Review: Death by Laura Thalassa

Death
(The Four Horsemen #4)
by Laura Thalassa
Publisher: Lavabrook Publishing
Publication date: Nov. 9, 2021
Genre: Dark Fantasy Romance
Rating:

They came to earth–Pestilence, War, Famine, Death–four horsemen riding their screaming steeds, racing to the corners of the world. Four horsemen with the power to destroy all of humanity. They came to earth, and they came to end us all.

He’s known by many names: Thanatos. Horseman. God’s last angel. And then, of course, there’s the one I’m all too familiar with—

Death.

The day Death comes to Lazarus Gaumond’s town and kills everyone in one fell swoop, the last thing he expects to see is a woman left alive and standing. But Lazarus has her own extraordinary gift: she cannot be killed—not by humans, not by the elements, not by Death himself.

She is the one soul Death doesn’t recognize. The one soul he cannot pry free from her flesh. Nor can he ignore the unsettling desire he has for her. Take her. He wants to, desperately. And the longer she tries to stop him from his killing spree, the stronger the desire becomes.

When Lazarus crosses paths with the three other horsemen, an unthinkable situation leads to a terrible deal: seduce Death, save the world. A hopeless task, made all the worse by the bad blood between her and Thanatos. But Death’s attraction to her is undeniable, and try though she might, Lazarus cannot stay away from that ancient, beautiful being and his dark embrace.

The end is here. Humankind is set to perish, and not even the horsemen can stop Death from fulfilling his final task.

I have loved this series. It’s been so dark and twisted, and darn near impossible to put down. I was sure that Death’s was going to be the same. However, it just didn’t work for me. It was too mild and ho-hum for me. Death doesn’t WANT to kill people. He doesn’t really like the job of ferrying people to the afterlife, but it’s his job. So instead of relishing his task, he just immediately kills people before. Like, one moment they are talking and living their life, and the next they are dead. No suffering, no forboding, just *POOF* gone. I felt kind of cheated, honestly.

Lazarus is some sort of immortal that was created by god to be Death’s equal. She cannot die, just like the Four Horsemen. Honestly, it’s never fully explained and the reader is just supposed to accept this. So, with her being immortal, she makes it her mission to stop Death. So rides to all the big cities before he gets there to warn the people. Only, they never seem to believe her… which results in their death. Unbeknownst to her, Death has been tracking her the entire time. He knows that she cannot die, and therefor wants her by his side while he lays judgment to humanity. It gets to a point where Lazarus decides to seduce Death into saving humanity. Which as you can guess, means that she also falls in love with him and has a hard time coming to terms with who he is.

While I liked the different aspect the author took with Death not relishing in his duty like the other horsemen, I do wish for more shock factor. I just felt like, when compared to the other books in the series, this one was more of a fluff read. I didn’t feel outraged. There was no immediate dislike of Death and then a small warm up towards him. In all honesty, I felt nothing for him or Lazarus. This could have been a completely different series that was written by someone else. I just didn’t feel that same connection that I did with the previous books.

Considering this is the last book in the series, I’m a little disappointed. I wish it had the same grittiness as the previous books. I wanted that horrifying feeling of the world ending. Instead I just got a romance with Death, and that’s not what I signed up for with this series.

Previous reviews from The Four Horsemen
Pestilence
War
Famine