Famine by Laura Thalassa

Sixteen years after the Four Horsemen were first spotted on earth, after Pestilence and War gave up their purpose and their immortality for love, their brother Famine makes his first appearance. The story begins eight years after Famine is brought to life, making his reign of human slaughter the longest so far. War was right when he warned Miriam that Famine was amongst the worst of them, and he becomes even more inclined to kill after he experiences some of the worst of humanity.

The way Famine makes his way around the world fulfilling his duty is somewhere in between the methods we saw from War and Pestilence. Sometimes he is a lone rider, sometimes he has a small gang of men with him. He seems to not only truly enjoy killing but in being unpredictable. By the time he encounters Ana, a Brazilian prostitute who he takes captive, he has made his way around almost the entire planet, something his brothers never even got close to accomplishing. He has not only been destroying crops in order to starve humans to death, he has been finding great joy in killing people immediately, by either crushing them with plants, or having his followers stab them and throw them into pits or piles where they are either buried or burned. 

Knowing that there is one more book to follow, I don’t think I need to tell you that Famine changes his ways for Ana. And tying into that, I was correct about the angelic sign. Ana did something that made Famine believe that she was meant to be spared in the moment, but ultimately it was her kind nature that made him decide to stop killing. In doing so, he was convinced to give humanity one chance to change his mind, stating that he would decide whether or not he would continue his purpose at the end of her life. But when he takes a moment to consider what his life might be like when Ana dies, he decides that he does not want to know, he does not want to exist without her. He decides that he too, like his brothers before him, wants to become mortal so that he may grow old with his love and die when she does. This decision triggers the birth of Death and it makes the end of this novel so exciting! We get to see Death in action before his dedicated book. And all I could think of during these last few pages was how will any woman be able to make Death love her? He truly seems not only the worst of the four, but worse than the other three horsemen combined. I am not sure if this story will even involve a love interest for Death, the end made it feel like things might go in a different direction, but I won’t spoil it for you. I really need to see what happens. I am very motivated to start reading Death so you can expect a review of the final book in this series next week along with my overall thoughts.