Reviews tagging 'Misogyny'

Pestilence by Laura Thalassa

10 reviews

abicaro17's review against another edition

adventurous dark reflective tense medium-paced

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

3.5

I have mixed feelings about this book. This is a dark romance about Sara, a firefighter, and Pestilence, a horseman of the apocalypse. Sara is tasked by her squad to stay behind and kill Pestilence to prevent the spread of the Plague. When this fails, Pestilence kidnaps her and keeps her prisoner. The concept of this book is cool. Falling in love with a physical manifestation of a biblical plague? Awesome! The issue is the execution. Sara is a little young for me, their "romance" feels a little forced, and Pestilence knowing nothing about humans feels wrong. It wasn't bad at all just a little off for me. I will probably eventually read War and the sequels but not now. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Body horror, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual content, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Religious bigotry, Stalking, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic

sioxricky's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Violence, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Sexual content

allyareads's review against another edition

1.0

To quote Alyssa Edwards “What the fuck is going on here on this day?” 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Death, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Misogyny, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic

queerloras's review

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

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

3.25

Can definitely tell its the first book in the series as author is still finding her stride.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Chronic illness, Death, Domestic abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Misogyny, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Medical content, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Religious bigotry, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic

mattiedancer's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional fast-paced

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

4.25

Writing: 3.75⭐️/5 

Alright, so the writing is serviceable, and honestly better than I was expecting. That being said, the main character’s internal dialogue often felt a bit contrived – forced to be a bit sassier, a bit quippier than felt natural. However, it wasn’t bad, just a bit contrived at moments. And, on the more positive end, the writing is fast-paced and resonant, letting you absorb the plot quickly and easily. It takes talent to write with such smoothness, and I enjoyed reading it. 

Characters: 4⭐️/5

Again, our main character, Sara, started out feeling like a cookie-cutter “badass” main character. As the novel progressed, though, she started to grow and I thoroughly ended up enjoying reading about her and through her perspective. I liked Pestilence a lot. The mixture of his naivety with his inability to forgive Sara seemed true to him. I enjoyed the slow reveal that he didn’t like his job, and I thoroughly enjoyed watching him slowly become more and more human. 

Plot: 4.25⭐️/5 

Again, I don’t think I was expecting too much from this novel’s plot, and it pushed those expectations so very far. Part of my joy with the plot might be heavily attached to the fact that I didn’t expect too much, but, regardless, I loved it. I was a bit hooked from the start, when Sara explained her and her friend’s half-baked plan to kill Pestilence. And I was extra hooked the moment Pestilence felt fear at her mortal well-being. 

Who Should Read This Book? 

• Fans of ACOTAR and dystopian societies
• Someone looking for a romance with an intriguing plot
• Those who like fantasy/apocalyptic novels that centre on romance
• Readers who like (or don’t mind) a bit of spice, but not just spice.

Content Warnings? 

Death, murder, illness, terminal illness, murder, sexual content, physical abuse, emotional abuse, kidnapping, fire, fire injury, gore, blood, injury, injury detail, gun violence, violence, animal death, torture, grief, body horror, pandemic/epidemic

Post-Reading Rating:  5⭐️/5

Addicted.

Final Rating: 4.25⭐️/5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Child death, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexism, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Minor: Pregnancy

ellalife's review against another edition

dark sad tense slow-paced

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

0.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, Toxic relationship, Kidnapping, Gaslighting, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

unsuttefing. the main love intrest is litteraly discusting, misogenitic inhuman guy.

and after constent abuse he is not ponished or reedimed, he just gets the girl like nothing happend

helliecreed's review against another edition

adventurous dark slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• 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

A very slow burn, which isn’t necessarily bad considering we are trying to “normalize” a relationship between a horseman and plain Jane. However, it began to become very repetitive with ride horse-find house- shenanigans and repeat. I had a lot of fun and even understood where Pestilence was coming from but Sara… as a fellow human being it’s hard to truly understand her motives. “Oh he is so pretty!” After him making you witness countless devastation even my own brain would kick in and find it very jarring. Towards the end I couldn’t believe we were still on this journey and it began to feel like arguing for the sake of argument. Now the spice… it’s okay. Very intro level with the same descriptions used for each moment. Do not come into this book expecting smut, it’s not that. Still recommend as a fun strange story about characters since plot and world building isn’t the focus. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence

Moderate: Misogyny

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. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual content, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Kidnapping, Grief, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

c_dmckinney's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark tense medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

wolf013's review against another edition

dark sad 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

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Misogyny