Since the stunning conclusion of the last book where the One who is Two aka Ethan Wate decided to jump off Gatlin’s water tower to save the world, Ethan and his friends are grappling with the consequences.

Oh yeah, Ethan is not dead.

I mean technically his body is. But his soul is in the Otherworld with his beloved mom. A sort of limbo since he and others who occupy the Otherworld have something keeping them there due to unfinished business.

For Ethan, his unfinished business is clear. He may have saved the world but his family and friends, Lena, still need him. He has to go back.

Garcia and Stohl twist away from the complicated world of Casters and mortals to have their own spin of Dante’s Divine Comedy, only instead of nine circles of Hell, Ethan is figuring out how to navigate his sheer situation and making his way through the abyss-like river to the Far Keep to find and destroy his page in the Caster Chroncicles that operates like a big book of the fates of everyone.

As with the rest of their Caster world, they create a very distinct, unique world in the Otherworld that is almost like Gatlin if you ignore the dead peope and the tombstones everywhere.

And with Ethan’s dead state, they have a special chance to tackle what happens when the hero sacrifices it all to save the world. As Ethan grapples with everything he has lost now that he’s dead, he goes into very understanable shock. He admits to himself that even as he chose to jump off the water tower, there had been some small part of him that still thought that he’d get to live or things would go back to normal somehow.

No, it doesn’t. Things change.

That’s another big part of this novel. Life is ever-changing, filled with love and loss so what’s the whole point of it when one can lose people so easily, lost to the other side, making huge sacrifices and mistakes, seemingly for nothing.

Love.

That had been the backbone of the story, specifically between Ethan and Lena, but it has expanded to almost the entire town of Gatlin as Ethan is no longer the stuck boy ready to head out of his small-town. As frustrating, narrow-minded, and self-righteous the people are, they are predictable, and caring in their own way. Same with the Casters who operate on a different level, making gigantic mistakes and momentous moments of compassion for another.

Ethan even realizes that midway through his journey. He may be a hero, and a hero’s journey is usually alone as he thought he was.

He truly never has been alone. He’s had love of his people supporting him every step of the way.

Seriously, it’s a great hero’s journey for Ethan. I’ll admit, I was a bit annoyed with Ethan at the beginning as he was most concerned with how Lena was feeling, with Amma a close second, but it was Lena-Lena-Lena. Give it a break. Sometimes I think he was casted with a love spell since he sounded so obsessed. He didn’t even think about how Marian, Liv, and Link were dealing with his loss.

But he gets better as he comes to confront such creatures as the River-Master, and the Gate-keeper, Xavier whose southern manners and compassion aid him in his dealings with them despite his frustration. He also uses his wits to defeat the corrupt Far Keep, Angelus as the final boss controlling all of the events that have happened since. For sometimes the most horrifying monsters are the devils like Abraham Ravenwood. But mere mortals trying to play gods.

It’s really triumphant to see the two mortals face off against each other, one who may be nothing in the face of great power but is grounded and aware of what’s truly important winning over the power-crazed Far Keep to get back to where he belongs. Ethan had been underestimated in almost every turn so when he finally gets him to Wate’s Landing, you just sigh in relief and sip the chocolate milk with him.

Ethan isn’ the only one getting his chance to shine for this book is split into three parts. The middle part being from Lena’s POV which we haven’t seen since that single chapter in Beautiful Creatures.

I’m happy to say Lena no longer gets on my nerves even though I still find her poetry too emo. But she, Macon, Link, Marian, Liv, John and Ridley come together one last time to get the Book of Moons from Abraham to Ethan so he can get to the Far Keep.

And it’s awesome, Linkabus gets his big victory moment showing that mortals truly rule and just shows how these disparate individuals who’d never have met each other without Ethan come together become their own mini-family. Plus Amma keeping true to her word in fixing the crack in the universe, another moving self-sacrifice that brings things full-circle.

However, there’s a slight nitpick I have where we’re not informed why exactly Ethan’s page was changed and what the point was. It also feels several other relationships were glossed over like John and Liv’s relationship. It’s cute but I felt it was too fast after the events of Beautiful Chaos. Readers also never learn about John’s time with Abraham as “It’s all a blur” nor do we get the full extent of Lena and John’s friendship and how he was able to get Lena when no one else did. They had a perfect chance to do so but nothing.

Same with Ridley’s time caged in Abraham’s mad experiment lab. In Dangerous Creatures she always vaguely refers to it as draining and an awful experience, so I thought it would be explained more in-depth here. Nope! Also glossed over.

But those are minor quibbles as this really is about Ethan’s story, above it being a romance and a southern gothic, and in my opinion, Ethan really has completed his hero’s journey to someone who can appreciate his life and just live.

4 stars.