oh, and also, there’s a cat named Archimedes.
VERDICT: 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥/5
/5 
takes two to book review 