Mini Reviews: Katabasis, A Forgery of Fate, The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea

It’s been a while since I last did a few mini reviews! Some of these I did want to do a full review after I finished the book, but then I got around to writing the review and didn’t feel like saying anything more than what I ended up saying.

Katabasis by R.F. Kuang

Katabasis by R.F. Kuang
Published by Harper Voyager on August 26, 2025
Age Group & Genres: Adult, Fantasy
Format: Physical
Source: Library

Dante’s Inferno meets Susanna Clarke’s Piranesi in this all-new dark academia fantasy from R. F. Kuang, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Babel and Yellowface, in which two graduate students must put aside their rivalry and journey to Hell to save their professor’s soul—perhaps at the cost of their own.

Katabasis, noun, Ancient Greek:
The story of a hero’s descent to the underworld

Alice Law has only ever had one goal: to become one of the brightest minds in the field of Magick. She has sacrificed everything to make that a reality: her pride, her health, her love life, and most definitely her sanity. All to work with Professor Jacob Grimes at Cambridge, the greatest magician in the world.

That is, until he dies in a magical accident that could possibly be her fault.

Grimes is now in Hell, and she’s going in after him. Because his recommendation could hold her very future in his now incorporeal hands and even death is not going to stop the pursuit of her dreams….
Nor will the fact that her rival, Peter Murdoch, has come to the very same conclusion.

With nothing but the tales of Orpheus and Dante to guide them, enough chalk to draw the Pentagrams necessary for their spells, and the burning desire to make all the academic trauma mean anything, they set off across Hell to save a man they don’t even like.

But Hell is not like the storybooks say, Magick isn’t always the answer, and there’s something in Alice and Peter’s past that could forge them into the perfect allies…or lead to their doom.

“Christ,” said Peter. “Hell is a campus.”

Katabasis sounded like a fun concept (trip through Hell to rescue your professor? Hell yeah!), but the execution? It wasn’t really there – for the most part, I felt like I was in the room with Kuang and was getting blabbed at, and not getting blabbed at in a good way. (I know this book is dark academia and therefore it’s going to be academic. I’m not too fussed about this. It’s me, y’all.) The pacing was off – we were still in the second court by the time I DNFed at 49%, which usually results in 1) we’re about to really rush through the other 5-6 courts, or 2) we’re skipping past the courts and have found a shortcut. Frankly by then I wasn’t interested to find out.

But 49% is an awfully generous amount of reading before DNFing, so why not do it earlier despite thinking about it at 30%? I mostly loved the themes Kuang examines in Katabasis: a lot of it centers around academia, and I especially liked the analogy of academia being a form of Hell – and for Alice, academia as a woman, where she’s constantly putting in the work (sometimes double!) and still gets dismissed. The writing style is good, and it’s clear Kuang did a lot of research even if the fluff does get tedious, but yeah this was unfortunately not my vibe.

A Forgery of Fate by Elizabeth Lim

A Forgery of Fate by Elizabeth Lim
Legends of Lor'yan
Published by Knopf Books for Young Readers on June 3, 2025
Age Group & Genres: Fantasy, Romance, Young Adult
Format: ARC, eBook
Source: Publisher

Truyan Saigas didn't choose to become a con artist, but after her father is lost at sea, it’s up to her to support her mother and two younger sisters. A gifted art forger, Tru has the unique ability to paint the future, but even such magic is not enough to put her family back together again, or stave off the gangsters demanding payment in blood for her mother’s gambling debts.

Left with few options, Tru agrees to a marriage contract with a mysterious dragon lord. He offers a fresh start for her mother and sisters and elusive answers about her father's disappearance, but in exchange, she must join him in his desolate undersea palace. And she must assist him in a plot to infiltrate the tyrannical Dragon King's inner circle, painting a future so treasonous, it could upend both the mortal and immortal realms...

A breathtaking romantic fantasy inspired by Beauty and the Beast about a girl who paints the future and a cursed dragon lord, bound by love and deception in a plot to bring down the gods.

A copy of the book was provided for review purposes - thank you! Receiving a copy does not guarantee a positive review and therefore does not affect the opinion or content of the review.

I was super excited to dive into A Forgery of Fate, which is the latest novel in Elizabeth Lim’s Legends of Lor’yan universe because we get Elang’s story! He first made an appearance in The Dragon’s Promise as the cold and aloof half-dragon.

This had all the things I adore about Lim’s works: magical writing, vivid and vast world with delicious food descriptions, the easter eggs scattered throughout from the other books and character cameos. I also loved Tru’s relationship with her sisters Nomi and Fal, and I loved the side characters. However, this felt underwhelming overall – the chemistry between Tru and Elang felt a little flat (though there were definitely some cute moments!), especially considering the twist that I feel changes the dynamic between them.

Overall, it’s a treat to read a book from the same universe again. Whether Lim writes another book set in the same world or not, I’m looking forward to it!

The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea by Axie Oh

The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea by Axie Oh
Published by Feiwel & Friends on February 22, 2022
Age Group & Genres: Fantasy, Mythology, Retellings, Romance, Young Adult
Representation: Korean cast
Format: eBook
Source: Library

Axie Oh's The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea is an enthralling retelling of a classic Korean folktale, perfect for fans of Wintersong, Uprooted, and Miyazaki’s Spirited Away.

Deadly storms have ravaged Mina’s homeland for generations. Floods sweep away entire villages, while bloody wars are waged over the few remaining resources. Her people believe the Sea God, once their protector, now curses them with death and despair. In an attempt to appease him, each year a beautiful maiden is thrown into the sea to serve as the Sea God’s bride, in the hopes that one day the “true bride” will be chosen and end the suffering.

Many believe that Shim Cheong, the most beautiful girl in the village—and the beloved of Mina’s older brother Joon—may be the legendary true bride. But on the night Cheong is to be sacrificed, Joon follows Cheong out to sea, even knowing that to interfere is a death sentence. To save her brother, Mina throws herself into the water in Cheong’s stead.

Swept away to the Spirit Realm, a magical city of lesser gods and mythical beasts, Mina seeks out the Sea God, only to find him caught in an enchanted sleep. With the help of a mysterious young man named Shin—as well as a motley crew of demons, gods and spirits—Mina sets out to wake the Sea God and bring an end to the killer storms once and for all.

But she doesn’t have much time: A human cannot live long in the land of the spirits. And there are those who would do anything to keep the Sea God from waking…

I started reading this back in 2022 and then completely fell off from finishing it before finally picking it back up again!

The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea is a retelling of the Korean folktale, The Tale of Sim Cheong, and I adored Oh’s take on it. It was refreshing but I also felt it kept some of the core aspects of the tale when I searched it up after reading the book. I felt like I was watching a drama and while it was predictable, I was definitely here for the K-drama vibes and reading how everything unfolded. Plus, I loved all of the characters and their relationships with each other, though I do wish we got the chance to develop Mina’s backstory with her family a little rather than diving right in.