Reviews with content warning for Animal cruelty - Angels Before Man

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Angels Before Man by rafael nicolás

32 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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axel_p's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional inspiring reflective sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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osladek's review

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dark emotional tense slow-paced

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

3.0

This was an interesting read. Although much of it was beautifully written, there is no plot for the entire beginning of the book and it took me a month to finish a 360 page book that would normally take me a week. I think the idea and the prose was there for a fantastic Satan retelling, however I was incredibly confused by the choice to make Lucifer the most timid and sweet angel and then end

with him committing horrific violent acts on fellow angels. Although it fit the character progression, it was extremely hard to believe where the character starts to where he ends I believe a better ending would be the character realizing that there are things outside of God’s “rules” that aren’t immoral instead of becoming incredibly violent and disgusting. Or simply starting the character a little less sweet.

Also the grammar of this book needed an editor badly. I kept having to reread sentences because they were missing a conjunction or ending word. This might’ve been a stylistic choice but it made it difficult to read and make sense of. Also the romance was an interesting plot point. I thought it would be more fleshed out but it felt like the entire book built to it and fell off at the end. I did however find a lot of quotes I enjoyed:

“is father good because he is good or is father good because he says he is good?”

“because the angels had only known obedience to be goodness, they did as they were told”

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sophiasoler's review

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dark emotional medium-paced

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

5.0

i wish i had the words to describe this book. lucifer’s internal conflict was difficult to read and so familiar. he was created to be a servant and was punished for his very birth. it is such a crime to be human. to be of flesh and blood. to be breakable, fragile, and unworthy. to be human is to be searching for meaning and something in this large abyss and to learn that there is nothing. even the one created you, who forced you into this world, does not want you as you are. to be human is to try and change everything about yourself and to be cursed with the knowledge that it will never be enough. this was such a beautiful and eloquent expression of humanity and its complexities in the form of lucifer’s fall. i wish i could reread it tenderly as if i had never read it before, and re-experience everything over and over again. this was very cruel, and i think i will read anything rafael nicholás writes.

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peacholino's review

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adventurous dark emotional inspiring lighthearted sad 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

3.0

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thecatconstellation's review

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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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ladieswholunch's review

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challenging dark emotional slow-paced

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

4.75

Brilliant, actually! I’ll be thinking about this one for a while.

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spaceaviator's review

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dark lighthearted tense slow-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

I really liked this book.
Some of the violence in Part 2 became a bit intense and made me feel uneasy. That said, knowing how the story comes together and ends, makes me more okay with it.
Nicolás’s writing style is what really made it for me. The way narration changed as Lucifer did, as well as the way he writes thoughts and intertwines separate scenes as one. It feels like there’s so many layers to explore in his writing, but it’s also intuitive to follow.
This was a very unique book and one I would read again some day.

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liebert's review

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dark emotional inspiring reflective 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

5.0

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seykv's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective 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

5.0

I remember when you were created, Lucifer. I saw how our Father sewed you from coppers, how He handled you when you were settings of gold. He embroidered a nose on you, a sweet mouth on you, then the outline for a pair of eyes before He placed suns there. He sculpted your face with wet clay; He opened you like a mandarin and planted a garden of budding flowers inside. He weaved your hair, I think, from the streaks of three bursting stars, and from your wings out of four wandering crescent moons. Your hips came from the tides of a sea, and then He carved your hands and feet from marble and pearls. I watched Him breathe life into you, then cradle you as if you were His first angel. He placed you into a fire cut into the air, and He let you simmer there.

Wow. Just wow. More people need to read this book.

Angels Before Man follows Lucifer's transformation from God's favorite, an angel too shy to glance at his reflection, to the Devil we all know (and love!). This novel is a masterfully crafted character study told through prose as ethereal as its setting. Highlighting the unsavory aspects of Christianity, Lucifer's tragic descent feels not just believable, but inevitable.

Lucifer seems like the perfect angel in the beginning: beautiful, humble, and--most importantly--obedient. He endeared me from his first stuttering words. The novel starts as a fluffy slice-of-life following Lucifer’s early years in paradise. He coos at flowers. He cuddles a colorful cast of characters. He finds a role serving his beloved God. Lucifer loves Heaven, and it loves him.

The entire universe sprawled before him but peppering his cheeks with enough warm kisses to make him laugh.

The sparse plot finds its tension in dramatic irony. Scattered throughout are indications of Lucifer's true nature.

God creates Lucifer as "the Beast," burdened with awareness and thus shame that separate him from other angels. One of my favorite scenes depicts a young Lucifer struggling with his latent sexuality in the bathhouse. He alone scrambles to cover himself. For a reason he does not know, he cannot stop staring at his naked brothers.

Then Lucifer meets Michael. In many ways, their bond is the story's catalyst. It is equal parts heartwarming and heartbreaking.

Michael is everything Lucifer wishes he could be. Michael is God's all-important archangel. He is proud of his strength. He has no shame. And unlike other angels, he encourages Lucifer to adopt these same qualities. In Michael, Lucifer finds acceptance of himself and joy outside of God. Their relationship germinates the seeds of his rebellion. But Michael does not witness God's crimes; he cannot understand the movement he inspired or its leader, the angel he still loves. The novel describes his last act: "Michael, between them all, his tears morphing into crystals, slicing down his cheeks and making him bleed."

Lucifer's innocence seeps away one page, one conversation, one betrayal at a time. The angel Lucifer and the demon Lucifer are as different as could be. Yet there were no moments when I felt he suddenly broke character. There were, however, moments when I felt like a frog that saw the boiling of slowly heated water at last. Lucifer would commit some act that would horrify his younger self, and I would then realize that Lucifer had not blushed, bowed, or cried for a number of chapters--he had become so distant but taken such small steps that I took no notice.

The novel uses Lucifer's fall to explore themes of shame and freedom. These are placed within the context of organized religion, but anyone who has felt at odds with inane higher authority can relate to them.

The main conflict occurs because Lucifer cannot conform to his society's standards. God expects his angels to be humble and subservient, but Lucifer becomes unafraid to wield his beauty for himself. God says angels are complete beings born to worship Him, but Lucifer loves Michael as if they were two halves of one whole:"I don't want to be complete; I'd rather be split and become full with you."

Lucifer dares to question God for giving him life--then shaming him for loving it more than Him. For these sins, God punishes him.

Lucifer passes from disobedience into full-blown rebellion. He gains a hatred of the weakness in Heaven that gives God power and excuses His crimes. It applies to angels who serve God, angels who serve him, and even himself. In one memorable scene, he imagines defiling and murdering his innocent young self. He wants to shape Heaven to his libertine beliefs.

Lucifer does not, of course, succeed in that. God is all-powerful. Perhaps He even planned for Lucifer's rebellion. (Why else would He let Lucifer enact so much violence before stopping him? Why else would He encourage Lucifer to use his body by taking his voice?) But the novel makes clear that God does not win, and Lucifer does not lose. Lucifer does create a new order. While the angels who remain in Heaven now fear the lonely God, the demons who fall to Earth still love Lucifer--because they are the only ones free to love whoever they want.

All this is accentuated through beautiful and imaginative prose. The author paints the story through otherworldly metaphors that are right at home in Heaven.

One angel's eyes are described as such:

His irises were bustling rivers, housing a million fish circling abysses of pupils.

This depicts the simple act of fixing hair:

He split the sea of golden threads, then crossed each river over one another, creating a pattern, weaving a braid.

Even a bruised and bleeding face is made poetic:

[The face] belonged to someone who'd been invaded by red cherries, blackberries, blueberries, a conglomerate of them bursting from his skin.

However, there are times when the prose is... experimental

(especially as Lucifer's mental state degrades)

. The point of view can switch back and forth then back again in the middle of a sentence. At times I had to read a conversation more than once to tell whose thoughts are whose. Certain passages are written without proper capitalization or punctuation to convey a character's frenzy--but more often than not, they are just difficult to read. These are my biggest, maybe only, problems with the novel.

The ending is satisfying enough that the novel can serve as a standalone. However, after seeing (stalking from top to bottom) the author's Tumblr, I have seen that two more entries are planned for this narrative. They will center Azazel and Dina and cover the Flood and Armageddon. I am sure they will be of similar quality to Angels Before Man, which has quickly become one of my favorite novels.

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