Reviews tagging 'Grief'

Death by Laura Thalassa

13 reviews

kat1105's review

dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Suicide, Alcohol, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Genocide, Gore, Grief, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Sexual content, Self harm, Torture, Violence, and Vomit

bangiebangs's review

adventurous dark emotional hopeful reflective tense fast-paced

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

4.5

Oh this book.

So, first off: almost perfect, and the "almost" here is some iffy pacing mainly (the story of Death and Lazarus felt a little off in the first half, but recovered for the second).

This book gives all our favorite tropes (dark romance, enemies to lovers, fated mates, forced proximity, and an eons-old virgin MMC - love those!), and once more the journey is the destination.
That said, I think the middle is a bit eh. Death and Lazarus are mainly fucking (which, 3/5 for spice, that was really, really well written and better than in previous books imo), but Death's motivation to never relent and keep killing is "it's my job", and we don't get a satisfying reason. If the horsemen are here to punish humanity in ways we have used to kill each other, then what is the point of Death just dropping entire cities without even entering them sometimes?

Spoiler

There is one scene where he explains that if God is everything, she (and it's a she in this story) is constantly being hurt by humans destroying the world, and if humans are only part of a much bigger whole, then they are like a festering sore that needs to be cut out for the whole to heal. That makes sense in principle, but even if humans are only a part of creation and seen as part of a much bigger whole, humanity's ability for redemption is portrayed much better on the examples of Pestilence, War, or even Famine.. but doesn't work for Death.

I didn't particularly like the epilogue (it gave Vampire Diaries final scen), but the ending itself is satisfying and honestly, I'd been wondering how the author would wrap up all the storylines that dragged over from previous books (yes, we see Victor/Pestilence, War, and Famine again). So that was surprisingly well done.

So, whole series review: LOVE the series, and my favorite book is still Pestilence, I think? Followed by War. I might re-read those first two, but maybe not the second two? Not entirely sure. Maybe reading them not in one go but as palate cleansers between other books makes more sense. 

Wholly recommend this if you're looking for a series with well-trodden tropes where you still get surprised sometimes, especially if you relish some frustration with the characters that isn't based on miscommunication for once. Nice levels of spice throughout, mostly on a slow - medium burn. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Kidnapping, Grief, Death, Violence, Suicide attempt, Sexual content, and Death of parent

Moderate: Blood, Medical trauma, Vomit, Injury/Injury detail, Genocide, Physical abuse, and Death of parent

booksalacarte's review

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

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Gaslighting, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Murder, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Stalking, Toxic relationship, Blood, Violence, Death, and Sexual content

caseygirlreads's review

dark emotional reflective sad 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? It's complicated

5.0

5 finally finished a series this year stars!

I really loved this series. I remember Pestilence blowing me away. I am so glad I finally managed to read the conclusion of the four horsemen's story. I thought Lazarus was a really interesting character, and her inability to die was a great touch for death's book. There were so many interesting quotes about life, death, love, and humanity. I really enjoyed this book. I will say some of the plot felt a little forced (but that could be due to the creator Herself's influence), and the ending was very predictable. However, a predictable ending could be good if it's due to good writing or it could be bad if it's cliche or unoriginal. I felt like it might have been a little bit of both (reminded me of twilight -if you know you know). Overall, I think this series was fantastic and had a solid ending. I would 100% recommend this series and if you need the push to read the final book this is it. It's dark and it's lovely.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Animal death, Death, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Blood, Medical trauma, Sexual content, Body horror, and Gore

tiana_king's review against another edition

adventurous dark 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

5.0

This was by far my favorite love story of the series. It was nice to see some old faces and get to know the new ones. Not all of the questions are answered but everything was still wrapped up nicely.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Grief, Kidnapping, Terminal illness, Violence, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Sexual content, and Death

Moderate: Suicide

Minor: Child death

xlaurareads's review

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad 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

4.25

what a bittersweet but perfect ending to this series. i have many thoughts on this one, but let's start with the most prominent one: after the ending of famine's book, i was expecting death to be way differently than he actually was in his book. i felt like he might be the harshest, most murderous one that's connected to humanity the least and, thus, doesn't give a shit about humanity. however, in the first chapters of the book it became blatantly obvious that death is the softest of the four horseman, the one who falls for the woman (lazarus) in an instant when he sees her and needs to resist the urge to claim her from the first second on. i liked the "banter" between them and the on-off-killing situation, although it's always been clear how much death feels for her. what put me off a little was the time he "captured" her and the ongoing process of that; however, lazarus meeting the other horsemen was great and essential to the story unfolding. nonetheless, for the 500+ pages i feel like the book was a bit dragged at some points and there wasn't happening very much except laz and death trying to seduce each other and falling in love. like, don't get me wrong, I'm all here for passionate lovestories with good spice, but i was essentially bored at some points and, as the storyline of all four books was essentially somewhat the same, the ending seemed incredibly predictable to me. that's not a bad thing at all and i was prepared for it but i grew hella frustrated with death and his decisions at that. the ending was beautiful and bittersweet still, and tbh i couldn't imagine it otherwise. for me, the epilogue wasn't really needed because the real ending was, to me, perfect as it is. all in all, i did probably like this one second best of the series but it still had its weaknesses. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Murder, Torture, Blood, Death of parent, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual content, Violence, and Vomit

Moderate: Alcohol and Gore

c_dmckinney's review

adventurous challenging dark reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• 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: Body horror, Bullying, Torture, Grief, Abandonment, Animal death, Violence, Kidnapping, Gore, Genocide, Child death, Death of parent, War, Murder, Confinement, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Dementia, Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, Sexual content, and Injury/Injury detail

cluckieduck's review

dark 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? Yes

2.0

FINALLY - the series has reached its conclusion. Am I happy that it’s over? Oh yeah. Am I happy to have read it to see what all the fuss was about. Nope! 

This has got to be one of the most over hyped, underwhelming series I’ve read. It’s such an intriguing premise, and maybe with a better writer it could have been better, but I’m sorry to say that I just don’t think Ms. Thalassa is that good of a writer - repetitive and recycled plots, terrible “romance” and sex scenes, ham-fisted morality, all rounded up in seemingly half-researched settings. 

Anyways, I’ve slogged through and now I can put them behind me without any lingering thoughts.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Medical content, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Body horror, Confinement, Death, Grief, Suicide, and Toxic relationship

breerosiey's review

adventurous dark emotional inspiring reflective 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Fire/Fire injury, Medical trauma, Murder, Body horror, Confinement, Death, Medical content, Suicide, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Vomit, Suicide attempt, War, Blood, Child death, Gore, Grief, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, and Physical abuse

wolf013's review

adventurous dark emotional medium-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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Death of parent, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Child death, Murder, and Suicide

Moderate: War

Minor: Blood