Book Review: War (The Four Horsemen #2)

by Laura Thalassa

Rating: ⭐3/5⭐

“Miriam Elmahdy’s Guide to Staying the Fuck Alive: (1) Bend the rules—but don’t break them. (2) Stick to the truth. (3) Avoid notice. (4) Listen to your instincts. (5) Be brave.”

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.

The day Jerusalem falls, Miriam Elmahdy knows her life is over. Houses are burning, the streets run red with blood, and a traitorous army is massacring every last resident. There is no surviving this, especially not once Miriam catches the eye of War himself. But when the massive and terrifying horseman corners Miriam, he calls her his wife, and instead of killing her, he takes her back to his camp.

Now Miriam faces a terrifying future, one where she watches her world burn town by town, and the one man responsible for it all is her seemingly indestructible “husband”. But there’s another side to him, one that’s gentle and loving and dead set on winning her over, and she might not be strong enough to resist.

However, if there’s one thing Miriam has learned, it’s that love and war cannot coexist. And so she must make the ultimate choice: surrender to War and watch humankind fall, or sacrifice everything and stop him.

Review

I’m not gonna lie. I didn’t really like this book all that much. To be fair, after Pestilence, I had insanely high expectations. That story was unlike anything I’d ever read before. It’d had me on the edge of my seat and constantly questioning myself and my judgment. And while I appreciate that this book couldn’t be a step by step reprisal of that one, I was still left feeling disappointed and unsatisfied.

War and Miriam were waaay too chummy from the get-go, for my liking. Long gone were the days of awesome, kick-ass Sara who had SET PESTILENCE ON FIRE! I repeat, SHE’D SET THE DUDE ON FIRE!!! And Pestilence, who’d dragged her after his horse for DAYS! Now, that’s true enemies-to-lovers if I’ve ever seen it.

Also, Sara was torn up inside and absolutely disgusted with herself when she started seeing Pestilence more as a person than a monster—and developing feelings for him. Meanwhile Miriam didn’t seem all that bothered.

To me (and this is a very personal, perhaps misguided view), Miriam came across as a domestic abuse victim. She knew what War did was wrong and horrible—got angry for a hot second—but then started justifying and rationalizing his behavior. She complained and pouted. Too many words, too little action. She should have tried to escape more than once, she should have been stronger willed and more defiant. She should have fought him more, like Sara did with Pestilence. Instead, Miriam quickly grew complacent and resorted to being pitiful and begging to get War to do something. Pathetic, as harsh as that may sound.

Apart from that, while Pestilence’s wake up call was more about realizing he wasn’t obligated to do something just because someone had given him that task and had started feeling bad seeing the unnecessary pain and suffering he was causing, War’s realization came purely out of selfishness. He started caring only when his own actions started affecting him. When he got a taste of his own medicine, let’s say. It just wasn’t a satisfying way for him to change his ways. It was trivial, uninspired and lacked the emotional-growth and depth of Pestilence’s character arc.

So, yeah.

Neither main character was to my liking, nor was the story as a whole. I’m giving it 3 stars, cause it was still written very well, the flow was good (even if I didn’t agree with the progression and development of the relationship) and the previous book was so excellent that some of my appreciation for that one is spilling over into this one.

I sincerely hope book 3 will turn things around, and Famine will knock Pestilence and War out of the park.

**I received an e-copy of this book from Bloom Books through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you. All thoughts and opinions are my own**