Reviews tagging 'Toxic relationship'

Angels Before Man by rafael nicolás

13 reviews

ina_pages's review

dark emotional sad 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

4.75

I’d give this 5 stars if not for very minor grammar issues that I believe were addressed in the rewrite. I hope to get my hands on that since I also heard that new scenes were added to it.

This book pulled me out of a reading slump that lasted MONTHS. Rafael’s masterful prose will have you gripped from start to finish and will have you falling in love with characters literally against your own will. It was heartbreaking enough to read about a character you knew was doomed from the start, but this book makes you feel so much for Lucifer that watching his decent from grace was just that much worse.

Highly recommend this book to anyone who’s interested. The author lists down a set of trigger warnings at the start but they are only really applicable in the second half of the book. 

If you want a feel good, slow burn, romance-y book then maybe pick this up and just stop after part one (like skip the interlude even) but if you have the headspace for it part two is an intense rollercoaster ride of emotions.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Religious bigotry

Moderate: Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Blood, Fire/Fire injury, Incest, Mental illness, Violence, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Suicidal thoughts, War, Torture, Grief, Physical abuse, Suicide attempt, Murder, Sexual content, and Self harm

Minor: Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, Homophobia, Sexual assault, and Sexual harassment

grandma_beth's review

dark emotional sad 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Mental illness, Gore, Physical abuse, Violence, and Torture

Moderate: Sexual assault and Toxic relationship

Minor: Animal death

theminnesotawitch's review

dark emotional mysterious sad 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

5.0

A book that blew me away. The prose is beautiful, and the style changes as the protagonist becomes more obsessed with himself. A queer retelling of the fall of angels.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Torture, Death, Self harm, Toxic friendship, Sexual violence, Grief, Toxic relationship, Murder, Emotional abuse, Sexual content, Violence, and War

okays1331's review

dark emotional tense medium-paced

3.75

The author warns of all the graphic triggers in here and it is no joke. The wirld building and characterizations anre really well done and the story is horrific. 

It’s marked as a queer retelling of the fall of Lucifer. I don’t think that is central to the story. The characters are man-shaped but so is everyone. There is no real romance, the tender feelings of the two central characters tip over into obsession immediately. Sexual content is almost all violent and violating. 

Note: Sometimes difficult to read because of the way the author chose to format dialogue. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Toxic relationship, Physical abuse, Gore, Body horror, Violence, Sexual content, Toxic friendship, Sexual violence, Death, Blood, Torture, Sexual assault, Rape, Incest, Self harm, Injury/Injury detail, and Gaslighting

a_crow_in_the_sky's review

challenging slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcohol, Body horror, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Sexual assault, Blood, Murder, and Suicide attempt

thecatconstellation's review

dark sad slow-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

3.75

There are some beautiful parts of this book. There are some tender moments I found very moving. There is also a deeply unsatisfying ending that is delivered at twice the speed of the rest of the book. I think a follow up book is coming, which I will definitely read. I just had some issues with pacing and clarity behind some of the choices that were made by the characters. Hopefully that gets fleshed out. 

I will say - if you have religious trauma, please do a LOT of research before deciding to read this book. It was pretty triggering for me. 

Also - I would not label this as a romance and only a portion is cozy - the rest is quite intense and at times difficult to read (trauma, gore). 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Blood, Violence, Sexual assault, and Rape

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Injury/Injury detail, Self harm, Animal death, Gore, Grief, Sexual content, Torture, Toxic relationship, and Alcohol

ess_x's review

dark emotional sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, and Emotional abuse

erco's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm, Rape, Physical abuse, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Cursing

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. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic friendship, Violence, Animal death, Hate crime, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Blood, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexual content, Body horror, Body shaming, Emotional abuse, Gore, Grief, Homophobia, Mental illness, Sexual assault, and Toxic relationship

sapphicbookfae's review

adventurous dark emotional sad 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

4.0

this book made me go through a SERIES of emotions! and i enjoyed that

i really loved the sweet moments between the angels and my heart ached because of the heavenly emphasis on purity and obedience as goodness. these concepts are used so easily to control loved ones at times in a manipulative manner. and of course Lucifer's flawed but he went through so much and it's hard for me to hate this version of him

i will say that i hoped for a redeeming ending DESPITE the occurrences of coercive obedience, lack of autonomy, emotional and sexual abuse from those in positions of power. i think this book tells an "ugly" story quite beautifully and demonstrates the extremes that the above occurrences can lead to. the ending chapters did feel rushed to me and i was left wanting to know more about certain characters (maybe intentionally)

definitely give this book a read if you have religious trauma (LMAO) like me and maybe struggle with being honest about your queerness with your catholic religious family members... you get the extreme perspectives 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence

Moderate: Sexual assault, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Animal death, Violence, and Cursing

Minor: Alcohol