Book Review: Pestilence by Laura Thalassa

Book Cover.

When I first saw this book, I thought it was in the wrong section till I read the blurb. I'm a huge fan of stories about the Four Horsemen, so too see it used in a romance, well I thought it was a novel idea and quickly threw it in my basket.

On the one hand, I read this book within three days, but I can't say it was the most enjoyable read. Whilst there were definitely things I liked about it, there were things I thoroughly didn't. With that being said, I'll say minor spoiler warning now, as I'm going to have to cover some things that happen to give my opinion, but I'll be careful not to delve to deep and spoil your reading experience. With that, here's my review.

“Loser stays behind to see our plan through.”

Let's start with the premise. In a nutshell: The Four Horsemen of the apocalypse have been sent to earth to destroy mankind on heavenly ordained orders. Pestilence, the first Horseman, is spreading his plague – whilst his brothers sleep - as he goes from city to city, killing thousands, and our main female lead, Sara, has drawn the short straw on trying to kill him. Of course, she fails, and he takes her prisoner, which starts us down the road of their apocalyptic love story.

It's an interesting concept and I'm a sucker for a good romance story, especially if it involves mythology. However an interesting concept will not carry a book, it's writing and characters to, so let's get into that.

Oh boy, the characters. There are only two main characters in this book, and they are predominately it's focus. The male lead, Pestilence – the first Horseman, and the female lead and love interest, Sara.

“You want a longer leash, you’re going to have to prove you deserve it.”

I adore Pestilence. I really felt like he embodied what I believe a horsemen would be. He was strong, capable, emotionally detached, wrathful and most of all, carried out his duty despite not enjoying it out of loyalty and respect, for well, God. In my humble opinion, he is by far the best thing about this book. He comes across as genuine and sincere, and despite him killing so many, at no point did I find myself thinking he was a bad person and rooting for this demise.

Pestilence remains in character throughout the story, so even though you get to witness the shift in his morals, his world view and most importantly, his feelings; he never feels like a completely different person. He reads like a man who has grown, both in mind and heart, and I felt genuine happiness for him when he felt happy and, sadness for him when he wasn't. I honestly did not want to see Pestilence get hurt, physically or emotionally, which says a lot considering he's technically the villain, but that is just how well written he is in my opinion.

“Because it’s fun and it tastes good - well, except for my aunt Milly’s fruitcake. That shit tastes like dirty asshole.”

On the other hand, Sara, is not particularly well written. For the most part, she comes across as an immature 'girl boss' with a brain comprised of TikTok videos; which is odd considering she was supposedly a fire fighter before the world went to hell. I can clearly see what kind of character the author wanted Sara to be, the quintessential strong heroine, emotionally complex but grounded, using humour to lighten the dire circumstances. Unfortunately, for the most part, Sara just comes across as rude, insufferable and unfunny. She seems incapable of expressing her feelings or emotions in a healthy manner for a majority of the book, instead delivering rather cringe inner monologues and resorting to childish 'I'm just going to ignore it, or ignore you' tactics, when almost anything shifts in her relationship with Pestilence.

I think petulant is the word I would use to describe Sara, and that is rarely endearing, and certainly not here. I found her so unlikeable in fact, that when I had finished the book, I wondered if Pestilence had fallen for her simply because she was the first woman to spend time with him, not for any endearing qualities she has – of which she has little. That being said, there were a handful of times she showed the mental fortitude and strong will I would expect of someone who, used to run into burning buildings, rescuing lives on a daily basis, because let's be honest, being a Firefighter isn't easy. So, though Sara definitely isn't my cup of tea, though those moments certainly didn't make me enjoy the character Sara, they made her tolerable enough one for me to finish the story.

“No one knows where the Four Horsemen came from, only that one day they appeared on their steeds, riding through cities and wildlands alike. And as they passed through town after town, human technology broke like waves upon the rock.”

At this point, you may be wondering about the world building. Well, there isn't too much to it. It's essentially the world plunged back into the dark ages, quite literally. When the Horsemen arrived, they took out all modern technology. Electricity, for the most part. Which meant planes fell out of the sky, there was no more internet, and hot water became a thing of the past. Atleast, sometimes. Though you never see a moving vehicle, or someone using a phone, some homes do have running electricity and hot water. Why? No clue. It's never explained and you just roll with it.

Your understanding of the world takes shape mostly through Sara’s thoughts and the actions of the other survivors the couple come into contact with. Mercenary like groups, banded together to try and take out the horseman, the obligatory man and his flock of indoctrinated faithful, and a few side characters here and there that seem rather removed from the circumstances, purely to push the plot or Pestilence in a certain direction. Each of these things does give you a general sense of the current state of the world, so they serve their purpose, but the focus remains heavily on the couple, so if you were looking for in depth world building, well, you won’t be getting that here.

Overall, it's a simple story, and it's written simply too. There's no lofty ideas or fancy language here. It's written relatively well, glossing over more complicated topics like religion, and focusing on moral dilemmas and growing feelings. There is no sense of a will they, won't they scenario. You know they will and, to the authors credit, their love does feel like it takes a natural course. Their interactions, good and bad, their different perspectives bouncing off one another, their blossoming respect and adoration for each other, is pleasurable to read and you will find yourself smiling by the end of the book. There were no obvious spelling mistakes, or grammatical errors, I wasn't suddenly thrown from my immersion with unintelligible or crude writing, and the descriptions are kept short and sweet, forgoing tedious commentary, which I appreciate.

“You took care of me the same way you did your humans.”

There are some brilliant and heart warming moments in Laura Thalassa's Pestilence, whilst there are also some, that may have you wanting to throw the book across the room – I was tempted. Whilst there's no great sense of the tension or foreboding that you may get with most world-ending stories and, the spice is kept quite demure, it is a captivating enough read if a mythological romance tickles your fancy.

As you've probably guessed, the two do end up together in a rather 'happy ever after' way. However, there are three more brothers, War, Famine and Death, which means three more books, and I'm curious to see how those stories play out, so I will be purchasing the rest of the series. I'll be posting a review on each, so keep a look out for that.

My overall rating: 3.5/5

Thank you for reading!