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Cover of Katabasis

Katabasis

by R.F. Kuang

🥛clean·spoiler

Why Read This?

Kuang blends Chinese Diyu mythology with Western underworld traditions in a razor-sharp dark academia descent—two rivals forced to trust each other through Hell itself, with a slow burn that rewards every agonizing page of tension.

Synopsis

Dante’s Inferno meets Susanna Clarke’s Piranesi in this all-new dark academia fantasy from R. F. Kuang, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Babel and Yellowface , in which two graduate students must put aside their rivalry and journey to Hell to save their professor’s soul—perhaps at the cost of their own. Katabasis, noun, Ancient Greek: The story of a hero’s descent to the underworld Alice Law has only ever had one goal: to become one of the brightest minds in the field of Magick. She has sacrificed everything to make that a reality: her pride, her health, her love life, and most definitely her sanity. All to work with Professor Jacob Grimes at Cambridge, the greatest magician in the world. That is, until he dies in a magical accident that could possibly be her fault. Grimes is now in Hell, and she’s going in after him. Because his recommendation could hold her very future in his now incorporeal hands and even death is not going to stop the pursuit of her dreams…. Nor will the fact that her rival, Peter Murdoch, has come to the very same conclusion. With nothing but the tales of Orpheus and Dante to guide them, enough chalk to draw the Pentagrams necessary for their spells, and the burning desire to make all the academic trauma mean anything, they set off across Hell to save a man they don’t even like. But Hell is not like the storybooks say, Magick isn’t always the answer, and there’s something in Alice and Peter’s past that could forge them into the perfect allies…or lead to their doom.

At a Glance

3.79 ★ Goodreads
Spice Level🥛clean
Endingspoiler
PairingM/F
Romance Pacingslow burn

Top Tropes

rivals competingforced proximityslow burn

Mood

darkintenseatmosphericintrospectivetense

Book Details

Goodreads Rating

3.79 ★

Page Count

559 pages

Published

2025

Primary Genre

Fantasy

Pairing

M/F

POV

Dual POV

Romance Pacing

Slow Burn

Cliffhanger

spoiler

Audiobook

Available

Yes

Format

Dual Narration

Narrator

Morag Sims, Will Watt

Tropes

RomanceMagicActionAngstWorld
Theme Constellation

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Mood & Vibe

Mood

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Characters

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sexual assault (referenced)deathviolencegoreanimal deathmurdersuicidal ideationbloodmisogynychronic illnessstalkingdisordered eating

World & Setting

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Reading Context

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