disclaimer: there are no explicit spoilers as this is an arc, so nothing that鈥檚 not a part of the basic premise of this book or already been shared, bdisclaimer: there are no explicit spoilers as this is an arc, so nothing that鈥檚 not a part of the basic premise of this book or already been shared, but there are some vague, non-specific things i try and discuss that if you鈥檙e trying to go in totally blind, you may not want to read.
okay, i鈥檓 going to start with what i liked. and there鈥檚 actually a lot that i liked which makes the second part of this review all so frustrating.
i don鈥檛 think i鈥檝e ever read anything by r.f. kuang that i didn鈥檛 find fascinating. the writing of hell and the magic system is like actual crack to someone who鈥檚 both a fantasy and mythology junkie like me. i have a shit ton of this book highlighted because of it. and when rfk decides to sink her teeth into the characters, really show you (remember this for later) what makes them tick, she's got me. she has archetypes she likes to write and that she keeps coming back to, but i won鈥檛 hold that against her here because i like how she writes them. shoot me.
i also found it thematically a big improvement from yellowface, which kind of fell on its face as far as what it was trying to say. katabasis is about academia and it鈥檚 about dying and it鈥檚 about how academia makes you want to die, and it tackled everything about those three things in a way that left me satisfied.
it鈥檚 all just bafflingly shot in the foot by the fact that despite by being such a seasoned writer, rfk completely fell flat on 2 very simple rules, repeatedly, throughout the book: show don鈥檛 tell and set up & pay off.
one of the first worldbuilding rules any fantasy writer is taught if they鈥檙e going to be solving problems with magic and/or within a magic system鈥攚hich is how basically all of the problems in katabasis are solved鈥攊s to set up the rule so you can pay it off later, so the reader doesn鈥檛 feel cheated or feel like you鈥檝e just pulled something out of your ass. so many conflicts in katabasis follow this structure:
1. they face some problem in hell 2. either peter or alice randomly realises something quite clever and solves the problem 3. they explain the theory of what they realised and how this helped them solve the problem, usually referencing real-world literature and theory on the subject or aspects of the magic system/worldbuilding we were not told about right before this moment. after they鈥檝e done it. 4. i鈥檓 left either having learning something new or going 鈥渙h yeah, i know about that thing, i鈥檝e read about it before. neat.鈥� 5. repeat. and leave feeling a bit unsatisfied each time.
this is such a trend with most conflicts in the book that it really undercuts any tension in a lot of scenes, which is frustrating because they鈥檙e in hell and that should be insanely nerve-wracking all the time. i will be fair and point out rfk knows better than to do this for the most important conflict in the book, which she clearly sets up and pays off what she needs to鈥攁nd guess what?it鈥檚 very fucking satisfying, and i feel like the characters and story earned it.
it goes beyond the plot and worldbuilding鈥攖his kind of thing happens very often with the characters. you will meet a character in hell who not only have alice and peter heard about, but in some instances will have been an actual icon and role model to alice who she really looked up to and shaped her expectations of life. will they have been mentioned before you meet them? no. will you find out all this information about them in an expositional dump right after they become relevant, or right as something emotional is happening? yes. (there are like at least 3 major instances of this happening that i might come back and list specifically when the book comes out.)
i鈥檓 really not asking for much here, man. just think some foreshadowing. it would have gone a long way to make this more cohesive. instead rfk sees something i鈥檝e rarely seen before鈥攕he's unique, truly鈥攍ike a weird post-shadowing? and once i started noticing i couldn't stop.
i also think the first half of the book is the weakest. we start in media res, just as alice and peter are about to jump in to hell to save professor jacob grimes, with a superficial description of their relationship to each other and the reason why they want to save him. there鈥檚 a presumption we鈥檙e just going to intrinsically be invested in them from the beginning, because dark academic rivals going on a quest.
it鈥檚 not until much later in the story that we find out the characters鈥� real, very complicated motives and what actually makes them tick, as well as why their relationship with each other is so strained. i think the minute you鈥檙e finally told is my favourite part of the book, because it鈥檚 very raw and it did make me care about alice and peter in the end. but leaving readers in the dark about your characters for half the fucking book isn鈥檛 the best move, i鈥檓 afraid鈥攕ure, it makes things satisfying when they click. but it means you go a very long time without truly knowing your two titular characters, following them on a somewhat episodic, meandering journey through hell. i do think there鈥檚 a lot of repetitive parts that could have been cut and saved the pace a little. and it鈥檚 a bit frustrating, especially put next to the good shit you could have had all along.
it drives me up a fucking wall because the good is good. but it鈥檚 not there enough and the bad is boring, and frustrating.
so in the end, my grand conclusion is that i thought it was decent. not good, or bad, or even mid. just鈥� decent.
i just realised that i had never actually formally rated one of my favourite fantasy books of all time. it's been years since i read this and it stilli just realised that i had never actually formally rated one of my favourite fantasy books of all time. it's been years since i read this and it still means so much to me. ...more
a short and quick read that i was worried was going to be quite boring and full of descriptions based on some reviews, but actually turned 3.5/5 stars
a short and quick read that i was worried was going to be quite boring and full of descriptions based on some reviews, but actually turned out to be pretty immersive and mysterious. what i liked the most was how the halls of the house make you forget yourself, and tangibly change you into a different person鈥攏ot out of maliciousness, just that in coming to love the House and try and understand it you must become someone else entirely. the only thing that brings this down from a 4 stars to 3.5 is (view spoiler)[the way the main character is saved/the identity of 16. i thought it might be sylvia somehow or a colleague or someone, but it just being a random cop was kind of disappointing and imo, unrealistic considering how much the police had ignored the magical goings-on so far. (hide spoiler)]....more
i think this book landed in my lap at the perfect time, right around when i was getting frustrated about how 鈥滱mina, I am going to make you a legend.鈥�
i think this book landed in my lap at the perfect time, right around when i was getting frustrated about how it was always a story about a gruff, single father and the daughter he needs to protect, wherever there exists a story about single parenthood. and of course, the daughter exists less of a character in her own right, but to highlight and bring out the 鈥渟ofter鈥� side of her father figure. and in the rare chance there is a single mother represented as the main character in fiction as opposed to a single father, it鈥檚 a very specific kind of story.
but where are my gruff single mothers? my flawed divorce茅s trying to balance motherhood and a life of crime?
amina al-sirafi is that woman. a retired pirate of international legend by the time the story even begins, she鈥檚 basically not like any other main character i鈥檝e met. an older woman who鈥檚 already been through five husbands (the last of whom being a treacherous sexy demon who鈥榮 not as gone as she thinks) and is an over-six foot giant of a woman (seriously, everyone always mentions how big and buff she is) with the scars to show for it, it鈥檚 been a while since i鈥檝e read a character that gets up to so much trouble without being frustrating and a story that鈥檚 just plain guilt-free fun. ...more
鈥淢y love was entirely possessive. When you love a person, you are expected to give them freedom, but when you love a monster, you keep it caged.鈥�
somet鈥淢y love was entirely possessive. When you love a person, you are expected to give them freedom, but when you love a monster, you keep it caged.鈥�
sometimes novellas, especially SFF novellas, do too much or too little where you either don鈥檛 care enough or are left wanting more at the end, but i was perfectly satisfied by the end of this鈥攁 contained story with great worldbuilding that knew how far to go and where to end. i wanted a story about big fuck you birds and received big fuck you birds. perfect. 4.5/5...more
鈥淢iri said this to me once: Every horror movie ends the way you know it will. If you鈥檙e watching a movie about werewolves, you can be almost certa 鈥淢iri said this to me once: Every horror movie ends the way you know it will. If you鈥檙e watching a movie about werewolves, you can be almost certain your hero will become one by the end. If you鈥檙e watching a movie about vampires, same thing. Ghosts too, I think, if the hero wasn鈥檛 already a ghost to begin with.
so i have a bad thing to confess about this book: i got spoiled on the ending before i even started. namely a friend was talking about how good it was and asked me if i planned to read it and i said no because i didn鈥檛 have the time, and so told me what happens to Leah.
and at the time, i actually didn鈥檛 have the time to read it. exams and reading slump and all that. but then oceangate happened and i got stuck on a seven hour flight with a sudden craving for creepy stories about the places Man Was Not Meant To Go. specifically, if you were trapped on a submarine and slowly running out of oxygen and losing your mind and then鈥� came back wrong.
basically every other review of this book will be talking about how it鈥檚 a very profound metaphor for grief and loss and death (and it is), but i am more an annoying literalist type of reader who will search up 鈥渆nding explained REDDIT鈥� when something is a little too open-ended. it was the mystery of what went wrong in the submarine, what went wrong down there, that really drew me to this book, all of the scary ocean facts and lovecraftian horror or whatever.
all of this seems to primed to make me dislike a book that is, at its core, more about grief and trauma than about how fucked up the ocean is (though don鈥檛 get me wrong, it鈥檚 also about how fucked up the ocean is), right?
but what makes this work for me is that it still gets what鈥檚 actually scary about the ocean, in the literal sense as well as the metaphorical. it鈥檚 unlike horror movies that ruin themselves because they put a monster in the cave, or a monster in space鈥攏o, you don鈥檛 understand. the monster is the cave. the monster is space. and the horror is everything that comes with it鈥攖hat you can鈥檛 escape. (view spoiler)[ which is why this is actually 4.5 and not 5 stars鈥攊t fudges it at the end, with the dumb eye that doesn鈥檛 quite add anything thematically or literally to the horror, because nothing that鈥檚 in the ocean will ever be scarier or more profound than the ocean. (hide spoiler)] for most of this book outside of the flashbacks, the victim has technically 鈥渆scaped鈥� the horror, the haunted house, but that鈥檚 the fucked up part. there鈥檚 no escape, because you are now the horror, the new haunted house.
our wives under the sea asks the daring question: what if the fucked up part is not being in the ocean, but the ocean being in you, always, forever? wouldn鈥檛 that be fucked up? yes. yes it is fucked up, always, forever.
this book could and is a metaphor for about 27389292 different things very successfully but the most literal reading is the one i鈥檓 most drawn to. the last scene of present day, (view spoiler)[with miri having to say goodbye to another ghost of a loved one literally disappearing into the ocean, for reasons she does not understand and never will, (hide spoiler)] and the last scene of the flashback, of leah having escape the horror and being glad to see miri, not realising she鈥檚 brought it back with her.
the love was there. it didnt change anything. it didnt save anyone. there were just too many forces against it. but it still matters that the love was there, etc etc...more
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