Book Review: Pestilence (The Four Horsemen #1)

by Laura Thalassa

Rating: ⭐5/5⭐

“I came to conquer this land and its people, but instead, one of its people conquered me.”

They came to earth—Pestilence, War, Famine, Death—four horsemen riding their screaming steeds, racing to the corners of the world. Four horsemen with the power to destroy all of humanity. They came to earth, and they came to end us all.

When Pestilence comes for Sara Burn’s town, one thing is certain: everyone she knows and loves is marked for death. Unless, of course, the angelic-looking horseman is stopped, which is exactly what Sara has in mind when she shoots the unholy beast off his steed.

Too bad no one told her Pestilence can’t be killed.

Now the horseman, very much alive and very pissed off, has taken her prisoner, and he’s eager to make her suffer. Only, the longer she’s with him, the more uncertain she is about his true feelings towards her … and hers towards him.

And now, well, Sara might still be able to save the world, but in order to do so, she’ll have to sacrifice her heart in the process.

Review

So. Fair warning. This review will contain some mild and not so mild spoilers. Proceed at your own risk!

First of all, let’s talk book covers. As hot as the current cover is, with the bare chest and glowing tattoos, I liked the other one with the couple better ~~why, oh why, did it have to be plagiarized? No two ways about it, plagiarism sucks, and the author of course did what she had to d~~o~~. But I still miss the old cover~~ The new cover is still hot, but I have to admit that while reading the book at no point did it say Pestilence’s hair was as long as it is on the cover. I imagined it being like, surfer long, cause it matched with the descriptions ~~and also cause dudes with long hair aren’t my thing~~.

That aside, this is my first time reading a book by Laura Thalassa and I thought it was pretty great.

I laugh, cried, gasped in horror, felt outraged, helpless, but also warm and gooey; got angry, frustrated, awwed out loud… a whole myriad of emotions basically.

But above it all I felt SO. FREAKING. TORN all throughout this damn book!!

And how could I not? I was right there with Sara, the MC. I felt her guilt, pain and indecision as if they were my own. Because, yeah, I think I would have acted much the same as she did under the circumstances (well, maybe not burning someone alive, I WOULD NOT have the stomach for that). Then again, if I thought doing that meant the survival of the human race? Perhaps I’d do it and try to find a way to live with the trauma later.

It was all so very troubling, because, yeah, on the one hand this dude is decimating our race. Homeboy’s gotta go.

On the other hand, though, Pestilence didn’t actually enjoy doing it. Most of the time, he didn’t even want to have to watch the havoc he was wreaking. He was simply following the path that had been laid out for him, complying with the instructions he’d been given, at least until Sara came into the picture and started waking up these pesky little things in him called feelings.

It was so very clear from the beginning that he had this huge caring side. While simultaneously, he was cold, clinical and detached. Consciously, and right along Sara, I knew I was supposed to hate him—he’s a monster, right? Come to lay waste to the world?—But, UGH! It was so difficult! He was an asshole, but he was a softie. And I could tell he cared about her basically from their ~~first second~~ third? interaction. But he was also so indifferent to everyone else. He caused so much death… pain… suffering. And it bothered the heck out of him.

"You don’t have an easy task ahead of you,[...]For whatever reason, the Lord deemed fit for you to feel what it is to be human—the loss, the heartbreak, all of it." [...] Only now do I see in him what Ruth does: he is one of us even as he stands apart. He’s not insulated to our pain and torment the way I’d like to believe he is. He has to bear it like some kind of penance.With that one realization, the entire axis of my world shifts.He is every bit a victim of this apocalypse as I am.Noble, gallant Pestilence, who must watch us all die, who must make us all die, even though death greatly bothers him. No wonder he hates us so much. He has to. Otherwise, he’s murdering thousands and thousands of people for no good reason other than the fact that he was told to do so.

That part of the book was a huge breaking point for me. Not only because of Ruth and Rob (this absolutely lovely elderly couple, with the biggest heart of any two fictional characters ever).

But because reading that helped crystallize and put into words this feeling I’d been getting that Pestilence was just a pawn in the grand scheme of things. Someone tasked with a responsibility he didn’t actually want, but someone who kept on going because he thought his task was who he was. He was such a complex, flawed, lovely character.

Sara was just as amazing:

A ball-busting, skull-crushing, badass motherfucker who is impossible to forget.

But also a compassionate, considerate, loving, kickass queen. And really, some of her inner monologues were plain hilarious:

This conversation is quickly going from uncomfortable waters to my-vagina-is-mutinying-it-doesn’t-matter-that-you’re-sex-on-legs-well-okay-maybe-it-does-a-little-nevermind-my-vagina-is-cool-with-it.
That’s what happens when you’re upsettingly pretty. My libido gets stupid—correction, stupider (because let’s face it, on a normal day my libido is still a bimbo).

I absolutely loved her and I’m gonna be heartbroken if that’s the last we see of her.

As a last observation, I have to admit I pettily wanted to dock half a point for that half-assed epilogue. You can’t just tell me in passing they have a floor full of children’s toys and not expect me to want to know ALL about that! That’s a huge forking deal that they had kids together!! How many? How old are they? What are their names? What’s ~~Pestilence~~ Victor like as a dad? Are they fully human or half and half? SO MANY QUESTIONS!

But alas, I don’t think we’ll be getting any answers (though a short novella about that stuff would be a wonderful idea *winkwink*). However, since I found the premise of the book to be so incredibly original and perfectly executed, I’m giving it the full five stars.