NetGalley: At the End of the River Styx by Michelle Kulwicki
Publisher: Page Street YA
Published: 9/24/24
Pages: 384
Genre: Teens/YA/Romance/LGBTQIAP
Review: NetGalley
Before he can be reborn, Zan has spent 499 years bound in a 500-year curse to process souls for the monstrous Ferryman―and if he fails he dies.
In Portland, Bastian is grieving. He survived a car accident that took his mother and impulse-purchased a crumbling bookstore with the life insurance money.
But in sleep, death’s mark keeps dragging Bastian into Zan’s office. It shouldn’t be a problem to log his soul and forget he ever existed. But when Zan follows Bastian through his memories of grief and hope, Zan realizes that he is not ready for Bastian to die.
The boys borrow time hiding in the memories of the dead while the Ferryman hunts them, and Zan must decide if he’s willing to give up his chance at life to save Bastian―and Bastian must decide if he’s willing to keep living if it means losing Zan.
In Portland, Bastian is grieving. He survived a car accident that took his mother and impulse-purchased a crumbling bookstore with the life insurance money.
But in sleep, death’s mark keeps dragging Bastian into Zan’s office. It shouldn’t be a problem to log his soul and forget he ever existed. But when Zan follows Bastian through his memories of grief and hope, Zan realizes that he is not ready for Bastian to die.
The boys borrow time hiding in the memories of the dead while the Ferryman hunts them, and Zan must decide if he’s willing to give up his chance at life to save Bastian―and Bastian must decide if he’s willing to keep living if it means losing Zan.
I was super excited to read this story as I love anything to do with the Ferryman. Now it was just not about the Ferryman, but more to do with Zan who makes sure that the Ferryman gets the person who needs to cross over. With that said Zan is lonely as he has been working for the Ferryman for 499 years. The one and only human that he can actually talk to is Bastian. Bastian is dealing with the fact that he cheated death and we all know death comes for payment as well as the grief from losing his mom. Our story goes between both Bastian and Zan's POV and you can't help but feel sorry for both of them. Zan because all he knows is death and is almost free of the Ferryman and you just want him to be happy and done with it all. Bastian, we see how he deals with grief and you just want him to be happy. I was impressed once he was able to say no to the partying scene that was around him on more than one occasion. Grief is handled in a lot of different ways and seeing Bastian deal with his I was impressed that his brother was really trying his best to not only push himself through it but also try to get through to Bastian. I was impressed with how Bastian got to visit Zan and it seemed like time didn't pass so fast with that said I also liked how Zan got to visit places that were a memory for others.
As we kept reading and seeing how Zan and Bastian's worlds were coming together we were left with this. Who will be sacrificed? Would it be Zan or Bastian? Will love prevail?
Michelle Kulwicki grew up in the Pacific Northwest overturning every rock and stick in an unending quest to find portals to worlds far more exciting than her own. After moving to the mountainless Midwest, she earned her bachelors and master’s degrees in music performance, and spent years in the symphony and musical theater pit circuit. She’s now a mom by day, musician by night, and writer in all the spaces in between—a life that is somewhat lacking in portals, but is still full of magic.
Her short fiction has been both Locus Recommended and Hugo nominated, and her first full length novel, At the End of the River Styx, will be debuting in Spring of 2024 from Page Street Kids.
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