Since April is my birth month, I was excited to find a book that would alter my brain chemistry in the same way that Sword of Kaigen did. Or Mistborn, for that matter. I am tired of predictable romantasies, cliché characters and convenient plot beats. I wanted something that would move me, tug at my heartstrings. I don't exactly remember how I stumbled upon Shen Tao's The Poet Empress, but as soon as I read its blurb, I had a gut feeling that it would be the right choice for

I seem to be one of the few people who honestly did not know much about Katabasis or R.F. Kuang before I chose this for September's book club pick. As her most anticipated read of 2025, CY could barely contain her excitement in the run-up to its launch in August. So of course she attended the Waterstones book launch event, and the overwhelming response to the TikTok video she posted got me swept up in the online hype. Katabasis is a dark academia about Alice Law, a Phd studen