Review: ‘Katabasis’ Might Be the Best Book of 2025

We all have that one niche genre of books we can’t help but absolutely devour. Maybe anytime you see “enemies-to-lovers” on the back of a book, it’s an immediate purchase. Or maybe your 2010s obsession with Twilight and The Vampire Diaries means vampire books are always an automatic read. For me, that genre is—without a doubt—dark academia. I’m not sure if it’s post-grad nostalgia or the lingering childhood dream of being Rory Gilmore, but give me a campus novel with dark undertones and a splash of magical realism, and I’m going to eat it up every single time. Especially if it’s a dark academia book by one of my favorite authors, R.F. Kuang.

I fell in love with Kuang’s writing after reading Babel, and I’ve been counting down the days until the release of her newest book, Katabasis, since it was announced. When I saw the story promised academic rivals-to-lovers, a chaotic descent into Hell, and, of course, dark academia, I knew it was right up my alley. After reading Katabasis, I can confidently say: this may be the best book of 2025.

R. F Kuang

Katabasis

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.

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What is Katabasis about?

Alice Law has sacrificed everything in the hopes of becoming one of the greatest academics the field of Magick has ever seen. Working with Professor Jacob Grimes at Cambridge was supposed to be her ticket to eventually receiving a coveted tenured position, the ultimate mark of success in Magick. But then he dies in an accident that may or may not have been her fault. Alice has given up her health, her social life, and her pride to work with Grimes, and she’s not about to graduate without a letter of recommendation from him. So, naturally, she travels to Hell to find him. Unfortunately for her, her rival—and fellow Grimes advisee—Peter Murdoch had the same idea.

My review of Katabasis

It exposes the reality of academia

When I heard this book followed two academics descending into Hell, I immediately pictured fiery landscapes, endless torture, and all the classic literary depictions of the underworld. So when Hell instead turned out to be structured like a bureaucratic corporate office—where souls spend centuries drafting dissertations no one will ever read and performing meaningless daily tasks without knowing if they’ll ever move on—I was caught off guard in the best way possible. Alice and Peter are just as shocked to discover that, in this world, Hell is basically a college campus.

Many dark academia books romanticize academia but fail to do the one thing the genre is truly meant to do: critique it. Katabasis doesn’t just idealize long study sessions or paint academia as a world of cable-knit sweaters, ivy-covered campuses, and cozy libraries full of classics. It exposes the inaccessibility and toxicity of real-world education systems, where opportunity is limited to a select few, and even among them, only those willing to make great sacrifices graduate. We see the characters’ obsession with acquiring knowledge at any cost, with little regard for what they have to sacrifice in order to hoard it. None of the academics in the story care who they step on to get ahead; they don’t care how inaccessible their world is; they don’t care that no amount of knowledge will never be enough; and they certainly don’t care that even if they did somehow quench their thirst, they’d have no one left to share it with.

The characters are fully developed and painfully relatable

Other books that critique academia often lean so into the academic that they stop feeling like escapist stories and start reading like textbooks. I end up feeling no more connection to the characters than I do to facts on a page. But in Katabasis, R.F. Kuang manages to lay out a complicated magic system while still creating fully developed characters. They don’t feel cold or distant despite their world being both—even when that’s the face they put on to others. Every action, even from the worst characters, feels entirely true to who they are. No decision exists just to move the plot forward; every piece of dialogue and every choice feels like exactly what that character would really do.

“Katabasis is hands down my favorite read of the year so far, and I’d be shocked if anything dethrones it in the coming months.”

Alice is so young and insecure that she looks for reassurance in every sentence. She’s so desperate for validation from her professors that she would literally venture into Hell to retrieve the worst man alive just to hear him say she’s doing a good job. We see how the people and systems around her exploit Alice’s insecurities, and how those vulnerabilities become both her fuel and her downfall. While I don’t plan to open any Hellish portals myself, I can absolutely relate to that insatiable need for words of affirmation to desperately try to quiet imposter syndrome. Clinging to every word—positive or negative—and cataloging it in my brain as either proof of success or evidence of failure. Finding relatability in a character who can cast spells and hold multiple degrees isn’t easy, but Kuang makes Alice feel completely relatable. The writing itself even mirrors Alice: methodical and matter-of-fact, but with a lingering desperation and emotion she wishes she could completely suppress.

It forces you to question what it means to be “good”

As Alice and Peter descend deeper into Hell, they’re forced to confront everything: their ambitions, their obsession with Magick, and whether they can coexist with morality, their time at Cambridge, and even the meaning of life itself. And as a reader, you’re right there with them, questioning those same things.

What makes a person “good”? Do intentions matter more than actions? Does the greater good justify the sacrifices you make along the way? Everyone in Hell is trying to figure that out, and so are Alice and Peter. Alice, in particular, feels painfully real in her contradictions. She may recognize that being a woman in academia comes with endless sexist moments, but she dismisses the feminists who actually want to address those issues. To her, the sexism she faces is just another hurdle to overcome on her way to greatness.

The novel shows how exclusionary systems pit women against each other, ensuring that even fewer succeed. Alice idolizes her male professor despite how horrible he is to her, rolls her eyes at the female ones, and scoffs at the women who challenge the system—even while she suffers under it. She isn’t always likable, but she’s always believable. Watching her shed these beliefs piece by piece throughout the novel is so raw, honest, and satisfying. The structure of the book makes this even more powerful. Flashbacks to Alice and Peter’s life above ground constantly subvert your expectations. Just when you’ve decided someone is irredeemable, you’re shown another side of them that complicates everything.

The slow-burn romance doesn’t disappoint

And I can’t talk about Katabasis without mentioning the slow-burn romance. As someone whose peak idea of romance is the Pride and Prejudice hand flex, I love a burn so slow you’re halfway through the final chapters still wondering if the match has even been struck. Romance readers expecting epic confessions, swoon-worthy dates, and neat happily-ever-afters might not fall for this subplot like I did. But if you, like me, find the graze of a hand more thrilling than a grand gesture, you’ll devour every single line.

Should you read Katabasis?

Going into a book with this much hype meant the chances of disappointment were high. Instead, Katabasis exceeded my every expectation. If I could give it six stars, I would. Like its message, this book is about the journey. It doesn’t rush character development, and if you’re the kind of reader who gets restless with meandering plots, you might find yourself impatient at times. But for me? Katabasis is hands down my favorite read of the year so far, and I’d be shocked if anything dethrones it in the coming months. I currently have a major book hangover, and I’m already begging everyone in my life to run to the library so I can relive it with them.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Lauren Blue, Assistant Editor

As an Assistant Editor for The Everygirl, Lauren ideates and writes content for every facet of our readers’ lives. Her articles span the topics of must-read books, movies, home tours, travel itineraries—and everything in between. When she isn’t testing the latest TikTok trend, she can be found scouring Goodreads for new releases to feature on the site.

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