Review – Katabasis by R.F. Kuang

September 11, 2025

Synopsis

Katabasis, noun, Ancient Greek. The story of a hero’s descent to the underworld.

Grad student Alice Law has only ever had one goal: to become the brightest mind in the field of analytic magic.
But the only person who can make her dream come true is dead and – inconveniently – in Hell. And Alice, along with her biggest rival Peter Murdoch, is going after him.

But Hell is not as the philosophers claim, its rules are upside-down, and if she’s going to get out of there alive, she and Peter will have to work together.
That’s if they can agree on anything.
Will they triumph, or kill each other trying?

Review

If there is one book that was hyped the most to be released, it’s probably this one. I was looking forward to start reading it as soon as I was able to hold it in my hands.

Alice and Peter are very competitive and brilliant students. When they initially got to know it other, the spent a lot of time together and enjoyed each other’s company. But this changed. When they must *save* the one person (what they think) who guarantees their academic success in the future, they need to find a way of working together. Both have unique strength that help them on their journey, which is not an easy one. It is complex, it is dangerous, and my brain was overloaded a lot of times.
While the main story moves along, we get glimpses into the past also, helping us to understand their motivation and background a lot better.

I enjoyed reading it (and sometimes felt very dumb 😊). It might not be for everyone though.

🌙 Recension: Katabasis by R.F. Kuang
📚 Genre: Fantasy & Dark Academia
📅 Release Date: August 26, 2025
📖 Verlag: HarperVoyager
📗 ISBN: 9780008773854 – available in various formats / Editions
📱 Read as: Physical
💸Bought
🗣️ Language: English
📆 Pages: 560 (Hardcover)
⭐️ 4/5