Here's the thing. I loved most of this book. I was really digging the characters and the story. I was on the fence about Nathan/Gabriel in Half Wild because I felt like Gabriel deserved better, and I certainly felt that in this book too, but by the time they actually did get together I was okay with it. I wanted them to have a nice life by the river together, and in a way, they got that, but not really. Gabriel died. He fucking died, and Nathan became a tree so that his roots could touch Gabriel's body because he didn't want to truly live without him. Gabriel was my favorite character and when he died I literally yelled "WHAT'S THE POINT." He was the reason I continued reading the series after struggling to connect with Nathan. Gabriel's death felt an awful lot like the "bury your gays" trope to me, and for that reason, my true rating is 4.75.

My rating system is flawed but since I enjoyed the majority of this book much more than I enjoyed Half Bad, I have to give it above a 4.5. I can't, however, give it truly 5 stars because of how I feel about Gabriel's death.

Technically, I enjoyed the majority of this book more than Half Wild too, so I guess it's my favorite book in the series?? But that ending...it made me really angry and I can't find a reason other than shock value to kill Gabriel off.

I don't know what I'm really trying to say here. I've waited to write this review to put my thoughts into words and those are pretty much my thoughts. I enjoyed the book until my favorite, and one of only two queer characters, was killed off. I wasn't quite satisfied with the ending. I'm glad that Nathan and Gabriel are together in a way, but they definitely deserved better.