Have you ever wanted something so badly that you lost yourself in the process? Maybe you were feeling desperate for a good grade or a great job offer or a letter of recommendation that you would
basically do anything to get. Maybe you've sacrificed your sleep, your social life, and even your sanity just so you can keep climbing up this neverending ladder of success. But what
if your entire future depended on a professor who you really can't stand, but one day he dies and the only way to get this letter of recommendation is to literally go to hell and grab it from
him. This is Catabases by RF Kwam and this story follows the main character Alice Law. She's a PhD student studying magic at Cambridge. Alice is honestly really brilliant. She is incredibly
hardworking. She's ambitious and really talented in magic, but she has a serious case of impostor syndrome. She has sacrificed so much to get to where she is, but she still feels like she needs
to prove herself somehow. Her adviser, Jacob Grimes, is famous, but he also has probably the worst reputation ever. So, Grimes is known for being incredibly harsh on his students. But what most
people don't really know is that he often steals his students ideas. And he also manipulates everyone into feeling like they need to constantly work harder and work more to please him and make him
happy. And he honestly gets away with it because all of these students rely on his stamp of approval through this letter of recommendation. And then Alice being one of the very few women in this
field in this department she also has extra pressure on her because if she gets too close to her advisor then people start rumors. I'm sure you can imagine what kind of rumors I'm talking
about. But if she keeps her distance and she sets clear boundaries then she risks losing his support. So, it's a very fine line that she has to balance on a daily
basis and that can be very exhausting. Honestly, Alice is really close to finishing her degree. She's almost done, but she is so exhausted from the lack of sleep and also dealing with her terrible
professor. So, one day while she's supposed to be doing some work for him, she does make this very small mistake. But this little mistake leads to this explosive, gruesome magic accident. And
it's this very accident that leads to the death of her professor. So in her mind, she's basically just murdered her professor. And now her entire career is ruined. Everything she's worked for for
nothing. She won't finish her degree. No one will hire her. She's basically done all because of this one little mistake. But there might be a way around this. She might be able to do something that
no one has ever done before. Go to hell, grab Grimes soul, bring him back to the real world, and get that letter of recommendation. But she's not the only one with this idea. Her academic rival,
Peter Murdoch, is in the exact same boat as her because he also needs Grimes approval to secure his future. So, these two rivals who low-key kind of hate each other have to work together somehow in
their descent into the afterlife. And when they get there, they find that hell is not exactly everything they imagined it would be. It turns out hell follows a similar structure as what's described in
Dante's Inferno. you know, where there's like different layers based on different sins, but it's also a twisted reflection of the things that they're suffering from in the real world. Hell is a
campus. So, as Alice and Peter journey deeper into these layers of hell, they have to confront demons and mythical creatures, and they have to fight for their lives, but they also have to face
the truth of their own personal ambitions and their toxic relationship with their professor. So, it's a very exciting journey, but I also feel like this book is so unique in the fact that
I feel like I have also grown along with Alice and Peter on this journey. There are so many valuable life lessons that I think we can all learn from this book. And I think it's also because most of us
have been in similar situations to them. We might be chasing approval through academic success or relying on others to tell us that we're worth something. To me, one of the biggest lessons from this
book is about the danger of external validation. I mean, if you think about it, it's really crazy that Alice and Peter are willing to literally go into hell because they've been taught that
their entire self-worth is tied to an institution's approval. And it's also a really terrifying way to live because it means your happiness and your self-v valueue depends on things that you can't
even control. There's actually this moment in the book when they meet another academic scholar while they're wandering through hell and she was also a scholar at Cambridge studying magic as
well. So, they have a lot in common, but Alice is really curious about how she feels, you know, being stranded in hell and everything. She wants to know what she would do if she had another chance
in the real world. She thinks that she might write a bunch of papers, do a bunch of research. There are so many amazing things she could do in the real world. But this scholar just responds by
saying, "You know, if I had another chance, I would really love to sit outside, sip a cup of tea, and have a cinnamon bun." This line gave me full body chills. It gave me goosebumps. And
after hearing this, Alice, you know, starts to realize that maybe what she actually wants is life. She's been so focused on survival and proving herself worthy to her professor and the people
around her that she kind of forgot how beautiful the world is outside of her campus. Her whole life revolves around academic success and getting the best job. But maybe what really matters is
human connection. A cup of tea, a cinnamon bun, the little things in life. I think this book is a powerful reminder that while it's great to have big goals and want to work hard, it's also
important to live the life that we have because no achievement is really worth it if you lose yourself through the process. This book is for anyone who felt like they were drowning in other
people's expectations of them or felt like success was more important than physical and mental health at some times. For those of us who seek validation through grades or other
people, I highly recommend checking out this book. That's all for today and I'll see you guys next time. Bye-bye.