A review by peeled_grape
Paradise Lost by John Milton

4.0

The first time I read this, I was religious; this last time I am far from it. My readings have changed drastically, which is so crazy to me because I am very convinced of my reading now. (I also think I am just a much better reader now, too.) I'm obsessed with the first two books of this, and I think I will inevitably end up with a Paradise Lost tattoo. You can't read it the way Milton intended it. It's so much more fun if you don't. I don't know how you come out of this feeling good about Christianity. It's like a self-roast of religion in places, and ironically, I think that if you've left any kind of Christianity and are bitter about it, I highly recommend at least the first two books and maybe up until Satan stops becoming a major character. Read it like Milton himself is an unreliable narrator. Also, Satan is by far the most interesting character. Just throwing that out there.

My favorite moment in this is in book 2, when the demons debate what to do after being cast down to hell, and Beelzebub wraps up the debate in Pandemonium: "Or these titles now / Must we renounce, and changing style be called / Princes of hell?"