Katabasis by R.F. Kuang – 4 stars

[Jen]

Dante’s Inferno is one of my all-time favorites, so I’m always interested when a book includes a spin on that theme. This was my first time reading Kuang, and honestly, the writing style wasn’t what I expected (still not sure how to explain why). Because of that, it took me a while to get into the story, but once I let go of my own expectations, I started enjoying it so much more.

Alice, the main character, was tough for me to like (maybe that was the point?), but I kept hoping she’d grow on me. She did, a bit, but I never fully warmed up to her. Also: I definitely wanted more cat!

The ideas and imagination behind each level were fun— I wanted to both linger and explore, but also rush ahead and see what happened next. The sections dealing with logic theories made me feel kinda dumb, so I skimmed those (hence, not a 5 star read for me), but I can totally see how others would love them. After a bumpy start, I really enjoyed my first RF Kuang and I’m looking forward to exploring other works now.

[Joanne]

I had started it and then put it down, mainly for the reasons you talk about with Alice. I will revisit at the end of the month with a group in hopes that the discussion will change my mind. Glad to see that after a while, you got interested.

I have read the first 2 books of The Poppy War. 5 and 3 stars respectively

[Jen]

Joanne wrote: "I had started it and then put it down, mainly for the reasons you talk about with Alice. I will revisit at the end of the month with a group in hopes that the discussion will change my mind. Glad t..."


I've heard good things about both The Poppy Wars and Babel so I have them on my radar to get to eventually.

[Joy D]

I have this book on my TBR and it sounds like something I will enjoy. Thanks for the great review!

I loved Babel and liked The Poppy War. I can also recommend Yellowface, which is quite different (not fantasy) and shows the author's versatility.

ETA - She seems to write unlikeable but interesting characters in all of the books I've read so far.

[Jen]

erf I just saw that a couple sentences got cut off when I was copying over from the Word doc I was using to draft my thoughts. Edited!

[Flo]

I've only read Yellowface so far, but I have The Poppy War series as well as Babel that I need to read, and I recently bought this book as well, so I really should get on that soon so I can get in on the hype!