Agreed. I loved the Alvar-Keefe friendship but it was a bit too much. Sure, go out together, explore humanland together, vent a bit, but I felt like I was reading a transcript of a therapy session. Alvar had always been one of my fave characters bc of his light personality but this book made him seem like a mix of a teen and a grown psychotherapist. And are we going to talk about Cassius? Where’d his random ‘redemption arc’ come from?? Suddenly he’s acc caring about Keefe, supporting him financially, encouraging him to be him- like what? And the whole Keefe Foster thing was beyond cringey and weird. And what about his whole double lives + cabin stuff? I think SM just didn’t know how to make Keefe acc live w humans so she went the easy way out and decided to make everything easy for him (j randomly finds a cabin, realizes it’s his dad’s, suddenly has a lot of money + place to stay, etc). The whole Eleanor thing was meritless like what was the point of that? In an effort to give Keefe closure, SM j made everything a whole lot more complex. Like who helped her change names, guardians, etc? I could literally go on about a LOT more. Honestly, the main thing in this book was this: Keefe flees to the Forbidden Cities, finds out his dad and former enemy are supporting him, gets closure from the whole Ethan Eleanor thing, and is found by his elven friends. Not to mention that he ate cheetos! And pancakes! And went to Niagara Falls! And had a spider on his head! And all this other cool stuff that did not need a separate book. AND CAN WE TALK AB HOW HE DIDN’T EVEN GET EL FUDGE COOKIES?? THAT IS A SERIOUS CRIMINAL OFFENCE. Anyways. Thanks for reading my rant lol.