Reviews with content warning for Rape - Pestilence

This is one of the best books I’ve ever read. Which is saying a lot since I love nearly every book I’ve read. A wonderful idea for a book and great execution. This book made me examine my own humanity while throughly enjoying myself while reading. I literally couldn’t put it down. I truly can’t wait to read the rest of the series because I am now sucked into the apocalyptic world of the Four Horseman.

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esageser19's review against another edition

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dark medium-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

4.25

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jeco2494's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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theruemorgue_03's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.5

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bellebookcorner's review

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny tense medium-paced

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

4.0

“When you find someone worth spending that time with, you don’t want to share those minutes with anyone else.”

Read this book if you love;

• Dark Fantasy Paranormal Romance

• Morally Grey Character

• Enemies-to-Lovers

• Grumpy x Sunshine

• Forced Proximity

• Post-Apocalyptic World

• Touch Her and You Die

Pestilence is a story about one of the Four Horsemen who came to earth to destroy the world and a woman with a mission to stop Pestilence and save her town.

This story is intended for mature readers and I would highly suggest checking the trigger warnings below before reading this one.

I didn’t have any expectation toward this book and upon reading the blurb and seeing it a couple times on social media, I finally gave it a try.

Surprisingly, I enjoy reading this book. The plot keeps me interested from the beginning until the end with easy to read writing style, nice pacing and a well writen post-apocalyptic world building.

So many emotions played in this story by seeing it from two different sides - Pestilence and Sara.

I really like the character development of both Sara and Pestilence, especially seeing Pestilence started to slowly change as Sara show him that mankind is not all that bad. As they get closer, feelings also grow which is how they find themselves at war with their own self.

I also like the funny moments of their never ending bickering and Sara’s sassy comments that she would throw to Pestilence which liven up the story.

However, some parts got a bit repetitive especially about how much Sara keeps saying about Pestilence’s handsome face and hot body.

Overall, it’s a good and enjoyable read. I found the plot idea really interesting and I’m looking forward to see what the next horsemen will do in the next book.

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kloughlin's review against another edition

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dark hopeful tense medium-paced

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

3.5

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ollie_again's review against another edition

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I gave this a fair shot, but holy hell was this bad. Before picking this book up I had it in my head that it might be too dark for me, but that I've seen it recommended so much it has to have a good romance. Nope on both things.

How do you take the concept of romancing the Horsemen of the Apocalypse & manage it to be extremely boring and flat at the same time? The MC keeps hamming on that Pestilence is beautiful, sexy and handsome from the very beginning, even in between him torturing her, killing people left and right and generally being the undesirable number one?

There is no gradual development of their relationship. We are meant to feel something for Pestilence as he starts thinking differently about the world, but... yikes. I did not feel any chemistry at all, there is nothing sexy in this book to be found, and when you pile that on the fact that people are dying from plague yet they get kissy-kissy in the next room, I wanna vom.

And to the darkness of the book... yes, the general idea and the things that happen are dark in theory, but the way they are portrayed and relayed left me feeling nothing. When neither the *dark* nor the *romance* in the equation can squeeze some emotion out of me, it's a pretty bad package.

Unfortunately, another overhyped romance off my TBR.

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cinderrunner's review against another edition

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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.

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