Katabasis: A Novel by R.F. KuangPublication Date: August 26, 2025
Pages: 560
Add on: Goodreads
Rating: ★★★★½
Source: From the Publisher
Genre: Fiction / Fantasy / Historical
Publisher: Harper Voyager / Harper Collins
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.
REVIEW
R.F. Kuang’s latest novel asks what you’d sacrifice for academic success. The answer, it turns out, is your soul – literally.
Katabasis follows Alice Law, a grad student with dreams bigger than her bank account and an ego to match. When her advisor’s soul gets trapped in Hell (occupational hazard in magical academia, apparently), Alice teams up with her academic nemesis for the world’s worst field trip: a journey through eight circles of the underworld. Think Dante’s Inferno meets The Paper Chase, with more stabbing.
The real magic here isn’t in the spells – it’s in how Kuang turns Hell into a mirror for academia’s own special brand of torment. Anyone who’s survived grad school will recognize the familiar demons: impostor syndrome, cutthroat competition, and the crushing weight of expectations. The author’s own academic background bleeds through every page, making the magical elements feel as real as a looming dissertation deadline.
But what starts as a rescue mission becomes something far more interesting. As Alice and her rival navigate literal hellfire, they’re forced to confront their own demons (and each other). Their evolving relationship forms the story’s beating heart, proving that sometimes the best friendships are forged in Hell.
Kuang’s writing strikes a perfect balance between philosophical depth and page-turning action. She weaves in complex ideas about logic and mathematics without losing sight of the human drama. And while the book shares DNA with her previous work, Babel, Katabasis feels fresher, funnier, and more personal.
The result is a dark academia fantasy that’s both smarter and more accessible than it has any right to be. Yes, there are philosophical discussions that might make your brain hurt. But there’s also friendship, rivalry, redemption, and enough dry wit to power a small city.
Verdict: Whether you’re a fantasy fan, a recovering academic, or just someone who enjoys watching smart people make terrible decisions, Katabasis delivers. It’s a hell of a ride.
4.5/5 stars
