Sharmila Chakravorty’s Reviews > Katabasis > Status Update

Im trying to be clever about Peter and Alice’s history, in trying to give the reader tiny morsels of information, rebecca fucks it all up cuz nothing makes sense. Their relationship is a mess. Are they friends are they lovers are the enemies. Dull assholes, I couldnt care less

Am I reading this wrong or is this memory tattoo thing a stand-in for SA? Like the professor takes advantage of her but in a non SA way but is just as bad? The whole treatment of this and dropping hints as if they had sex is weird. The 'Dont tell anyone?' And why does she vomit seeing those students going at it? :P WTF. And we have never seen Alice's memory as a thing before so this comes off as very unconvincing :(

She has perfect recall but can't remember mathematics? Damn these inconsistencies. Get a better editor next time, Rebecca :(

ANNOYING! get to the point, Kuang. Does Alice hate Peter or are they exes? Did the prof do shady shit to Alice? Alice tells us Peter isn't condescending when explaining things to less smart students, and then 12 lines later she's like omg he's so condescending. Which one is it? HELL IS FUCKING BORING. nothing is happening omg am I in hell? Is this hell? My curse is not being able to DNF books, but I might

I’m very unsure of alice and peters relationship. Are they enemies or are were they friends. It’s confusing (and quite frankly, annoying) me now. This book reads like AI wrote it :(

So you’re telling me peter was supposed to go to italy with the prof but alice was chosen to go, and peter didn’t know about it? Calling bullshit on this. They dont seem like enemies. Awkward acquaintances more like. Im not invested yet :(

How do I say this? I’m not off to a great start. Alice is sort of unlikeable, Grimes is weird and toxic, Peter feels like he’s on the spectrum. The story is jagged. Very disjointed and abrupt. I hope I am reading the right version lol and not some random fanfic being peddled as the real thing. Not very happy as of right now to be honest

Im nitpicking but Alice hates Peter for petty reasons. It’s more like she is jealous of him? Not a true haters to lovers story then.. also, if she has a secret, then why is she okay with taking him along? Weaksauce. Alice’s whole reason for going to hell are weak so far 🫣

No :P Lembas bread is NOT peanuts and sugar but maybe in this world it is but then why not call it something else? Or am I wrong? Gotta look this up