Tuesday nights are always busy at our house. I took my son to his volleyball practice and then to a local card shop where he plays the One Piece Trading Card Game every week. These mini-tournaments can last anywhere from an hour (when he doesn’t do well) to much longer, like last night, when he did do well and a lot of people showed up to play.

I got bored and started looking for something to do to kill time, so I went to the Barnes & Noble near the card shop. This one is different from the location we usually visit, so I figured the selection might be different. I ended up picking up Katabasis by R. F. Kuang. I had previously picked up The Poppy War ( her first book in the trilogy that brought her to fame a few years ago ) but never started it. For some reason, the design on the hardcover of Katabasis practically yelled at me to buy it.

I took it back to the parking lot of the card store and texted my son around 8 p.m. to see how things were going. I sat down and started the book, glanced at the time again, and it was already 9 p.m. The story moves quickly and is extremely engrossing. I’m already about a hundred pages in and loving it.

There are definitely strong themes about the world of academia—something I’m aware of but was never part of. The dialogue has an excellent, almost movie-like rhythm. The main character, Alice, will deliver a line, and it’s easy to imagine someone sitting next to you in a theater snorting in response. Looking forward to finding more time to keep reading; at just 100 pages in, this is already an easy recommendation for anyone who enjoys weird, buddy-style comedies that are genuinely fun reads.