Reviews tagging 'Injury/Injury detail'

Angels Before Man by rafael nicolás

39 reviews

raineydayreads's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

imagine if angels could form a  union

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Torture, Violence, and Blood

Moderate: Sexual content and Injury/Injury detail

ina_pages's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense medium-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

4.75

I’d give this 5 stars if not for very minor grammar issues that I believe were addressed in the rewrite. I hope to get my hands on that since I also heard that new scenes were added to it.

This book pulled me out of a reading slump that lasted MONTHS. Rafael’s masterful prose will have you gripped from start to finish and will have you falling in love with characters literally against your own will. It was heartbreaking enough to read about a character you knew was doomed from the start, but this book makes you feel so much for Lucifer that watching his decent from grace was just that much worse.

Highly recommend this book to anyone who’s interested. The author lists down a set of trigger warnings at the start but they are only really applicable in the second half of the book. 

If you want a feel good, slow burn, romance-y book then maybe pick this up and just stop after part one (like skip the interlude even) but if you have the headspace for it part two is an intense rollercoaster ride of emotions.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Religious bigotry

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Gore, Incest, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Blood, Grief, Suicide attempt, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Homophobia, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, and Sexual harassment

angelie_jelly's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Sexual content, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Rape and Sexual assault

brdiaz1123's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Rape, Sexual violence, Torture, Grief, Religious bigotry, Suicide attempt, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Cannibalism and Toxic friendship

axel_p's review

challenging dark emotional inspiring reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Religious bigotry, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Alcohol, Dysphoria, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

pika_berry's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

A powerful work. 
Quite unlike other LGBT fantasy, and warning:

bad ending

and gore. 

Though it has it in the tag, technically, this book is not a genre romance.

There is no HEA — a HEA is the prerequisite for a genre romance.

The first 30% or so was quite rough with POV issues. 
Words like “ground level shrub” or “mahogany” would be used when it’s the POV of somebody who was literally just created and does not even know what a plant or a tree is. 
Is was sometimes hard to tell who’s perspective we have shifted to, and had me wondering who did what. But these issues went away in the middle of the book. I think the writer got better at writing as they went along. 

Another major drawback is the portrayal of god. The god is written as a petty, moody, middle aged man. He doesn’t seem very wise nor compassionate. He demands the angels to worship him, and makes dumb decisions.
Like creating an Angel that is supposed to be the most beautiful, and giving him special treatment … this doesn’t seem like a very wise thing to do, even from my limited mortal perspective…

And while I know this is in the original story, I don’t think this book depicted this very well. He feels more like an abusive cult leader than a holy being to me. But perhaps this is because the writer is a modern person, and at the end of rhe day, most modern people snicker at religion and the idea of god. They think it’s superstitious or foolish. It is natural for this broader sentiment to show in their work. 
The entirety of the plot is based on poor decision making by this dumb god character, and that could pull you out of the book. I didn’t mind though. I don’t think anybody reads a retelling for plot, tbh. 

The drama, the beautiful imagery and the motives make this a compelling read. 
The book feels like a fanfic. It’s a retelling, but feels more like fanfic. It’s probably the generic characters. I like it though lol. 
I can imagine the story doing well in the Japanese market, perhaps made into a manga.  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Mental illness, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Body horror, Blood, Suicide attempt, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

nerdyspinster's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense medium-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Physical abuse, Self harm, Torture, Violence, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Physical abuse

Minor: Rape, Sexual assault, and Sexual content

reila's review against another edition

challenging dark slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? N/A
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Gore, Sexual assault, Sexual content, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Self harm and Torture

minayana's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad medium-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

This was an amazing book. In part 1, we have the creation of Lucifer and how he learns to be an angel and build community. In part 2, we have the beginning of the end, with God becoming jealous and enraged by Lucifer’s love not only for Michael, but for his self love. I absolutely adored this book, and in my heart it’s a 5 star, but objectively, the last 25% did not live up to the rest of the book. My issue was the random stream of consciousness like writing. It seemed like the author was trying to evoke that feeling during movies where there are rapid fire screen changes during tense moments, with flash backs or imagery that hint at symbolism. It was very jarring and took me out of the story, and once I was back in, it would happen again. I understand what the author was doing, but it did not feel necessary or natural to the book as we already had such an amazing look into Lucifer’s mind. There were some punctuation issues as well, but that doesn’t really bother me. I absolutely plan on buying the revised edition at some point this year and rereading! I adored Lucifer and Michael, and Lucifer’s journey broke my heart. I cried multiple times lol. I cried before anything sad even happened cause I was scared for it to come lol.

Please check trigger warnings before starting the book!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Self harm, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Sexual assault and Torture

theminnesotawitch's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

A book that blew me away. The prose is beautiful, and the style changes as the protagonist becomes more obsessed with himself. A queer retelling of the fall of angels.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Self harm, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Grief, Murder, Toxic friendship, War, and Injury/Injury detail