A lot happens and yet the story doesn’t progress at all…
_____
This book dragged me through Tartarus—literally—and emotionally, I’m not sure I made it out. Estrella, having already sacrificed just about everything short of her favorite mug, gets yeeted into the Greek underworld to steal a snake from Medusa’s crown. Why? Because love, obviously. Caldris, her extremely broody fae soulmate, is still recovering from the end of book three, so Estrella takes matters into her own hands. The catch? She has to complete the Trials of the Five Rivers (yes, those rivers—Lethe, Styx, etc.) without her powers. It’s all very intense, very mythological, and sometimes very exhausting.
I liked the concept. The fusion of fae lore with Greek mythology was genuinely cool, and I appreciated that the trials weren’t just physical challenges but deep emotional reckonings. Estrella confronting her grief, fear, and identity through the rivers was a clever narrative device, even if by the third one I started wondering if I, too, was losing my will to continue. The prose is moody and atmospheric—think emotional fog with occasional sharp poetic daggers—and Caldris’s chapters added some much-needed soul to balance Estrella’s spiraling. That said, the pacing dragged. Each trial started to feel a bit formulaic, and I wish the side characters had a little more presence beyond being dreamlike or vaguely threatening. Also, the cryptic god-tier dialogue from beings like Khaos and the Morrigan sometimes veered into parody—if I had a dollar for every vague prophecy, I could fund my own underworld quest.
By the end, there’s payoff, sure—emotional closure, a deeper connection between Estrella and Caldris, and the promise of healing—but I wouldn’t call it a satisfying adventure so much as an emotionally symbolic trudge through magical trauma. I didn’t hate it, I didn’t love it, but I did feel it—deeply. If you like your fantasy soul-heavy and your romance drenched in existential dread, this might be your thing. For me, it was a solid middle-of-the-road read with some standout moments and a lot of emotional weight, but I just wanted it to move.