Content levels
Trigger warnings
Hero archetypes
Heroine archetypes
Protagonist archetypes
Tropes
Themes
Synopsis
An Audiofile Earphones Award Winner, featuring dual narration from Morag Sims and Will Watt 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.
Is Katabasis: A Novel appropriate for my child?
Suitable for most readers 16 and up.
Features adult graduate students descending into a literary Hell to rescue their professor, with themes of academic trauma, mental health struggles, and moderate violence. Complex literary references and dark academia setting make this best for mature readers.
What to know going in
This book has moderate violence, no sexual content, and moderate language. Content notes include death, grief, and mental illness (see the full list above).
Who'll love this
Teens who love dark academia, literary fantasy, and stories about rivalries turned partnerships will enjoy this quest through Hell with mythological references.