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justno's review
dark
emotional
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
"I know what the Lord dressed me in and what He handed to me, and inside, I can feel the detail He put into me. And yet, still, I’m so lost. I only want to be useful to Him, but I don’t know how. I want to know what He made me for, so that I can fulfill my role and uphold His splendor, but I don’t know how. It’s devastating to me.”
I would like to preface my review by saying that I was raised Christian, and so my experience really shaped my perspective on this book.
"Angels Before Man" questions the unquestionable: Could God not be good? Could Lucifer have a reason to do all evil? and it completely destroys you, because as you see Lucifer descent into madness and as all of his actions become more and more destructive you both wish to see the inherently corrupt nature in them while at the same time coming up with explanations for all of his actions.
The prose of this book completely destroyed me, it made me feel things I have not felt before with a book (I have around 100 highlights on my Kindle, THAT'S how much I loved it) it painted both the beautiful and bright picture of paradise and also the grim and painful reality of suffering that came with Lucifer's fall.
"Lucifer, quietly, had asked if angels were also made in pairs. “Angels are perfect,” He’d replied, “they are whole, and they are eternal.” There was no need for them to devote themselves to anyone but their Father."
Lucifer and Michael's relationship is beautiful, there's a clear connection between them, an understanding, and a desire that's doomed from the start and even when everything was falling apart their love, or the remnants of it were the only thing still standing.
In my very personal experience I related to Lucifer sometimes, his questions were questions I have asked before, his anger I have felt, his confusion I understand. And in a way I also understand Michael, his duty and the truth that holds him down, no matter how much he loves Lucifer his existence is dependent only on God.
Also I read this during Holy Week, and while at church, which is a little funny in retrospect
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Body shaming, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Blood, and Abandonment
alicia_ann_reads's review
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
This was a book that made me feel things.
First, it's a queer retelling of Satan's (Lucifer) Falling, which I wasn't familiar with so did a quick google to discover it was mentioned in two books if the Bible.
I'm not a Bible follower, but I imagine that anyone who had any form of religious trauma in their life would find this book incredibly cathartic.
The prose was wonderful, the first half is the telling of Lucifer's life from birth, his struggles with being the centre of attention, the 'angel of beauty", his shame and lack of self confidence... Until he meets Michael, who slowly coaxes him out of that shell. You see a really slow burn romance.
The second half of the book takes that and shows Lucifer's fall, how his worship focus went from God to Michael and how God had punished, and from that punishment the seed and kernel of defiance and hatred grew, how Lucifer coined new terms, created Sin as God created...
It is graphic and gory, and really hard to read at times, but it was also powerful.
The negative aspects: Was a little long. Middle part dragged and in the second half saw an increase in internal dialogue; which in and if itself is not an issue but the way it was presented on page was really difficult to read.
You had internal dialogue between apostrophes butted next to external dialogue in quotes with no delineation; and multiple POVs back and forth on one page.. I had to read slowly.
First, it's a queer retelling of Satan's (Lucifer) Falling, which I wasn't familiar with so did a quick google to discover it was mentioned in two books if the Bible.
I'm not a Bible follower, but I imagine that anyone who had any form of religious trauma in their life would find this book incredibly cathartic.
The prose was wonderful, the first half is the telling of Lucifer's life from birth, his struggles with being the centre of attention, the 'angel of beauty", his shame and lack of self confidence... Until he meets Michael, who slowly coaxes him out of that shell. You see a really slow burn romance.
The second half of the book takes that and shows Lucifer's fall, how his worship focus went from God to Michael and how God had punished, and from that punishment the seed and kernel of defiance and hatred grew, how Lucifer coined new terms, created Sin as God created...
It is graphic and gory, and really hard to read at times, but it was also powerful.
The negative aspects: Was a little long. Middle part dragged and in the second half saw an increase in internal dialogue; which in and if itself is not an issue but the way it was presented on page was really difficult to read.
You had internal dialogue between apostrophes butted next to external dialogue in quotes with no delineation; and multiple POVs back and forth on one page.. I had to read slowly.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Body shaming, Emotional abuse, Gore, Hate crime, Homophobia, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Grief, Toxic friendship, and Alcohol
readingemm's review
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Emotional abuse, Gore, Self harm, Violence, Blood, Grief, and Abandonment
Moderate: Incest, Panic attacks/disorders, Rape, Blood, Suicide attempt, and Fire/Fire injury
random19379's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, Gore, Rape, Sexual assault, Suicide, Violence, Vomit, Grief, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Gaslighting, and War
words_from_the_void's review
dark
emotional
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Emotional abuse, Gore, Self harm, Sexual content, Violence, Murder, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Body horror, Rape, Sexual assault, and Alcohol
reellyfish's review against another edition
dark
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
I really enjoyed this book. However, I probably would not recommend this book if you’re christian/religious.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Gore, Sexual content, Violence, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Cursing, Incest, Self harm, Sexual assault, and Blood
blasphemybouncy_knight_reads's review
dark
emotional
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
A lil long but I enjoyed it and I enjoy a good slow burn both into love and into madness
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gore
cakeboxing's review
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
As horrifying as it is beautiful, as pleasurable as it is disturbing. This book had me totally, completely at its mercy.
"Art should comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable."
The writing style was unique. Most of the time, it was excellent and the prose elicited stronger emotional reactions from me than I would have thought. But I often found myself rereading passages multiple times to try and understand it, and came away forced to guess the implied meanings.
To me, the ending felt lacking, and a bit dissatisfying, but also leant true to the character of this version of God that had been built up in this book.
If you want a book that will mess with your mind, heart, and (Christian) religious beliefs, this is the one to reach for.
"Art should comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable."
The writing style was unique. Most of the time, it was excellent and the prose elicited stronger emotional reactions from me than I would have thought. But I often found myself rereading passages multiple times to try and understand it, and came away forced to guess the implied meanings.
To me, the ending felt lacking, and a bit dissatisfying, but also leant true to the character of this version of God that had been built up in this book.
If you want a book that will mess with your mind, heart, and (Christian) religious beliefs, this is the one to reach for.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, and Violence
Minor: Emotional abuse, Gore, Rape, Torture, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail
ambers's review
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
'Queer people writing about religion' is (or at least should be) a genre in and of itself, and that genre is hands down one of my fav. I am exactly the kind of audience who would go ape shit for 'Lucifer and Michael are in gay love, and God is the OG villain'. Unpredictably I devoured this book in one sitting.
And while I read this book for fun, it FEELS like something I would've read for an English course. I swear I mean that as a compliment. It's a book that invites you to analyze it, so spend more time thinking about it even after you've finished the final page. I did, and while I originally rated this 3.75 stars, I ultimately bumped it up to 4 after spending some more time with it.
Because there's CLEARLY so much love, care, and thought that the author put into this book, right down to the writing style itself. I wish the author had denoted thought/dialogue a little more smoothly, but otherwise I was fully along for the ride.
From the first half to the second, from the beginning to the end, the writing gets looser, more lush and poetic, and we're introduced to multiple POVs - fitting, as Lucifer's anger, pain, and God-complex all grow. It's essentially two books in one, each with a unique writing style that tells you something key about the lead's mental state, and that's incredibly impressive for a debut novel.
This book is, of course, a heavy one. I would advise anyone to check the trigger warnings before picking it up - but if you're in the right headspace for it, it's absolutely a worthwhile read.
And while I read this book for fun, it FEELS like something I would've read for an English course. I swear I mean that as a compliment. It's a book that invites you to analyze it, so spend more time thinking about it even after you've finished the final page. I did, and while I originally rated this 3.75 stars, I ultimately bumped it up to 4 after spending some more time with it.
Because there's CLEARLY so much love, care, and thought that the author put into this book, right down to the writing style itself. I wish the author had denoted thought/dialogue a little more smoothly, but otherwise I was fully along for the ride.
From the first half to the second, from the beginning to the end, the writing gets looser, more lush and poetic, and we're introduced to multiple POVs - fitting, as Lucifer's anger, pain, and God-complex all grow. It's essentially two books in one, each with a unique writing style that tells you something key about the lead's mental state, and that's incredibly impressive for a debut novel.
This book is, of course, a heavy one. I would advise anyone to check the trigger warnings before picking it up - but if you're in the right headspace for it, it's absolutely a worthwhile read.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Emotional abuse, Gore, Self harm, Torture, Violence, and Blood
Moderate: Sexual assault
discardeddustjacket's review
Although the story had a lot of promise, it wasn’t executed well in my opinion, and after a while I simply gave up trying to push through it.
The narrative is punctuated by these lengthy descriptions of events so abstract, you can’t even picture in your mind what is supposed to be going on. Entire pages will be made up of these nonsensical strings of bizarre imagery. I get that describing things like the creation of the universe is going to require a bit of imagination, but I think it can be done in a way that doesn’t leave the reader completely lost.
Also, the spoken dialogue between characters is often intertwined with their thoughts in such a way that becomes really confusing. Like: “quote” ‘thought’ “quote” ‘thought’ and it bounces around between characters so at times you’re like wait whose thoughts are these? Or you have to backtrack to double-check whether or not something was said out loud because after a while “ and ‘ start to look too similar.
I liked the idea, I just think it could’ve used another round of editing to shave down some of the unnecessary parts and make the rest easier to read.
The narrative is punctuated by these lengthy descriptions of events so abstract, you can’t even picture in your mind what is supposed to be going on. Entire pages will be made up of these nonsensical strings of bizarre imagery. I get that describing things like the creation of the universe is going to require a bit of imagination, but I think it can be done in a way that doesn’t leave the reader completely lost.
Also, the spoken dialogue between characters is often intertwined with their thoughts in such a way that becomes really confusing. Like: “quote” ‘thought’ “quote” ‘thought’ and it bounces around between characters so at times you’re like wait whose thoughts are these? Or you have to backtrack to double-check whether or not something was said out loud because after a while “ and ‘ start to look too similar.
I liked the idea, I just think it could’ve used another round of editing to shave down some of the unnecessary parts and make the rest easier to read.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gore, Self harm, and Blood