Summer K’s Reviews > Katabasis > Status Update

Things that I’m loving
- How fully my brain has to engage when a new reference is being, for lack of a better word, referenced
- The conversational tone. Even though this book is in third person we still get references to “those days” and “back then Alice was…” which is the type of language used around friends

I’m also forever struck by the perfect way Kuang has managed to describe the microcult so many high masking, high achieving students fall into with their mentors. It’s so difficult to read BECAUSE its so accurate

Scene with Helen and Alice: This is so so tough to read but such a wonderful depiction of the mental labyrinths we put ourselves through to make the world around us make sense and to force ourselves to believe that, despite all evidence, we can still make it.