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arianna9's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
My god... Sara Burns is such a good character. Their love was so in-depth, yet Pestilence didn't know it till page 250. I love Thalassa's way of interpreting the horsemen. It wasn't frightening at all. But warning. This isn't for people who want a relaxing romance.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Violence, Child death, Terminal illness, Bullying, Death, and Torture
mattiedancer's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Writing: 3.75⭐️/5
Alright, so the writing is serviceable, and honestly better than I was expecting. That being said, the main character’s internal dialogue often felt a bit contrived – forced to be a bit sassier, a bit quippier than felt natural. However, it wasn’t bad, just a bit contrived at moments. And, on the more positive end, the writing is fast-paced and resonant, letting you absorb the plot quickly and easily. It takes talent to write with such smoothness, and I enjoyed reading it.
Characters: 4⭐️/5
Again, our main character, Sara, started out feeling like a cookie-cutter “badass” main character. As the novel progressed, though, she started to grow and I thoroughly ended up enjoying reading about her and through her perspective. I liked Pestilence a lot. The mixture of his naivety with his inability to forgive Sara seemed true to him. I enjoyed the slow reveal that he didn’t like his job, and I thoroughly enjoyed watching him slowly become more and more human.
Plot: 4.25⭐️/5
Again, I don’t think I was expecting too much from this novel’s plot, and it pushed those expectations so very far. Part of my joy with the plot might be heavily attached to the fact that I didn’t expect too much, but, regardless, I loved it. I was a bit hooked from the start, when Sara explained her and her friend’s half-baked plan to kill Pestilence. And I was extra hooked the moment Pestilence felt fear at her mortal well-being.
Who Should Read This Book?
- Fans of ACOTAR and dystopian societies
- Someone looking for a romance with an intriguing plot
- Those who like fantasy/apocalyptic novels that centre on romance
- Readers who like (or don’t mind) a bit of spice, but not just spice.
Content Warnings?
Death, murder, illness, terminal illness, murder, sexual content, physical abuse, emotional abuse, kidnapping, fire, fire injury, gore, blood, injury, injury detail, gun violence, violence, animal death, torture, grief, body horror, pandemic/epidemic
Post-Reading Rating: 5⭐️/5
Addicted.
Final Rating: 4.25⭐️/5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Bullying, Death, Gore, Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Medical trauma, Medical content, Toxic relationship, Fire/Fire injury, Gun violence, Murder, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Torture, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Sexism, Violence, Pandemic/Epidemic, and Terminal illness
Minor: Pregnancy
teddyb80's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Pandemic/Epidemic, Bullying, and Gun violence
ellalife's review against another edition
dark
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
0.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Toxic relationship, Torture, Gore, Genocide, Sexual harassment, Sexual assault, Injury/Injury detail, Gun violence, Hate crime, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Domestic abuse, Sexual violence, Slavery, Sexism, Misogyny, and Kidnapping
unsuttefing. the main love intrest is litteraly discusting, misogenitic inhuman guy.sarrie's review against another edition
dark
funny
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Pestilence by Laura Thalassa is everywhere if you spend a lot of time on the Fantasy Romance part of the bookish internet - or it was at one point and now it has just seeped into the collective consciousness there. It’s getting it’s traditional release this year and I grabbed a copy to try out (both an eArc and the physical edition at my local Barnes & Noble). And I can’t quite get my head around it.
The premise is simple enough. The four Horseman arrived on Earth some years ago, announcing our demise, then disappeared. The first of the Horseman has awoken, and it’s Pestilence who is slowly riding around the world and sickening and destroying the populace. Sara Burns (a hilarious name considering she’s a firefighter) takes it upon herself to attempt to kill Pestilence. Then ends up paying the price.
So here is where my first BIG problem with this comes. Sara does indeed manage to kill him, burns him to death in fact and when he gets back up (he’s a Horseman of the Apocalypse, of course you can’t kill him) he’s very angry. In an interesting twist, he can feel all the pain and agony of death and all that it does to his body but he never truly dies. So he decides to keep her captive and punish her. From there he does many things to her. Shoots her, drags her by the wrists behind his horse, verbally abuses her, etc. As this is a romance eventually he comes around and she ‘brings out his humanity and gives him hope’ - the usual. But the things he does prior to this, it’s a LOT.
There is also the weirdly added chunk of travel in which Sara constantly tends to those who are dying from his plague he spreads just by being somewhere. We read about these people dying, including small children, and his simple refusal to do anything. If the ultimate end game was for us to like Pestilence it didn’t happen for me. The man or whatever he is because at one point he tells her he’s is just what his name says - a walking cloud of disease? Is simply not appealing. It missed me. No thank you.
And yet I finished it. I cannot tell you why. I don’t think I recommend this one, but the writing just kept me going and I am just so convinced there has to be something more in the later books. I want the twist to be that these men are not what they seem. Or they are but in a way that makes sense for them to feel the pain they do?
I genuinely don’t know who I’d recommend this too. It’s not romantic, it’s sad then funny then so melodramatic. It has the Happily Ever After all romances do. She ends up sleeping with the personification of a cloud of disease and it’s implied they have children by the end when War appears - but I also can’t tell you I’m not going to read the next one.
If you do pick it up… just don’t think to hard about it. Like the boils his plague leaves behind it’s peppered with red flags and holes but it was fun and bingeable.
2 warm baths with a disease cloud watching you (and yes. that line felt like kink shaming in the book)
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Child death, Murder, and Gore
Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Bullying, and Kidnapping
Minor: Stalking
cinderrunner's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
I have a lot of conflicting emotions about this book. I am not a fan of "dark" romances typically and don't see the appeal of fictional relationships that are founded on toxicity/abuse. I didn't realize just how dark this novel was before i picked it up. The relationship between Sara and Pestilence is very abusive, toxic, and violent; all of which was incredibly off putting and made it difficult to get into the love aspects of the story. However, the world in which the novel was crafted and the plot surrounding the relationship made me enjoy it to the point where I would have given the book 5 stars if it weren't for the awful relationship dynamics. The author created a brilliant landscape for a world sliding deeper into dystopia. She also did an incredible job capturing the moral complexity of humanity and of our ideals around right or wrong. The book was surprisingly poignant and tugged tight on my heartstrings. The violence and cruelty of the romance didn't feel pointless and the author made Pestilence's grasp of what humanity really means grow in a way that I was able to feel for him and Sara. I was worried the topic of religion would be overbearing given that the plot revolves around the four horsemen of the apocalypse, but it is handled with tact and in such a neutral way that I think an open minded reader of pretty much any background would be okay with it. But please check trigger warnings for this book because it is very dystopian and dark.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Abandonment, Animal death, Blood, Bullying, Grief, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual content, Torture, Animal cruelty, Body horror, Confinement, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Excrement, Gore, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Violence, Gaslighting, Rape, Death, Kidnapping, Misogyny, and Murder
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