Cody's Reviews > At the End of the River Styx
At the End of the River Styx
by
by
This is a solid 4.5 stars, but rounding up. Thank you to NetGalley, Page Street Publishing and Page Street YA for the ARC!
This was, first and foremost, a story about grief. In modern-day Portland, Bastian is grieving the loss of his mother and processing the trauma of a car accident that should have killed him, too. Zan is bound to the Ferryman for 500 years of servitude and must deliver Bastian's soul to him. Overall, the book was emotionally difficult - it was tough to watch Bastian's depressive cycle and there were some scenes that just emotionally wrecked me.
The use of mythology and the world building was so unique (I mean, the love story takes place in frozen, stolen memories of the dead - will never be over that); Bastian and Zan were loveable as they learned to fall back in love with living together; and while the focus of the story was definitely on Bastian's journey with grief, the secondary characters felt like they belonged in the story, not just to support Bastian or the plot. Overall, this story will stick with me for a long time.
The ending gutted me - I am desperate for more and I know that that's the intention. I will say that while this book is emotionally devastating at times, Kulwicki pulled her punches and deliver a nuanced ending to the story that felt right. (That's not to say that it didn't wreck me.)
This was, first and foremost, a story about grief. In modern-day Portland, Bastian is grieving the loss of his mother and processing the trauma of a car accident that should have killed him, too. Zan is bound to the Ferryman for 500 years of servitude and must deliver Bastian's soul to him. Overall, the book was emotionally difficult - it was tough to watch Bastian's depressive cycle and there were some scenes that just emotionally wrecked me.
The use of mythology and the world building was so unique (I mean, the love story takes place in frozen, stolen memories of the dead - will never be over that); Bastian and Zan were loveable as they learned to fall back in love with living together; and while the focus of the story was definitely on Bastian's journey with grief, the secondary characters felt like they belonged in the story, not just to support Bastian or the plot. Overall, this story will stick with me for a long time.
The ending gutted me - I am desperate for more and I know that that's the intention. I will say that while this book is emotionally devastating at times, Kulwicki pulled her punches and deliver a nuanced ending to the story that felt right. (That's not to say that it didn't wreck me.)
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