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peacholino's review
- 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
Graphic: Abandonment, Violence, Self harm, Blood, and Gore
Moderate: Body horror, Fire/Fire injury, Physical abuse, Animal cruelty, Sexual assault, Animal death, and Cursing
thecatconstellation's review
- 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
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).
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
ladieswholunch's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Blood, Death, Self harm, Sexual content, Animal cruelty, War, Torture, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Cursing and Emotional abuse
spaceaviator's review
- 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
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.
Graphic: Body horror, Gore, and Mental illness
Moderate: Torture and Violence
Minor: Animal cruelty and Animal death
Part 1 and the Interlude are mostly quite nice with some conflict. Part 2 is where it starts to get more tense toward its second half (and exponentially so). You can read just Part 1 and the interlude and it will still feel like a complete story.seykv's review against another edition
- 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 sparse plot finds its tension in dramatic irony. Scattered throughout are indications of Lucifer's true nature.
Then Lucifer meets Michael. In many ways, their bond is the story's catalyst. It is equal parts heartwarming and heartbreaking.
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.
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.
He split the sea of golden threads, then crossed each river over one another, creating a pattern, weaving a braid.
[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
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.
Graphic: Body horror, Violence, Religious bigotry, Torture, Gore, Gaslighting, and Self harm
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Rape, Sexual assault, and Sexual content
Minor: Incest
ts_anne13's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Graphic: Self harm, Blood, Body shaming, Emotional abuse, Religious bigotry, Sexual content, Animal death, Body horror, and Homophobia
Minor: Rape
purrson's review
Graphic: Gaslighting, Grief, Blood, Body horror, and Emotional abuse
Moderate: Physical abuse, Bullying, Self harm, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual assault, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Animal death and Animal cruelty
bloodbrooxv's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Self harm, Body horror, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Animal death, Violence, and Emotional abuse
Moderate: Sexual violence and Sexual assault
Representation: gay main characters, POC main and side characterserosugar's review
- 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
Graphic: Murder, Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Genocide, War, Body horror, Blood, Physical abuse, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Torture, Grief, and Animal death
justno's review
- 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
Graphic: Abandonment, Animal death, Body horror, Body shaming, Blood, Death, Emotional abuse, and Gore