Reviews with content warning for Body horror - Angels Before Man

Reviews tagging 'Body horror'

Angels Before Man by rafael nicolás

57 reviews

violetlunablossom's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective medium-paced

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

5.0

I genuinely have no words to describe how much I loved Angels Before Man. Never before have I read a book that was so raw and profound. Rafael Nicolás is a poetic genius who wove together an intimate story of love, betrayal, and religious trauma. He brings the energy that needed to be present when it came to writing a queer retelling of Satan's fall and I couldn't be more amazed that this was his debut novel.

Lucifer was an extremely compelling protagonist. His transformation from a wide-eyed, vibrant newborn angel to a vengeful, unhinged dissident was tragic and seamless. It all reads like someone who fell out of love with religion (and God), wrestling with feelings of guilt, anger, and overwhelming sorrow while everyone else around you seems normal. Michael, Asmodeus, and Rosier were also wonderfully engrossing supporting characters. Their unique relationships with Lucifer (Michael especially because good God was I hurting by the end) were what made this book in my opinion.

The way that heaven and its hierarchy of angels are portrayed additionally made this whole book for me. Angels have their purposes and tasks and they're not all copy + paste personalities. They're beautiful, nearly androgynous beings, who dress in fine silks and jewels but also enjoy watching violent and frenzied battles in a giant colosseum. Also side note, kudos to Nicolás for not making all his angels white. It's a small detail but reading about angels who have a variety of skin tones has never made me more happy.

Content Warnings

nerdyspinster's review

Go to review page

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

5.0

Content Warnings

reila's review

Go to review page

challenging dark slow-paced

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

4.75

Content Warnings

minayana's review

Go to review page

challenging dark emotional sad 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

This was an amazing book. In part 1, we have the creation of Lucifer and how he learns to be an angel and build community. In part 2, we have the beginning of the end, with God becoming jealous and enraged by Lucifer’s love not only for Michael, but for his self love. I absolutely adored this book, and in my heart it’s a 5 star, but objectively, the last 25% did not live up to the rest of the book. My issue was the random stream of consciousness like writing. It seemed like the author was trying to evoke that feeling during movies where there are rapid fire screen changes during tense moments, with flash backs or imagery that hint at symbolism. It was very jarring and took me out of the story, and once I was back in, it would happen again. I understand what the author was doing, but it did not feel necessary or natural to the book as we already had such an amazing look into Lucifer’s mind. There were some punctuation issues as well, but that doesn’t really bother me. I absolutely plan on buying the revised edition at some point this year and rereading! I adored Lucifer and Michael, and Lucifer’s journey broke my heart. I cried multiple times lol. I cried before anything sad even happened cause I was scared for it to come lol.

Please check trigger warnings before starting the book!

Content Warnings

grandma_beth's review

Go to review page

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

Content Warnings

brinipor's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark emotional 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? It's complicated

5.0

I didn't realize I needed this gay Bible fanfiction, but I did! This was as endearing and lovely as it was devastating and heartbreaking. Watching Lucifer come into himself only to be rejected for something as simple as loving another was a story I will be thinking about for a long time.

Content Warnings

okays1331's review

Go to review page

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.

Content Warnings

mpbookreviews's review

Go to review page

dark emotional 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

Content Warnings

a_crow_in_the_sky's review

Go to review page

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

Content Warnings

osladek's review

Go to review page

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”

Content Warnings

More...