I begrudgingly rather liked this one. Death is very cool, Lazarus is... meh.

The writing is serviceable. Somehow, Thalassa made this very relatable despite being a novel about the apocalypse. AND YET, I wanted more. I fully believe Thalassa could have made me contemplate so much about humanity with both Death and Lazarus, and yet she almost held back, depending more on tropes and less on the potential for sections of more interesting prose. Overall, still a good read.

I liked Lazarus. She was much different than Miriam, Sara, and Ana, even if only in her ability to defy death – both literally and figuratively. I liked how her voice came through differently than with the other two. Death, on the other hand, felt fascinating for the first half of the book, and then he fell into a rut where he really just seemed like another carbon-copy Horseman. I feel like there was so much potential with him, and I’m a little disappointed it wasn’t used, even if the outcome was still enjoyable.

I wish I could pull this book in two and rate each half. The first half of this book was so fascinating – and so different from the others. I wanted a bit more from this section, and would have loved to see Thalassa push this section as far as it could go. I liked the two chasing each other, slowly coming to look forward to seeing the other person. And then, when Lazarus meets Death’s brothers, it would have been much more interesting to keep Laz with them for longer, or to tease out this section in a new one. I feel like there was so much potential for more, and I felt a bit disappointed those choices weren’t followed. However, I do appreciate that this plot (at least for the first half) varied from the plots in books one, two, and three of this series. 

Death, murder, sexual content, physical abuse, emotional abuse, kidnapping, gore, blood, injury, injury detail, violence, torture, grief, body horror, alcohol, cursing, child death, illness, medical content, medical trauma, pandemic/epidemic, suicide, suicide attempt, suicidal thoughts, sexism, misogyny, vomit, pregnancy

A good end to the series. 

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?

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.