A review by osladek
Angels Before Man by rafael nicolás

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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