Kuang, R.F. (2025). Katabasis. HarperCollins.
When a terribly fatal accident befalls the much-celebrated Cambridge magic professor Jacob Grimes, PhD students/academic rivals Alice Law and Peter Murdoch have no choice but to, literally, go to Hell or be faced with the disappointment of not receiving their career-changing recommendations. Their journey through the underworld is guided only by their magical knowledge and the fabled stories in Dante’s Inferno, Virgil’s Aeneid, and Ovid’s Metamorphoses which ups the stakes as they traverse the unknown. This adventurous dark academia tale balances the plot between flashbacks and current events to transport readers into the characters’ minds as they descend through the Courts of Hell. The witty-banter, mythological elements, literary references, and academia-based setting makes Katabasis the perfect autumnal read for fans of Donna Tartt’s The Secret History or Leigh Bardugo’s Ninth House.
Adrenaline books can span across a variety of fiction sub-genres, but the undeniable excitement paired with books in this category is heavily tied to its ability to draw readers into the story and out of their current reality as they are often marketed as having a can’t-put-down trait. Although I think the recipe for adrenaline stories is sometimes at risk of having the same qualities or repeating plot devices for the sake of increasing the shock-factor, I also think this is what makes the genre so successful. Readers know what they like, and considering that there is no shortage of books that fall into this category throughout the centuries speaks volumes about what stories resonate with readers across the globe. Some helpful links to source more adrenaline titles can be found through Goodreads’ lists curated by readers themselves/Goodreads as a platform, and more media-based options like CBC Books articles which platforms certain authors or titles across genres. Both resources are heavily tied to the publishing industry which ensures that there is no shortage of reading recommendations as titles release throughout the year.
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