Reviews tagging 'Confinement'

Pestilence by Laura Thalassa

9 reviews

brindlecat's review

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Pandemic/Epidemic, Physical abuse, Confinement, Fire/Fire injury, and Kidnapping

kat1105's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Child death, Emotional abuse, Grief, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Animal cruelty, Blood, Body horror, Confinement, Violence, Vomit, Gore, Gun violence, Pandemic/Epidemic, Alcohol, Death, Injury/Injury detail, and Medical content

booksalacarte's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

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

2.5

2.5⭐️ 3🌶️ (spice)

I don’t know what I was expecting from this book. Spicy Booktok raved about it and I suggested it to my best friend, kelly as a buddy read, almost as a joke because it looked super steamy. 

Pestilence was a slow burn romance and had more religious content than I was expecting, even though it’s literally based on the Bible’s four horsemen of the Apocalypse. I found the spiritual parts to be very sweet and inspiring, even though I was caught off guard seeing them in this very solidly categorized romance novel. 

The plot was difficult mainly because this was a 100% character driven story. There is a lot going on with the MC’s, but they aren’t doing too much. The traveling and troubles they run into get a little repetitive. But I understand the nature of why it had to be that way. 

The end was a little dissatisfying, with a time jump before a cliffhanger that didn’t give a clue to what the next book would entail. So the series overarching plot is a little ambiguous. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Kidnapping, Violence, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Body horror, Gun violence, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Alcohol, Torture, Cursing, Vomit, and Confinement

cinderrunner's review

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

cluckieduck's review against another edition

challenging 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

2.0

An interesting premise, but I found most of it to just be sorta…meh. The world building, the writing, the “romance” - it just lacked the substance that allows me to fully invest in what I’m reading, though I did think Pestilence was an intriguing lead. I found myself wondering, like Sara did, how can one fall for him? Is it his naivety? He did make quite a funny nursemaid. 

The sex scenes were rough (and not in a good way) - poor Sara’s vag deserves a break from all the furious pounding. Much like the rest of the story, it’s overly repetitive and not written well. A very underwhelming read. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Cursing, Kidnapping, Sexual harassment, Alcohol, Blood, Body horror, Child death, Confinement, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Gun violence, Murder, Physical abuse, Violence, Vomit, Sexual content, and Torture

Minor: Rape

sam019's review

adventurous dark emotional inspiring sad 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

I'm surprised by how much I liked this book. What an amazing and unique story. I love the adventure, the distopian future and the ever growing relationship between Sara and Pestilence. I can't even think of anything I didn't like about this book!  It was so good and I'm so excited for the rest of the books! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Gore, Gun violence, and Kidnapping

politewriter's review

adventurous dark reflective tense slow-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

3.0

I really enjoyed the analysis and reflection done by the main character regarding the morality of the situation. It's a really interesting grey area that often isn't explored well. Unfortunately, both main characters were too emotionally constipated to do it any justice. However, that's very obviously not the book's goal. Considering the genre, morality arguements were handled very well. Did not like the main character, though. She was incapable of articulating her feelings and didn't have the capacity to argue her view point at all. Made a lot of the interactions between her and Male Lead grating.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Injury/Injury detail, Terminal illness, Genocide, and Death

Moderate: Death, Confinement, and Murder

Minor: Pregnancy and Alcohol

elektriche's review

adventurous dark emotional hopeful sad 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

5.0

The book was wonderful but flawed. Pestilence is my favorite horseman, and Sara is my favorite Laura Thalassa character. I didn't like the lack of diversity, it's difficult for me to imagine a book with LESS diversity. There is not a single black or brown person shown on-page. No disability rep, no diversity of almost any kind. The author uses a line like... "I was not a small girl" in reference to Sara's body. It's almost immediately walked back and it almost seemed like a typo/consistency error. I adored Pestilence, but this book has heavy religious themes and has an unfriendly to queer people vibe. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fatphobia, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Toxic relationship, Torture, and Sexual content

books_bunny's review

adventurous dark emotional slow-paced

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

4.0

This book surprised me, whilst I went in relatively blind and expecting an average read I found myself really enjoying this book. Some of the themes were a lot darker than I expected and, whilst I really enjoyed how the author wrote them, I can see why some people would not. If you are sensitive to certain themes I would recommend checking the content warnings beforehand.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Genocide, Gun violence, Murder, Terminal illness, Violence, Sexual content, and Torture

Moderate: Child death, Toxic relationship, Grief, Kidnapping, Animal cruelty, and Blood

Minor: Confinement, Vomit, and Medical content