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.