Very brief novella, but I love these characters so much, Sloane and Rowan are the loves of my life. Excited for Tourist Season!

Thought about DNFing at 33% and I tentatively don't regret not doing so. Overall, the issue is that this book is dedicated to the Enemies to Lovers trope and nothing else. Was this a fantasy? Technically. Was this a romance? Eh. The only thing I know for sure is that they hated each other, and I only know that because that was all they spoke or thought about the entire time. The characters surprisingly have no chemistry, and are almost perfunctory in their interactions to make way for the trope. The vibe is, I want you to die shrug, until they realize the other has pretty eyes or something. Also, the writing was unserious about 90% of the time, with deadpan humor, out of pocket sentences, dick jokes, and "banter". How am I supposed to care about the dying children if everything is a pun? Also, SO many words that I needed a dictionary for, so many... Truthfully though, this is super low stakes so I could see myself picking up the next book when I need a break from thinking.

The characterization is always top tier, the way the characters are written makes them and their relationships so real. I think Hastings' dual/multiple POV writing style is her strong suit and I wish we had gotten Sam's, Oliver's, and/or Tennyson's POV too, but they were all very distinct and strong characters nonetheless. This was good fiction because of the secret family drama and I really liked the romance, but I was hoping for the level of drama that I've come to love from the MPU. I definitely hated more characters than I liked, and there were some confrontations I wish had gone differently. I think the weakest parts were that Sam and Oliver's relationship didn't feel substantial because it was "offscreen" and that the pacing did feel slow sometimes, especially in the end.

Unsure of my feelings? Katabasis spoke to both the academic and anxious person within me, but there were ups and downs throughout. I loved all of the philosophy, and Alice was so engaging as a character once her past/psyche came to the forefront. Opposite that, I didn't care about Peter at all, his present character didn't have much of a personality. Because of this the "love story" aspect was kind of weak and felt underdeveloped/explored. I really wish this had been dual POV so that he had consistent flashbacks. The pacing was the weirdest part. There were Alice's flashbacks and her relationships with Peter/Grimes, the literal journey through Hell, and the metaphorical journey though Hell. They felt very disconnected from the each other, like one would stop while the other started. Overall, kinda disappointed, but there were definitely parts I liked.