Katabasis

This is the first book from R.F. Kuang that I read. I knew it was about a journey through hell, and one of the things that drew me to it was the mention of Dante. We study Dante's Divine Comedy in Italy, so I felt compelled to read this book. She has an incredibly extensive knowledge about how hell or, generally the afterlife, is represented across different cultures. It was nice to see explicit mentions across the book (and more than a few from Italian culture).

The story was very captivating; it's a book that's well-written, it was pretty easy to go through it quickly. The ending was not surprising, which is balanced by the magic system that was original to me. I haven't stumbled upon a magic system strictly based on logic anf I felt pretty intrigued.

My hope is to explore this universe more, but I'm not sure if that's her intention. Moving forward, I think this book by itself has a lot of interesting venues to explore, but it could also see the story finishing as it is. If you think the premise of the story is convincing, you'll be happy with the book. It of delivers well, so you will not be disappointed!