Pestilence is obviously not a man, he’s this thing, this being from someplace other, whose only job is to spread God’s message–his disappointment through Pestilence (both literally and figuratively). While their relationship was by no means healthy or loving (at least in the beginning), it was interesting. So, right away, you’re thinking how romantic! No? Me neither, because it gets way worse (she basically almost dies many times… although to be fair, not all of them were at the hands of Pestilence, but he definitely was culpable for most of them). After Sara attempts to–and technically does–kill Pestilence, he regenerates and instead of simply killing her, like he’s done with all the others, he decides to enslave her to teach her a lesson (what a meet-cute, right?). Pestilence also has a severe case of Stockholm syndrome, or at least Sara does. This was a pivotal characteristic to Pestilence throughout the book because while he is immortal and cannot be killed, he can still feel the pain of what is being done to him, which solidifies his belief in his cause and his distaste towards humankind. While Sara does achieve this (in a really horrific way, to say the least), she’s in for the shock of her life when it turns out Pestilence is immortal and regenerates after death (comes back to life) no matter what is done to him.

Obviously, the goal is for this person is to attempt to kill Pestilence. The story starts with Sara and her fellow first responder peers drawing sticks to see who has to stay behind to give everyone else in their town time to get away from Pestilence.

Morality and mortality were huge themes in Pestilence, which is kind of obvious since it is about the apocalypse. The dichotomy between this man who looks like Prince freaking Charming coming straight from a Disney fairytale but at will can make any person die from a horrible disease that has no cure is, of course, freaky but also quite intriguing. I loved the narration of Pestilence, and the description of Sara’s world and Pestilence. This was an intriguing book, but it was definitely not one that I like solely (or at all) because of the romance. Not that that was a surprise since the hero is Pestilence (this is the hero’s name as well btw), one of the four horsemen of the apocalypse. Pestilence is completely brutal and quite a savage conceptualization of an apocalyptic world. See Possible Triggers for Abuse and OTT sad parts.Does Not have a separation between the Hero and Heroine.

Does have the Hero and Heroine pushing away.

The four horsemen laura thalassa book 4