Reviews with content warning for Gore - Famine

Reviews tagging 'Gore'

Famine by Laura Thalassa

16 reviews

kirahaycock21's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional sad fast-paced

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

4.5

It was a little slow throughout the middle, but overall a great book.

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mattiedancer's review against another edition

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adventurous dark fast-paced

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

3.5

Writing: 3.5⭐️/5

I feel like in this book Thalassa tried to strike out and make her writing a bit different, but I’m not sure it worked. Much of the writing felt the same. I was, however, less surprised by this than I was when I read book two, War. I feel like expecting the similarities made them less bothersome.

Characters: 3.25⭐️/5

Famine bears similarities to both War and Pestilence, but manages to strike out on his own as the novel progresses. Ana feels very much like a mix of Sara and Miriam from the previous two novels, and while the story progresses to a point that I enjoyed reading about, I wanted a bit more from the characters.

Plot: 3.5⭐️/5

Girl gets captured by a Horseman. Slowly, she falls in love with him. And then, she slowly finds herself as the only reason he wants to stop the apocalypse. It’s very predictable. Yes, I was prepared for the predictability. Yes, I was still a bit annoyed at how similar it was. However, I will say that I did enjoy how Thalassa struck out to make the ending very different. I just wish this would have started sooner.

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
Those who liked and loved the first and second books (but maybe take a break between so it’s not too fresh)

Content Warnings?

Death, murder, sexual content, physical abuse, emotional abuse, kidnapping, gore, blood, injury, injury detail, violence, animal death, torture, grief, body horror, sexual harassment, sexual assault, rape, alcohol, swearing, child abuse, child death, misogyny

Post-Reading Rating: 4⭐️/5

Made me kind of pumped for the fourth one.

Final Rating: 3.5⭐️/5

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twinklepuff's review against another edition

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adventurous dark fast-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

3.75

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reading_historical_romance's review against another edition

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adventurous dark 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

5.0

Apocalyptic/dystopian romance is my jam so I’m not sure why I’m so late boarding the Laura Thalassa train, but I’m here now! And what a steamy ride it is.

I loved everything about this novel. The plot, characters, setting, dialogue, romance, suspense, and, the sex. Oh Mylanta, the sex was delightful in all the ways.

The way that the author put such a unique twist on the grumpy/sunshine trope was brilliant, as both Famine and the heroine, Ana, are also anti-heroes. This twist carried through all of the other themes in the novel, including forgiveness and sacrifice. I loved Famine’s supernatural powers: life and death, healing, and measuring the worth of souls against one another and the earth in and of itself. When he grew the rose for Ana, I squee'd in the best way.

Laura Thalassa has a great voice, and I thought that her ability to develop Ana’s character so completely through her sarcastic wit -- which was communicated solely through the written word and without dialogue tags – was really impressive.

I also loved the ending and the fact that I could not predict it! The climax was fantastic. I am now going to buy the entire series so I can fully immerse myself in the Four Horsemen’s world.

Thank you to NetGalley and Bloom Books for the opportunity to read and review this novel. All opinions are my own.

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kat1105's review against another edition

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dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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bangiebangs's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional reflective fast-paced

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

4.0

Good read, though I think that Pestilence might still be my favorite of the series. In this book, the relationship between Famine and Ana is a little more playful, and I'm really here for the bratty flirting and the chemistry between them. The horseman's journey here is a little less fleshed out (I thought that the change from hating humans to changing towards believing in saving them... was a bit sudden? But maybe that is because I've read all the books in one go.)

Enjoyable read, some spice (would say 2/5), the flirting is really enjoyable, and I also really liked the story here.

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mspilesofpaper's review against another edition

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dark medium-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

2.0

The lack of world building is atrocious. In a half sentence is mentioned which continents have been erased and I had to use Google Maps so often to get a basic idea of where they are in Brazil because the author just mentions city names and that’s it.

Famine is just awful. I get it that he’s different than Pestilence and War as he’s somehow nature itself and that he has trauma from getting abused/tortured/… But what exactly does he expect humans in a post apocalyptic world to do when the Four Horsemen appear? Just accept that they’ve to die in utterly unnecessary cruel ways? It’s not even a quick and painless death that any of the three have dished out. 99% of the time it’s cruel and drags out the actual death.

Ana was annoying. Her sex jokes were funny at the first part but they got quickly rather boring because the majority were repetitions. Sex was the defining character trait for her which is just ugh. Of course, it’s a mask/defense mechanism for her trauma but the author didn’t handle the entire topic of being a sex worker very well.

Entire book was: 60% Famine (and Ana) riding from point A to B, 5% were sexual assault on Ana, 5% were "Famine was tortured to death again and Ana helps him again", 20% were make out/sex scenes and the last 10% was Death's cameo.

Death’s an real asshole although I don’t get why he’s on charging of deciding what his brothers have to give up to gain mortality etc because that should be God's position. Also, why has the fucker wings? That’s so out of place because he’s Death and not some kind of fallen angel aka Lucifer.

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ladylunabee's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional sad 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

4.0

This one was about as weird of a ride as the first one was, kind of the same in a lot of ways just toned down, but still fun. I appreciate the end of this one, and can't wait to start the final book in the series.

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cocpop_reads's review against another edition

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challenging emotional tense 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

4.25

Ana and Famine are probably my favorite couple so far. I loved both of them and I’m glad we got some dual POV in this book.

Their relationship was heartbreaking, heartwarming and hysterical.

I think because these two probably have the darkest backstories, the banter between them was necessary. And I ate it up. Their dynamic made a lot of sense for both of them. And honestly I loved Ana falling in love with Famine when he was at his absolute worst. Because both of them were deprived of actual love and to see them give it to each other unconditionally was the best.

And I loved the way the book ended, definitely more of a cliffhanger than the previous two and a great setup for the final installment in the series.

2/5 on the spicy scale. Again I felt this was more innuendo than actually dirty sex scenes. Plus you don’t get any spice till 65% into the book. But I think this couple didn’t really need that for their relationship, theirs was emotional first and then physical.

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books_bunny's review against another edition

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adventurous dark funny tense medium-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

4.5

Similar to the previous instalments of this quartet there are content warnings for graphic torture, gore and death with multiple mentions of rape but nothing graphic. In this instalment there was also no animal cruelty or death which was a nice change of pace.

Ana da Silva originally saves the life of the third horseman of the apocalypse Famine. 5 years later they meet again in a new town where Ana is now working as a prostitute at "The Painted Angel". I adored the relationship between these 2 main characters; some of their one liners aimed at each other had me laughing out loud. I also liked the discussions of illnesses mentioned in this book particularly STD's and the risk of infection from untreated wounds. The discussion of STD's was especially appreciated as it is discussed before the first sexual encounter takes place. Due to Ana's job this is a discussion that should have taken place between 2 consenting adults and was nice to see represented instead of just pushing the subject under the rug with the excuse that he is a horseman of the apocalypse so it didn't need to be discussed.

Unfortunately, nothing about this book made me feel or think Brazil and if it hadn’t been explicitly stated that this was where this story is taking place then I would have had no idea. I also found that around the 50-75% mark the book dragged a bit. I found that it could have done with being a bit shorter as it started to get a repetitive with certain topics (both within Ana's thoughts and verbal/physical encounters). However, whilst I found this book repetitive in itself, I was thrilled to see that it didn't follow many of the patterns established in both Pestilence and War, instead finding its own plot points and character opinions.

I was relieved when it picked up again at the end, especially when the ending made a point of linking the book back to the overarching plot of the series which I sometimes forgot about in the previous 2. Additionally, due to all the discussion of Death in this book it has made me super excited to finish this series and pick up Death as soon as possible.

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