Katabasis: When Descent Keeps Descending…and Descending….

Alice Law has given up everything from her love life, pride, health & sanity all to work beside Oxford professor & magician Professor Jacob Grimes. Unfortunately, those plans are put on pause when Grimes is killed in a magic accident which is most likely Alice’s fault and he’s in Hell. Alice knows she must go after him because she needs his recommendations to succeed in her career. Alice’s rival Peter Murdoch accompanies her, and they venture through Hell with a common goal. They find that magic isn’t always the answer and its nothing like Dante or Orpheus described.

 Great Ideas Weak Execution but I’m proud I finished reading it

The concept is great I do enjoy stories about Heaven and Hell and descending into Hell to either rescue someone or trying to find answers. I like the mythological characters of Lord Yama and The Weaver Girl from Chinese mythology, but the main characters I didn’t care about. The 8 Courts of Hell & descriptions of this complicated world are interesting. There were times I was reading this that I wondered Is this a rough draft? The reason I wondered about this is because the flashbacks come without warning & the novel had a mish mash of ideas that instead read like a rough draft of something. The ending left me wondering what the point was. If this book went through a final edit and the book had a few hundred pages cut out, I would have enjoyed this more. I know the problem with RF Kuang’s books is the ideas are there; they just aren’t executed very well. Then again, she could be one of those authors where you either enjoy her work or you don’t. I’m curious about her upcoming novel Taipei Story (perhaps I’m a glutton for punishment) but instead of buying it, I will check it out from the library.