Reviews tagging 'Genocide'

Pestilence by Laura Thalassa

24 reviews

itsnotri's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Fire/Fire injury, Chronic illness, Genocide, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Child death, Kidnapping, Torture, and Violence

Minor: Animal cruelty and Animal death

Please pay attention to the trigger warnings

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

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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.

and after constent abuse he is not ponished or reedimed, he just gets the girl like nothing happend

jess_bythebook's review

adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

*2023 VERSION WITH THE REWRITES*
I compared the newer copy with the 2018 original version (almost word for word) to see how the two compare and I am actually pretty impressed. Where the older book was already captivating, this newer script is actually smoother.

Certain words were changed to modernize them while others were cut out altogether. Some capitalized, some italicized, and a couple of sentences and paragraphs were cut out near the end (they were completely unnecessary). While no major changes or new chapters were added, I do admit that the story as a whole reads better than the original.

Pestilence is still just as brutal in the beginning and we do get a true enemies to lovers story that ends up melting your heart in the absolute best way. And I still love Sara - the rough and caring firefighter who knows when to pick her battles, but also isn’t willing to compromise on her core values.

I adored being able to travel the post-apocalyptic Southern Canadian and Pacific Northwest terrain with them again. Even though I knew what was coming, the rewrites smoothed out some of the blunter transitions and I felt like I was experiencing the book through fresh eyes. Definitely worth it!

Thank you to NetGalley and Bloom Books for the ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Genocide, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Gun violence and Injury/Injury detail

rebar351's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective medium-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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Terminal illness, Death, Violence, Torture, Murder, Kidnapping, Gore, and Genocide

al4ssandra's review against another edition

dark emotional funny tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Chronic illness, Death, Genocide, and Gun violence

kinsportch's review against another edition

dark fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Gun violence, Violence, Torture, Terminal illness, Murder, Kidnapping, Blood, Genocide, Death, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Child death and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Vomit and Rape

psydneigh's review against another edition

dark sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

I did not like this one. Sara is in the same “i cant love him, but i do” mindset for 98% of the book. There was no real growth, it just changes in the end.

I think it would’ve been better if Pestilence had spared Rob and Ruth. Then at least his actions seem to be changing and killing all of California would be more impactful

 
I also just couldn’t really get behind falling in love with a man responsible for genocide and who tortured you horrifically. I’ve read dark romances, but Pestilence did not have good enough redeeming qualities in my opinion.
Side Note: I don’t know if this was intentionally (probably not) but when the God discussion came up, Pestilence says that God is genderless and she goes with ‘it’ and then later calls God ‘he’ again? Sounds like God has they/them pronouns to me and it irked me a bit that they weren’t used.
Overall, meh read but will not be continuing the series.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Body horror, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Genocide, Kidnapping, and Torture

parfwen's review against another edition

dark medium-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? No

2.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Fire/Fire injury, Genocide, Gun violence, Sexual content, Terminal illness, and Violence

Moderate: Kidnapping, Toxic relationship, Alcohol, Animal death, and Child death

Minor: Body horror

elenamarmiroli's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

Questo libro contiene al suo interno una d'amore, enemies to lover e mediamente dark, tra Pestilence, uno dei cavalieri dell'apocalisse, e la nostra protagonista Sara, un'umile umana, che nella speranza di salvare l'umanità, decide di rischiare la sua vita per uccidere questa creatura che sta annientando intere città. 
Purtroppo i suoi piani sono destinati a fallire, siccome, anche se lei ne è ignara, Pestilence è immortale. Ciò però non la salva dall'ira di quest'ultimo che decide di fare di lei un esempio e tenerla come sua prigioniera.

Nel corso del romanzo, i due protagonisti cominciano pian piano ad appagare le loro differenze, però rimane un problema non da poco: Pestilenze sta ancora causando la morte di milioni di persone e costringe, direttamente o indirettamente, la protagonista ad assistere alla morte dei suoi simili.

Sara è quindi ad affrontare un dilemma: è giusto per lei provare dei sentimenti per questa creatura, quando lui sta decimando la razza umana e non ha intenzione di smettere? 

Come potete intuire anche voi questa premessa può dare luogo a un romanzo d'amore interessante e innovativo, in quanto non ho mai sentito di un libro che avesse come interesse amoroso uno dei cavalieri dell'apocalisse. E lo sviluppo di quest'idea non è male: essa è infatti riuscita a coinvolgermi abbastanza emotivamente, soprattutto nella parte, tanto che sono anche arrivata a piangere in un determinato passaggio.
Dove essa mi ha perso un po' è stata nella seconda metà, in quanto certe scene cominciavano a diventare ripetitive (dovete immaginare che passano la maggior parte del romanzo in groppa al destriero di lui a portare una malattia simile alla peste nel mondo), e la fine, dove il conflitto e la risoluzione sono affrettati nell'ultimo 10% e parte della risoluzione avviene troppo off page per i mie gusti.

Per quanto riguarda l'epilogo c'è un piccolo cliffhanger per il prossimo volume, ma nulla di grave.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, and Genocide

c_dmckinney's review

adventurous challenging dark tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death of parent, Gore, Grief, Murder, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, War, Child abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Torture, Violence, Classism, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, and Genocide