Scan barcode
breannenance's review
2.0
This book was okay. I was recommended to read this book by a friend but I really couldn’t stand the monologue voice of Lucifer and I really disliked that he would Interrupt the plot to talk about a very long back story, it would be so long that I would forget where we were in the present day plot. DNF
bahoulie's review
3.0
I thought I was really going to like this book, and many parts of it I did, but the awful descriptions of torture and especially violence against women was too much for me.
rocketiza's review
4.0
Really enjoyed the creativity shown in this novel, and its depth in not just going for a laugh but actually talking some interesting larger issues about the Devil's role in religion and such.
Edit - Not as fun as the second read, ended up being a bit of slog in parts.
Edit - Not as fun as the second read, ended up being a bit of slog in parts.
absoluteturkey's review
4.0
Great writing and some delightful wit. This passage is one of my favourites from the book:
“I noticed how utterly indifferent the passengers were to what they were doing, namely, flying through the air. A glance out of the window would have revealed furrowed fields of cloud stained smoke-blue and violet as night and morning changed shifts – but how were they passing time in First, Business and Coach? Crosswords. In-flight movies. Computer games. E-mail. Creation sprawls like a dewed and willing maiden outside your window awaiting only the lechery of your senses – and what do you do? Complain about the dwarf cutlery. Plug your ears. Blind you eyes. Discuss Julia Roberts’s hair. Ah, me. Sometimes I think my work is done.”
“I noticed how utterly indifferent the passengers were to what they were doing, namely, flying through the air. A glance out of the window would have revealed furrowed fields of cloud stained smoke-blue and violet as night and morning changed shifts – but how were they passing time in First, Business and Coach? Crosswords. In-flight movies. Computer games. E-mail. Creation sprawls like a dewed and willing maiden outside your window awaiting only the lechery of your senses – and what do you do? Complain about the dwarf cutlery. Plug your ears. Blind you eyes. Discuss Julia Roberts’s hair. Ah, me. Sometimes I think my work is done.”
the_spicy_unicorn's review
Very hard to read. Time jumps around without any sort of explanation as to when and were the MCs mind goes. Context clues are difficult to distinguish when back to the present. Had to reread several pages to figure out what just happened. Although it has an interesting plot idea from what little I could gather
elodiethefangirl's review
dark
funny
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror
shonaningyo's review
3.0
Glen Duncan seems to have a trademark or niche as a writer: That is, he takes everyday life and translates it through the eyes of a seen-it-all, nothing-new-under-the-sun, trope-and-cliche-detecting, jaded realist. In healthy amounts it is refreshing and humorous in a sardonic, wry smile and worldly kind of way, but when overdosed leaves the reader with mixed feelings of eye-rolling induced boredom and impatience, along with a sense of apathy, the kind only reserved for a book that has passed its mark.
I, Lucifer at the beginning claims to "tell all", but then backtracks himself to consider whether or not to "tell all" to his readers. By the end of this book I should've known that that tiny moment of author ADD/ADHD would only lead me down the road to the sense of reader-unfulfillment and suicide-worthy thinking along the lines of "where is this leading me? What's the point of going on? Is there a God? Does he truly care that I'm suffering by reading this? Is this all his plan? Leading me astray with this book to prove that nothing in this world has meaning, and that even the most sensible- and sound-looking books offering a disenchanted look at current mortal life are just meaningless and string-tied paragraphs caught together in a measly 'book'?"
But let's move on..
At first I was challenged intellectually by the poetic and fanciful and technical language Duncan used. As Lucifer, someone who, according to stories, was basically there when God made angels, and his descent into Hell was due to him being too full of pride and not willing to serve the loving Creator who made him. All this time would undoubtedly give him the Realistic philosophy of thinking and "living" that was popularized in the mid-1900s in Europe, which rivaled the rose-colored glasses that Romanticists wore during a previous period.
This "tell-all" book steers us all over the place in a twisting and slightly confusing tale narrated by Lucifer as he possesses a recently vacated body of a certain Glen Duncan. What unfolds are the bittersweet and irritatingly cute musings of the omnipresent, omnisexual, snarky, crass, manipulative, and arrogant being known by all Christians as simply Satan.
At first I was very into this book. Lucifer is British in this book, by the way, which explains the author's subtle hints that Lucifer may be a teensy bit gay. But even then, Lucifer is not gay. When you're a supreme being such as him, sexuality isn't an issue. It's simply: When is the last time you've f*cked someone, and how was it?
I wish real life was more like that... British men--perhaps Europeans in general who are not caught in the iron-fisted dogmatic grip that is contemporary religion-- are more comfortable with their fellow man, and I respect that, British people. I respect that. Unnecessary homophobia is in bad taste, it truly is. It makes American guys look like pansies, really.. but moving on...
The book goes off-track quite a few times, sometimes to break away from the current story and inform the reader of the truth behind what happened during some important biblical events where he was supposedly there behind the scenes or front in center (Fall of Adam and Eve, tempting of Christ in the desert -why was he in there again?- , crucifixion of Jesus Christ along with Pilate and his problems) and clearing up some misconstrued notions... Those I read with decreasing enthusiasm. Fall of Adam and Eve I found very hilarious and witty, for it was in the way beginning, but by the time the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, I was losing momentum -- this was in the middle of the story--..
The book draws the intellectuals and black humor enthusiasts in on the first page. The first 10, 20, 30 -50 pages are fast and amusing, then it grinds slowly to a halt, since the inner-workings are all caked with grime, metaphorically speaking.. then a tidbit got added and it sped up again and the "hilarity" resumed... but the last 50 or so pages were pathetic.
Yes, they were (it seems like I myself am succumbing to the very thing I despise as I write this.. bear with me) very painful for me... It seemed all the drive had sputtered out, and Glen Duncan was basically putting words on the pages, but they meant nothing to me.
The story in reality was not a story at all... I wanted to know Lucifer's side of the story, but what I got instead was him parading around in a dead mortal's skin and experiencing all the senses and pleasures that Life on Earth had to offer that he could never have understand by simply being an observer of humans.. It was like "Prince and the Pauper Lite"; I say Lite because there is no second person. It is just Lucifer acquiring a meat-body to embody and living what we humans take for granted or cannot fully grasp all the sights, sounds, smells, sensations that plague us day and night: Flowers, dog poo, sex, alcohol, etc.
The very end of the book finally reveals the big secret that Lucifer himself never even knew
By that time I was thinking two things:
1) Well this is a sudden bomb.. too bad the book's already over.. so this doesn't affect me in the least! Seriously, this is not a mystery.. someone just decided to unveil this fact. The reader didn't exactly care one way or another at this point...
2) Man, this book was ALMOST a complete waste of time.
Almost.. I give this book 2.75/5 stars
IN CONCLUSION:
This book had great promise in the beginning. It was sardonic, snarky, and dry, like most British humorists are. But there were quite a few twists and turns that detracted from the story, which in retrospect was already predicted on the first frigging page. By the middle the gears started griming up, but the author pressed on and the book came back up to a slower, but comfortable speed. Then at the end the "train" that was the story technically "stopped" but because of Newton's First Law, it continued to slide and skid on the railroad tracks until its velocity and intertia and yadda yadda yadda ran out and it came sliding slowly to a stop, which by that time no one cared or noticed that it did, being dead from the sudden whiplash..
Does that make sense to you at all?
I, Lucifer at the beginning claims to "tell all", but then backtracks himself to consider whether or not to "tell all" to his readers. By the end of this book I should've known that that tiny moment of author ADD/ADHD would only lead me down the road to the sense of reader-unfulfillment and suicide-worthy thinking along the lines of "where is this leading me? What's the point of going on? Is there a God? Does he truly care that I'm suffering by reading this? Is this all his plan? Leading me astray with this book to prove that nothing in this world has meaning, and that even the most sensible- and sound-looking books offering a disenchanted look at current mortal life are just meaningless and string-tied paragraphs caught together in a measly 'book'?"
But let's move on..
At first I was challenged intellectually by the poetic and fanciful and technical language Duncan used. As Lucifer, someone who, according to stories, was basically there when God made angels, and his descent into Hell was due to him being too full of pride and not willing to serve the loving Creator who made him. All this time would undoubtedly give him the Realistic philosophy of thinking and "living" that was popularized in the mid-1900s in Europe, which rivaled the rose-colored glasses that Romanticists wore during a previous period.
This "tell-all" book steers us all over the place in a twisting and slightly confusing tale narrated by Lucifer as he possesses a recently vacated body of a certain Glen Duncan. What unfolds are the bittersweet and irritatingly cute musings of the omnipresent, omnisexual, snarky, crass, manipulative, and arrogant being known by all Christians as simply Satan.
At first I was very into this book. Lucifer is British in this book, by the way, which explains the author's subtle hints that Lucifer may be a teensy bit gay. But even then, Lucifer is not gay. When you're a supreme being such as him, sexuality isn't an issue. It's simply: When is the last time you've f*cked someone, and how was it?
I wish real life was more like that... British men--perhaps Europeans in general who are not caught in the iron-fisted dogmatic grip that is contemporary religion-- are more comfortable with their fellow man, and I respect that, British people. I respect that. Unnecessary homophobia is in bad taste, it truly is. It makes American guys look like pansies, really.. but moving on...
The book goes off-track quite a few times, sometimes to break away from the current story and inform the reader of the truth behind what happened during some important biblical events where he was supposedly there behind the scenes or front in center (Fall of Adam and Eve, tempting of Christ in the desert -why was he in there again?- , crucifixion of Jesus Christ along with Pilate and his problems) and clearing up some misconstrued notions... Those I read with decreasing enthusiasm. Fall of Adam and Eve I found very hilarious and witty, for it was in the way beginning, but by the time the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, I was losing momentum -- this was in the middle of the story--..
The book draws the intellectuals and black humor enthusiasts in on the first page. The first 10, 20, 30 -50 pages are fast and amusing, then it grinds slowly to a halt, since the inner-workings are all caked with grime, metaphorically speaking.. then a tidbit got added and it sped up again and the "hilarity" resumed... but the last 50 or so pages were pathetic.
Yes, they were (it seems like I myself am succumbing to the very thing I despise as I write this.. bear with me) very painful for me... It seemed all the drive had sputtered out, and Glen Duncan was basically putting words on the pages, but they meant nothing to me.
The story in reality was not a story at all... I wanted to know Lucifer's side of the story, but what I got instead was him parading around in a dead mortal's skin and experiencing all the senses and pleasures that Life on Earth had to offer that he could never have understand by simply being an observer of humans.. It was like "Prince and the Pauper Lite"; I say Lite because there is no second person. It is just Lucifer acquiring a meat-body to embody and living what we humans take for granted or cannot fully grasp all the sights, sounds, smells, sensations that plague us day and night: Flowers, dog poo, sex, alcohol, etc.
The very end of the book finally reveals the big secret that Lucifer himself never even knew
By that time I was thinking two things:
1) Well this is a sudden bomb.. too bad the book's already over.. so this doesn't affect me in the least! Seriously, this is not a mystery.. someone just decided to unveil this fact. The reader didn't exactly care one way or another at this point...
2) Man, this book was ALMOST a complete waste of time.
Almost.. I give this book 2.75/5 stars
IN CONCLUSION:
This book had great promise in the beginning. It was sardonic, snarky, and dry, like most British humorists are. But there were quite a few twists and turns that detracted from the story, which in retrospect was already predicted on the first frigging page. By the middle the gears started griming up, but the author pressed on and the book came back up to a slower, but comfortable speed. Then at the end the "train" that was the story technically "stopped" but because of Newton's First Law, it continued to slide and skid on the railroad tracks until its velocity and intertia and yadda yadda yadda ran out and it came sliding slowly to a stop, which by that time no one cared or noticed that it did, being dead from the sudden whiplash..
Does that make sense to you at all?
molly234's review
challenging
funny
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0