Katabasis

Hell is not fire and brimstone. Hell is not demons gnashing their teeth. Hell is picking up your most anticipated dark academia release of the year… and realizing you don’t actually love it.

That’s where Katabasis left me: not damned, not destroyed, but slightly disappointed. Kuang’s writing still has plenty of sharpness—her technical, sciencey, and philosophical asides gave me exactly the academic fix I was craving, and when she leans into that mode, the book sings. But somewhere around page 300, the descent faltered. The pacing dragged, the atmosphere thinned, and the promised hell started looking more like a dimly lit waiting room.

What stings most is how much potential the underworld had. The courts of hell should have been dazzlingly strange, grotesque, unique—trials that mirrored their own distinct qualities. Instead, many blended together, bland when they should have been infernal. Kuang seemed to lose steam in imagining what Alice and Peter might face down there.

Meanwhile, the romance stepped up to fill the void. Which is fine—love in hell has its appeal—but their relationship often felt weighed down by artificial conflict, manufactured mistrust, the kind of drama that exists more to keep pages turning than because it feels true.

So no, this wasn’t the triumphant dark descent I’d hoped to buy, shelve, and revisit forever. I’m glad I borrowed it, because I doubt I’ll be rereading it anytime soon. Still, if you’re hungry for a dark academia book with some sharp ideas (and don’t mind a few circles that drag on longer than they should), I’d still say it’s worth a visit.

Because hell isn’t other people—it’s realizing the book you waited for turned out to be just a 3.25/5 stars.