A review by atlastheninth
Pray For Him by Tyler Battaglia

dark emotional mysterious reflective slow-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

Thank you to the author for providing me with an eARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions expressed here are my own. 
 
My thoughts: A slow burn romance between a sad and lonely priest and his sad and lonely best friend? Hell yeah. This book might be horror and about possession but it is so full of love. Romantic, platonic, religious and familial and all of it is so sweet. I cried from the sheer amount of love the characters felt for each other. 
The romance sub plot is slooow but so is the horror. There is a constant feeling of uneasiness and wrongness surrounding the possession that makes this book less actually scary but just creepy. 
 
Also nearly the whole main cast is queer and about half of them are disabled but none of it is ever an actual plot point which I love. 
 
Favourite quotes (so many I'm sorry):

"I prayed to God, but He gave me no answers about what I should do for you. I wondered, Hector, should I pray to You instead?"

"He has a habit of it, you know-leaving His creation to rot?"

"I will tell you that you are divine. I will tell you that I worship your goodness. I will tell you that you are a bright light in this world. My world."

"In that instant, he realized: this was the prayer he had been waiting for. I love you was the key to the gates of paradise that Isaias hadn’t known he needed. To be known, to be loved, just as God commanded. Love—love was God, after all. Love was God, and love was Hector. Isaias had just needed that delectable fruit of knowledge to tell him what love could be. To let him see through the veil into the world of possibility of what they could grow in their garden together. Not just flowers, but the fruits of knowledge, and love, and new beginnings."

"He wondered if he could find God there, too, in Hector's arms."

"And I can't wait to see the garden we'll grow together."

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