Reviews tagging 'Animal cruelty'

Pestilence by Laura Thalassa

26 reviews

fizzieee's review against another edition

adventurous dark medium-paced

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

3.0

Your run-of-the-mill enemies to lovers romance (with one of the four horsemen of the apocalypse, of course). I did enjoy this although I did feel like I had to suspend some level of belief/ignore glaring issues of believability to enjoy it.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture and Blood

Moderate: Toxic relationship

Minor: Animal cruelty and Vomit

ruckystarnes's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional sad tense fast-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

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content, Body horror, Medical trauma, Sexual content, Blood, Death, Death of parent, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Pandemic/Epidemic, Terminal illness, Emotional abuse, Sexual harassment, and Vomit

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Blood, Alcohol, Child death, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Gun violence, Medical trauma, Cursing, Vomit, and Violence

bellebookcorner's review

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. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Murder, Torture, Violence, and Sexual content

Moderate: Animal cruelty and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Rape

lacrimaeignis's review against another edition

dark hopeful medium-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

4.0

I've always held a certain fascination for the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse so when I heard about this series, I knew I would have to eventually read them (especially when I heard that Death, book 4, is being represented by Thanatos, the name of the greek god of death, whom I've always held an unexplainable but particular fondness for). I wasn't sure what to expect going in but this book definitely wastes no time in throwing you into the Apocalypse. This novel is graphic in detail at times and definitely not for the faint of heart or those who can't stomach violence or gore.

The book brought up many interesting points on the concept of religion/faith and why the Apocalypse was happening. It was very interesting to see Pestilence as a character and how he adapted and changed throughout the novel. The Female Lead, Sara, felt very realistic in how she dealt with what she was going through, especially as a young woman in her 20s.  However she does come across as annoying at times, especially with some of her side comments that serve no purpose and ended up throwing me out of the story, and she fell flat towards the end of the novel. Because of her I almost DNF'd with only 20 pages left (although my interest was waning around page 200).

The book was also very repetitive at times and therefore, very predictable. Many of the chapters/events just felt too similar to each other but because most of the chapters were short, it was easy to get through them.

The only reason I continued the book was because I was so close to the end and also because I do plan on reading the rest of the series. I gave the book 4 stars because I did like the concept and I really liked Pestilence and it also kept me intrigued enough to want to continue the series.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Cursing, Animal cruelty, Alcoholism, Genocide, Animal death, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Sexual content, Torture, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, Blood, Gore, Grief, Gun violence, Kidnapping, Pandemic/Epidemic, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Child death, Confinement, Toxic relationship, and Gaslighting

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

---

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

kat1105's review

adventurous dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Child death, Emotional abuse, Grief, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Animal cruelty, Blood, Body horror, Confinement, Violence, Vomit, Gore, Gun violence, Pandemic/Epidemic, Alcohol, Death, Injury/Injury detail, and Medical content

whitney427's review

dark emotional 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

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Child death, Violence, Death, Body horror, Blood, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Kidnapping, Gun violence, and Torture

kloughlin's review against another edition

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

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Sexual content, and Slavery

Moderate: Body horror and Alcohol

Minor: Cursing, Sexism, Animal cruelty, Child death, Pregnancy, and Rape

prosiaczekk's review

adventurous

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

3.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Fire/Fire injury, Animal cruelty, Violence, and Torture

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