Comment by libraryofbabel

This is a review of Katabasis, R.F. Kuang's new book. I wonder if there are any fans of Kuang here who can convince me to give her another go; I did not much like Babel, and only got 20% of the way into it. (This despite being a recovering humanities scholar who still wears dark-academiaish tweed skirts to her programming job.) From what I remember, the characters were a bit flat, the plot didn't draw me in, and the writing style was a little formulaic. I can't help compare with Donna Tartt's The Secret History, which I absolutely adored.