Reviews tagging 'Animal cruelty'

Angels Before Man by rafael nicolás

32 reviews

kristinajoy07's review

dark emotional reflective tense slow-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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Body horror, Emotional abuse, Gore, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Blood, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

purrson's review

I couldn’t finish this, at least for now. As Lucifer

recovers from being assaulted in Eden, and shields Michael (again) from how God harmed him, he encourages the angels to harm a bird he’s taken from Eden, to see how far they’ll go for his approval, Something about that scene, even though I read past it, stuck with me, and became too much. It’s how visceral Lucifer’s pain is, how he’s spiraling out of control, but still so intelligent and sensitive. It was too painful to read somehow. I wanted someone to tell Michael so that Lucifer would have someone truly on his side, all the way, I wanted Justice for him, but we know how this story ends.

It was all too sad for me, maybe a little too triggering. It’s a beautifully written book. Maybe I’ll come back to it at some point in the future. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Emotional abuse, Blood, Grief, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Bullying, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexual assault, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Animal cruelty and Animal death

erosugar's review

adventurous 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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Blood, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Torture, and Grief

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: 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

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

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, Gore, Rape, Sexual assault, Suicide, Violence, Vomit, Grief, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Gaslighting, and War

ashlislibrary's review

challenging dark emotional hopeful sad medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body shaming, Confinement, Death, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Grief, and Suicide attempt

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. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Gore, Sexual content, Violence, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Cursing, Incest, Self harm, Sexual assault, and Blood

blasphemy

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. 

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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

canopicfemme's review against another edition

5.0

adored everything about this book. you know exactly how the story is going to end but the book still manages to make you feel sadness at the way things played out, the writing was so wonderful.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Self harm, Torture, Violence, and Blood

Minor: Animal cruelty and Animal death

madscanread's review against another edition

dark emotional 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

The slow corruption of a pure, innocent angel to a hysterical, unstable beast spurred on by a cruel, jealous father. A book to make you hate god viscerally and while not making you love Lucifer, it at the very least makes you understand and mourn for him.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Emotional abuse, Gore, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, and Cannibalism

Moderate: Mental illness, Rape, Self harm, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and War

Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Confinement, Incest, Panic attacks/disorders, and Injury/Injury detail