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A review by charlotekerstenauthor
Los Nefilim Book 4 by T. Frohock
“Love is a gift that’s given. Trust is a coin that’s earned.”
So What’s It About?
Diago Alvarez, a singular being of daimonic and angelic descent, is pulled into the ranks of Los Nefilim in order to protect his newly-found son. As an angelic war brews in the numinous realms, and Spain marches closer to civil war, the destiny of two worlds hangs on Diago’s actions. Yet it is the combined fates of his lover, Miquel, and his young son, Rafael, that weighs most heavily on his soul.
Lyrical and magical, Los Nefilim explores whether moving towards the light is necessarily the right move, and what it means to live amongst the shadows.
What I Thought
It’s clear that these novellas are very well-loved by a lot of people whose book opinions I really respect, and now that I’ve read them myself, I can definitely see why. My final rating is 3.5 stars, and it isn’t higher for those mysterious, inexplicable reasons that some books just don’t entirely resonate for some people - while I do have a few quibbles, I don't think those quibbles are why I didn't enjoy it more. It just wasn't totally for me.
The quibbles: a lot of really important explanations about the world are only revealed in the third novella, which leaves some things feeling very vague until then. For instance, we learn about the Key, angels’ vocal words, how angels and daimons feed on the emotions of mortals, and the principalities in the last part of the last book. I wish I had known these things earlier. I was also itching to learn more about all the immortals’ past lives, because we get occasional mentions of really dramatic things like Guillermo killing Diago in his past incarnation and how drastically things have changed between them and how Diago and Miquel met, but they’re only touched on lightly. Hopefully, there will be more about these things in the future books. And while I love that there’s a solid and established gay couple at the heart of this story and the development of their little family with Diago’s son is incredibly sweet, I would say that the romance itself feels a little bit one-note in that it mostly consists of Miquel constantly reassuring and taking care of Diago.
My favorite things about this book are the inventive mythology, the great use of an atmospheric historical setting, and the exploration of Diago's rape. I think this latter one is really interesting. Miquel is actually the one who first identifies what Candela did to Diago as rape, and previous to that, Diago simply blamed himself for" losing control" and betraying his partner. There are a lot of people who still fail to categorize a man being forced to penetrate someone else as “real” sexual assault, just like Lucia in this story, and many of the male survivors I talk to struggle to label their experiences just like Diago does. I respect that Frohock addressed this reality as effectively as she did.
So What’s It About?
Diago Alvarez, a singular being of daimonic and angelic descent, is pulled into the ranks of Los Nefilim in order to protect his newly-found son. As an angelic war brews in the numinous realms, and Spain marches closer to civil war, the destiny of two worlds hangs on Diago’s actions. Yet it is the combined fates of his lover, Miquel, and his young son, Rafael, that weighs most heavily on his soul.
Lyrical and magical, Los Nefilim explores whether moving towards the light is necessarily the right move, and what it means to live amongst the shadows.
What I Thought
It’s clear that these novellas are very well-loved by a lot of people whose book opinions I really respect, and now that I’ve read them myself, I can definitely see why. My final rating is 3.5 stars, and it isn’t higher for those mysterious, inexplicable reasons that some books just don’t entirely resonate for some people - while I do have a few quibbles, I don't think those quibbles are why I didn't enjoy it more. It just wasn't totally for me.
The quibbles: a lot of really important explanations about the world are only revealed in the third novella, which leaves some things feeling very vague until then. For instance, we learn about the Key, angels’ vocal words, how angels and daimons feed on the emotions of mortals, and the principalities in the last part of the last book. I wish I had known these things earlier. I was also itching to learn more about all the immortals’ past lives, because we get occasional mentions of really dramatic things like Guillermo killing Diago in his past incarnation and how drastically things have changed between them and how Diago and Miquel met, but they’re only touched on lightly. Hopefully, there will be more about these things in the future books. And while I love that there’s a solid and established gay couple at the heart of this story and the development of their little family with Diago’s son is incredibly sweet, I would say that the romance itself feels a little bit one-note in that it mostly consists of Miquel constantly reassuring and taking care of Diago.
My favorite things about this book are the inventive mythology, the great use of an atmospheric historical setting, and the exploration of Diago's rape. I think this latter one is really interesting. Miquel is actually the one who first identifies what Candela did to Diago as rape, and previous to that, Diago simply blamed himself for" losing control" and betraying his partner. There are a lot of people who still fail to categorize a man being forced to penetrate someone else as “real” sexual assault, just like Lucia in this story, and many of the male survivors I talk to struggle to label their experiences just like Diago does. I respect that Frohock addressed this reality as effectively as she did.