Katalepsis
Self-Published
Community Rating
Description
For Heather Morell, nightmares and hallucinations lurk around every corner, relics of schizophrenia and childhood bereavement.
Until she meets Raine and Evelyn, that is — self-proclaimed bodyguard and bad-tempered magician — and learns she’s not insane at all. The spirits and monsters she sees are all too real, the god-thing in her nightmares is teaching her how to surpass human limits, and her twin sister who supposedly never existed could still be alive, somewhere Outside, beyond the walls of reality.
Heather plunges into a world of eldritch magic and fanatic cultists, trying to stay alive, stay sane, and deal with her own blossoming attraction to dangerous women. But being ‘In The Know’ isn’t all terror and danger. Sometimes the monsters wear nice dresses and stick around for afternoon tea. Sometimes you find you have more in common with them than you think. Perhaps this is Heather’s chance to be something more than the defeated husk she’d grown up as, to find real friendship and meaning among things like herself - and perhaps, out there on the rim of the possible, to bring her twin sister back from the dead.
Katalepsis is an Ancient Greek word which means ‘comprehension’, or perhaps more accurately, ‘insight’. Katalepsis is a serial web novel about cosmic horror and human fragility, urban fantasy and lesbian romance, set in a sleepy English university town.
The first four arcs (Volume I) are also now available as anebookandaudiobook. If you've just finished one of those and you're here to pick up where the story left off, you'll want the start of arc 5,right here.
Cover art byNoctilia.
This is a Royal Road mirror of Katalepsis' own website, locatedhere.
Information
- Status
- Completed
- Year
- 2019
- Author
- Hungry
Tags
Royal Road Stats
- Rating
- 4.7/ 5.0
- Followers
- 4,332
- Views
- 3,756,455
Chapters(323 total)
Reviews
No reviews yet. Be the first to share your thoughts!
Community Reviews(10)
- GtocjmaRoyal Road★★★★★ 5.0I read this a few months back on the website and I can honestly say it's up thier with the zombie knight or practical guide to evil, in quality.it admittedly has a very different tone that is (shocker) real reminiscent of something more horror oriented.
My only real issue with it is I genuinely have no clue what going on when the more complicated bits start popping up, making me reread chapters. However this is probably the intent or maybe is just my dyslexic ass coming undone either way check this one out it's worth your time - tiiimezombieRoyal Road★★★★★ 5.0Fantastic so far. Absolutely delightful PoV character, someone clever and observant and ever-more desperate as the story continues. Incredible supporting cast with complex traumas and layered levels of relationship between each. Each of them needs TLC and can be bad at communicating but the friction is broadly compelling instead of frustrating. 10/10 great lesbians. Wholeheartedly recommend.
- wearing blackRoyal Road★★★★★ 5.0Record holder of the mosst gay story possible (according to some magazine I am sure)
Welcome to the world of eldritch horror everything is fucking weird, nobdy knows about it and those that do are the last to understand it.
Follow Heather, a shizophrenic literature student that finds out that her delusions and nightmares are not just fabrications of her diseased mind after all, then everything goes off the deep end.
You know it's a great story when the protagonist argues with the house that it should move and then wins that argument - werekitRoyal Road★★★★★ 5.0This is absolutely one of the better fictions I have read on this site. I really enjoy the arc of character development and progress. It shows steady growth and a raising of the stakes that is delightful. Also I really relate to one of the characters too much and it has made me cry. Genuinely always a good sign when it punches you square in the feelings like that.
- Hecate ChthoniaRoyal Road★★★★★ 5.0I have been following Katalepsis for the last 2 years, and it has routinely been the best polished and most engaging story I have ever read. Part of that was definitely the overall goal of saving Heather's sister. A stumbling block so many serial novels seem to run into is a lack of goals. The main character gets stronger, not to solve a problem, but just because they can. The only other stories on royalroad road that seem to have the same level of narrative purpose are time look stories. The initial premise sort of forces the issue.
The other half of what makes it special is the exelent prose. Vivid descriptions that let you feel like you are part of the world.
Finally, the premise. I love body horror, lesbians, and magic. There are so few books that contain all 3.
Katalepsis is an inspiration to me, the ideal that I want my own writing to be like some day. Thank you so much for the story as it stands.
I look forward to reading the new story when it arrives.
Words words words words words words Words words words words words words Words words words words words words Words words words words words words - LehnsaRoyal Road★★★★★ 5.0This is the eldritch horrer lesbian romance story I didn't know I needed. Each character is different and multifaceted and the author has managed to make me care about every one of them. I was on the fence about reading this at first, because mixing mental illnesses and horror can be problematic at the best of times. But I needn't have worried, Hungry has done an excellent job of it. Thank you for writing this! I'll be following it closely.
- Pel-MelRoyal Road★★★★★ 5.0This is probably one of the most unique stories online so far.
The story is extremely well set up. The plot takes a strong direction right from the get-go, and the stakes are quickly laid out in satisfying ways. The protagonists (re)introduction to the supernatural facets of this world are top notch, especially given her background. The story takes its time getting her to buy back in to the reality of the supernatural around her. Reading her wrestle with that is brilliant and awful all at once, and it makes my guts tie into knots just thinking about being in that kind of situation for myself.
From a technical perspective, the story is flawless. Grammar is good, sentence construction is varied, and even character diction/voice is distinctive.
And the characters are what shine most. The cast is a well balanced range of personalities who also aren't given random quirks for the sake of differentiation. These are characters who are believably similar and different. The emotional intelligence of these characters is some of the most satisfying conflict (and resolution) I've read in recent memory. If you like reading about complex and fulfilling friendships, this is the story for you.
Overall, this is a great story for fans of both eldritch horror and elaborate character psychology. The impact the supernatural has on these people, their mental states, and their relationships is on full display in all its horror and glory. - HaruDevilRoyal Road★★★★★ 4.5Very well written. The protagonist is very interesting and realistic, but what drags it down are the two other main characters. They are fairly uninteresting, and really wow is Raine a terrible character. The romance is also very awkward and uncomfortable, the author constantly injects little lines where the protagonist mentions how she feels, or how cool Raine looks, etc. I hate it. The story would infinitely be better without any romance or potential sex at all. The cosmic horror is interesting and done well, but the story really had such an amazingly strong feel at the start, that is still there, albeit not nearly as much. The story basically throws the 'horror' part of 'cosmic horror' out the window by instantly introducing characters that the protagonist can rely on. I think the watering down of a solo-struggle hurt the story, but it's still worth a read for the quality.
- naralianRoyal Road★★★★ 4.0The premise of this is initially very interesting, if not wholly original: a demigod blessed with the ability to walk between worlds in the multiverse is super traumatized because it turns out the multiverse is Lovecraft lite and full of bad neighborhoods especially unsuited to the nine year old kid she was when her powers were granted.
The problem that gradually creeps in is the whole lesbian harem angle. Initially it's pretty fun and a unique combination that helps keep the "lite" part of Lovecraft lite going, but it sort of falls gradually into the usual trap of the harem part of the story slowly devouring everything else with increasingly blunt harem tropes, the harem members becoming increasingly flanderized from initially more two dimensional characters into archetypes, etc.
The protagonist is at least a strong point, because she's extremely flawed but in a very consistent way that evolves in a believable fashion. The fact that her growth actually involves picking up new flaws as part of trying to correct the old ones (at the point i write this, she's shot past fixing her lack of confidence and become a domineering bully who knowingly inserts herself into situations where her presence represents a risk to her friends' lives just because she can't take things not being about her for ten seconds), which makes her coming of age zig-zag one of the most wince inducingly realistic ones I've ever read.
Honestly if there were more adventures and less pg-13 harem nonsense... or if the author dropped the increasingly incredible insistence on the pg-13 part and just admitted openly what was going on so it could be gotten over with, the remaining third or so of the story would be one of my favorites on the site. - SinfulSentinelRoyal Road★★★★ 3.5Some spoilers ahead (possibly)
I came into this story under recommendation by many friends and I immediately fell in love. The way magic works, the 'outside' reality realities, the creatures that exist here and there it was all so very fascinating. The characters, (when it was just Raine, Heather, and Evelyn) were all very intriguing to me. I could tell from the moment Heather met the two women that there would be issues tackled, broken lives, mended, and then some.
It was smooth sailing and at times had me clenched with nervous excitement. Seeing Heather transform slowly from a girl who had been told her whole life that she was crazy, to finding out she's not crazy, and then discovering that she basically has supernatural powers was a entertaining ride. I liked the romance between her and Raine, the friendship with Evelyn, and the plot to essentially learn more about her forced upbringing by the Eye and how she was going to get her sister back.
Then Zheng happened. I was excited at first. I absolutely adore Zheng, as a character even now, but I didn't realize it was the start of a downward spiral. What had begun as a lesbian romance, supernatural horror and mystery novel has now devolved into Heather-cum-Ash Ketchum collecting women for a barely functioning harem that feels shallow and unwarranted.
The characters I was growing to adore have now taken more of a back seat as permanent side characters. Whereas before they felt like they were a part of the story alongside Heather the supporting cast has lost any substance. Meanwhile Heather is made out to be struggling with the psychological hang-ups of her acquired polycule as if it's some great burden. Even now she's struggling with realizing that she's also in love with Evelyn while she has three other women wrapped around her fingers. I've honestly read smut with better romantic navigation than what is being done here currently. It'd make sense if Heather was putting her tentacles to use on these women or something