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Cover of Katabasis

Katabasis

by R.F. Kuang

🌶️🌶️mild·spoiler

Why Read This?

You get R.F. Kuang's razor-sharp prose applied to academic rivals forced to literally go to Hell together. The yearning is exquisite, the mythology is clever, and you'll finish it in one sitting then immediately need to discuss it with someone.

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🌶️🌶️mild
Endingspoiler
PairingM/F
Romance Pacingslow burn

Top Tropes

academic rivalsadventure romanceforbidden love

Mood

darkintensemysteriousbittersweetatmospheric

Book Details

Goodreads Rating

3.79 ★

Page Count

559 pages

Published

2025

Primary Genre

Romantasy

Pairing

M/F

POV

Dual POV

Romance Pacing

Slow Burn

Cliffhanger

spoiler

Audiobook

Format

N/A

Tropes

RomanceMagicActionAngstWorld
Theme Constellation

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Mood & Vibe

Mood

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Characters

FMC: morally gray FMC, bookworm/scholar, ambitious/ruthless, bookworm / scholar, traumatized heroine sign in to unlock

Spice Details 🌶️

tension / anticipation focus sign in to unlock

self-harm ideationsuicidedeathtraumaviolencedeath of loved onegraphic violencetorturegriefacademic pressuremental healthtoxic relationshipscaptivityreligious themesbody horrorbloodimprisonment

World & Setting

urban fantasy sign in to unlock

Reading Context

book hangover sign in to unlock

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