This book is a fast and easy read. If you like light hearted and comedic style horror books then this is for you. I'm giving three stars because the characters could have had more depth and the plot could've been developed more. I did enjoy reading it though.

Being a fan of dark humour and the three greats Gaimen, Pratchett and Aaronovitch I thought that this is the book for me. Boy what a disappointment. The premise Emma and John don't quite die and find themselves working for Death's assistants. There are a few good one liners but the book that promised so much left me feeling flat.
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC in return for giving an honest review.

A tepid attempt at copying a conceptual style to try and milk the nostalgia it might evoke in others, from what I can tell. Sloppiness in the narrative that an editor might have caught is plain, and the concept is muddled at best.

I was very, excited to read this book! I love comic fantasy and the premise and blurb gave me PTerry vibes. It’s always fun to see new takes on death.
Unfortunately, the writing style wasn’t really for me. I found myself distracted by the descriptive style - it was just a bit too expository for my taste. The author also used switching perspectives, but in a way that I found confusing - the two protagonists’ perspectives were interchanged without warning or notice. There are tons of creative concepts here, and I wish I had enjoyed it more for them!

This was a beautiful satirical piece, made better by the fact that it was set primarily in Liverpool which meant I could really see the streets and locations. I loved the characters and the dry humour.

When Emma and Mark almost die but don’t quite, they end up having to reap souls for Death. I think this premise had a lot of promise but it took a bit too long to get to the main plot. I also wish it had some more humor based on the synopsis.

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get into this book and DNF'd at about 30%. The writing style was fine, the story just didn't grab me the way I'd hoped.

I thought this sounded quirky, and I was looking forward to reading it. Maybe it was too different for me, because I didn't enjoy it. Sorry, hope others like it more.

This is a fun and heart warming read. Of course the characters being from my home city helped a lot. I enjoyed the references to places I frequent a lot. This book managed to deal with some heavy emotions and issues whilst putting it in a more light hearted way.

With irreverent tones reminiscent of Terry Pratchett, Neil Gaiman and Christopher Moore, this was a decent read and fairly well-balanced with dark humour and more serious notes.
I found the two main characters a little irritating, particularly Mark, but some of the side-characters brought some additional depth. Some of the one-liners felt a bit stilted and over-the-top.
Pacing-wise, I found the second half of this book more enjoyable with a good twist.
While enjoyable, sadly I don't think this quite lives up to the authors cited earlier.

Thank you NetGalley and Balkon Media for the ARC of the book in exchange for an honest review.

The Fifth Horseman tells us the story of Emma, unhappy with how her life has turned out, and Mark, her flatmate. After a not so successful attempt to end it all, Emma and Mark are faced with the reality that comes once one ceses to exist. However, not being alive is not what either characters had in mind. With a mix of ancient Greece and Christianity, Jon Smith explores what happens after life through the main characters, their relationship and the new setting they find themselves in.

After reading the book, I can only say that it was not what I was expecting. The story left me wanting more, and sadly, I read the last few chapters out of the desire to finish the book. Although there is some comedy, it is often a one off, and there seem to be plot lines that do not really contribute to the main plot.

It may well be that I am not the intended audience for this book, or simply that my expectations had mislead me to believe the book to be different. Nevertheless, I would still recommend this book to people who like pondering about the afterlife and like comedy sprinkled in with the inevitable sense of existential dread.

Thank you for the opportunity to read this book and give my opinion of it.
I was surprised at how much I enjoyed this book. It was a very easy read. The humour is on the darker side but not to the extent it’s distasteful. I found myself laughing as the characters were reacting and saying things I know I would be thinking myself.

This book also didn’t shy away for the harder realities of death and I felt it dealt with these with a good balance of humour and empathy.

5 stars from me and I would happily recommend this book to family and friends.

When Mark and Emma don't quite die, they find themselves being trained to be Death's assistants.
Described as a dark comedy, unfortunately I found the story fell flat for me and I struggled to see the comedy within. The book itself was well enough written but I did not particularly like it.

Wow, this was so far from what I had expected. I was hooked by this novel being for fans of Gaiman, Pratchett and Aaronovitch, but wasn't convinced.

There were some comedic scenes and funny one-liners, but overall I thought it just didn't hold up to the works of the three authors mentioned above.

The Fifth Horseman by Jon Smith follows Emma, who is fed up life, and decides that chucking herself off of a building is definitely the way to go. And then we get fucking Mark. Her flat mate. Also standing on top of this building trying to convince her to rethink her decisions and maybe being like "Don't do it I love you!!" which who does that?! Mark falls from the building on accident... and Emma definitely made the jump. Instead of hitting the sidewalk, the pair get picked up by Death... on a horse because he is cool like that.

Their hourglass froze, with just enough life in those final moments. They are now literally caught between life and death, and Death has no freaking idea what to do with them. Naturally he takes them to limbo, and makes them his apprentices.

I love that Death was living his best afterlife in his cottage by the River Styx, and that he was pretty much living in nostalgia of the past. How does death become to old to do his job? He was definitely getting too old for this shit. Jon Smith did a great job finding humor in death, and creating a fun and imaginative world. it has been a whole mess of fun. The cover drew me in, but the humor kept me reading.

The book is a wonderfully fun read. It tackles some darker themes such as death, suicide and the growing hold that greed has over society as a whole. However it takes them on in a light hearted way that supplies plenty of laughs without losing the message along the way.

The book is written in a lovely tone that flows and is extremely easy to read, and before you know it you have devoured chapter after chapter! It also has a nice cast of characters, the great banter between Emma and Mark, the 2 main characters, the cantankerous old Death and his lovely and charming assistant Veronique, are all great additions that makes it a really nice read!

I am a sucker for Death being personified and turned into a character, especially one that subverts the standard expectations in some way and humanises him.

If you love Jasper affords, you’ll love Jon Smith. This book is equal parts dark comedy and fantasy fiction, with plenty of the absurd thrown in for good measure. You’ll be taken on a journey of blended fiction, myth, and English life, and enjoy every minute of it. I’d definitely recommend this read

Death is just a day job you can’t quit…
The Fifth Horseman by Jon Smith is a short and swift comic fantasy. The whole story starts with an absurd situation when both of the main characters kill themself. One accidentally, one purposely.
The Humour side of the book is based on the absurdity of everything. The Death is a grumpy skeleton and everything in his house are things that lost their purpose like old failed brands (mostly from the 80s - I hope so). The War is a woman and I liked it.
This book is not for everyone. You need to have a mood for something absurd, short, and a little bit weird.
I will rate it with 3*because I did not form an attachment to characters. Sometimes it felt too absurd to me. It was my first "humor" fantasy book and it seems that this genre is not for me.

Ever read a book and think "well. It's a book." That's The Fifth Horseman. I can honestly say I've never read a book like it, and I can honestly say I wish I hadn't. My forehead hurts from furrowing my brows in a perpetual "WTF?" expression. I don't know if it was the British sitcom humor, the plotless anecdotes of the reaped, or the unearned and unreasonable ending - but none of it felt like a worthwhile way to spend my time. I nearly dnf-ed but the story is short enough I played it out. That was the wrong choice. At no point does the absurdity coalesce into a meaningful story. I may just 100% be the wrong audience, but I cannot recommend this book to any reader I know.

**Thank you NetGalley and Balkon Media for the eARC**

3.5 flying pony stars
I love comic fantasy, but Terry Pratchett set the bar really high and Mort is one of my favorite books. You can really feel his influence in this book and it makes it really difficult not to compare.
Overall it's a fun book and I enjoyed the humor and all of the characters. Emma and Mark both felt real and complicated. The reaping chapters could have been shorter and go lighter on some of the pseudo-phylosophical tirades. On the contrary I would have liked more of Veronique. She's a main character of the book and we don't know that much about her in the end. She feels a bit underdeveloped.
I didn't see the big twist coming and really enjoyed the last 25% of the book (except the romance part - ironically).