The Saint of Heartbreak

by Morgan Dante

"Finally we have a lovely, melancholic, sensual romance between two of the Bible's greatest villains—Judas Iscariot and the Devil. Between lush, decadent prose, Morgan Dante weaves together a queer love story, a gorgeous homage to The Divine Comedy, and thoughts on finding love in the damned shadow of God. A hellish, sacrilegious must-read." — rafael nicolás, author of Angels Before Man

Two of the Bible's greatest villains...

After his betrayal with a kiss, Judas Iscariot dies in despair and goes to Hell. When Christ saves other souls during the Harrowing of Hell, he leaves Judas behind—but not alone in the ninth circle, where the most detestable traitors go. Callous, resigned, and abandoned by God long ago, the Devil sees Judas as a pathetic wretch, but he soon finds a kindred spirit. As the centuries pass, they struggle to find even a sliver of happiness in Hell.

Doomed by the narrative, will they find happiness, or will their story continue to be a tragedy?

Genres: Fantasy, Queer, Romance, Horror, Retellings, LGBT, Mythology

218 pages, Kindle Edition

Published September 1, 2024

About the author

Horror, fantasy, and romance writer. Vampire and angel enjoyer. They/Them. Read more on morgandante.com.

Reviews

[lia ♡ (hiatus) · Rating 5 out of 5]

lady gaga meant what she said when she sang judas, and i mean it when i say this felt like everything to ever happen crawling under my skin. obsessed, sick, suffocating, and thankful i know how to read.

[⋆˚✧ sabrina ✧｡⋆ · Rating 5 out of 5]

˗ˏˋ 5 ★ ˎˊ˗

this gritty, tragic, fate-defying love story between a fallen angel and a fallen apostle being my 111th book of the year is so funny to me — angel-numbered, angel-blessed. i loved this book in a very personal way. watching these two wounded, abandoned, damned souls find each other in hell and hurt one another, navigate one another, and heal one another was so truly fulfilling. their love became something cleansing and gentle and true, both of them caring for the other not for their worth or their utility but because, simply for existing, they deserved the love and forgiveness withheld from them for thousands of years. phenomenal. not to mention the prose was to die for, beautiful symbolism and parallels across the story. yeahhh i ate this shit up breakfast lunch and dinner & truly cannot recommend this book enough

bars:
✧ this is hell, and it isn’t supposed to change. isn’t supposed to bend into the shape of judas iscariot’s tentative smile. hell isn’t meant to bend; he is hell, and he doesn’t bend. yet—
✧ you made me, he wanted to cry at heaven. you loved me, and then you destroyed me. they had done the same to yeshua, god’s most beloved, and called it salvation.
✧ “if you would let me, i would wash you and tend to you for an eternity.”
✧ in abject misery, that is their comfort and burden. fortunately, they are never alone; unfortunately, they are never alone.
✧ yes, made love; if lucifer is his love, he’s been unmade and remade.

soundtrack:
♫ swan upon leda — hozier
♪ nobody hurts like me for you — slumberville, st. south
♫ shrike — hozier
♪ can’t help falling in love — cannons
♫ abbey — mitski
♪ cherry wine — hozier
♫ the beacon — a fine frenzy
♪ hymn to virgil — hozier
♫ nevermind, never mine — cannons
♪ unknown / nth — hozier

[Stitching Ghost · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well, that was surprisingly delightful. It's kind of a slow burn romance, in its own weird little way, not really my thing but there was just the right amount of bleakness to make it work anyway.

[Grapie Deltaco · Rating 5 out of 5]

Overwhelming, bleak, suffocating, wrought with self loathing, erotic, violent, sensual, tender

All of the things! All of the things!!!!

“He wants Judas to be better now, to soothe his wounded pride. Wants to snap at him, You thief. You’ve sickened me with a heart, that thing snagged and wrung out by thorns. You’ve replenished it, you’ve stolen it, bled it again, and you aren’t okay.”

This twisted and ever-changing relationship between Judas and the devil in their centuries in hell together was one I had to take breaks from often (for personal catholic guilt reasons) but still one I couldn’t help but return to.

Written in what borders on overly flowery language, this was a journey and a half following two deeply broken individuals desperately trying to destroy themselves even further before picking the pieces back up together.

It hurts but I was rooting for them the entire time.

CW: death, murder, suicide, self harm, violence, torture, grief, recurring references to past rape/sexual abuse (including in childhood), depression, explicit sexual content (including blood and orgies), kidnapping, references to past infanticide

[lauren :) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Are you gay? Did you, as a child, have a strange fascination with popular Bible character Judas Iscariot? Did you feel bad for Satan when he was cast from heaven? This book may be for you! Morgan Dante's The Saint of Heartbreak is a decadent mix of salacious prose and soul-suckingly depressing backstories, interwoven with an angsty romance that will make your worst situationship look like God's greatest love story! Get ready to be used and abused alongside a sad, slutty Satan and emo boytoy Judas, both of whom should be spending their eternities in Hell in therapy!

[Morgan Dante · Rating 5 out of 5]

my gay judas book for angsty bibleslash enjoyers

please look at the info and content warnings at morgandante.com

[Zack Davies · Rating 5 out of 5]

another book where lucifer breaks my heart? sign me up!

Lucifer x Judas slow burn romance with the amount of angst you would expect.

With beautiful prose and quotes I want physically tattooed on me. This is everything to me and one of my new favourite books of all time.

There’s not much else I can say about it part from it been a perfect read for me and a must read for all

Five stars 🌟

[Siavahda · Rating 2 out of 5]

I knew this book was doomed the second it was revealed that Judas didn't really betray Yeshua - he didn't know the Romans would kill him! That wasn't supposed to happen!

And like - no. That's such a cowardly change to make. That immediately means you're not committed to wrestling with the 'reality' of these characters, you don't want to deal with the complicated messiness of them. What kind of Judas isn't the betrayer? What's the point of examining the figure/character at all if you're going to make him a - a milksop, a patsy?

And my GODS, why does he consider himself so evil when it was a naïve mistake, not intentional? Pathetic. Whiny. NOPE.

The opening chapters from Yeshua's PoV were sublime, but the moment we left that, the prose became very dull and stilted. What a boring Satan; what a boring Hell. Absolutely zero incentive to finish. And this is without going into the jerky writing rhythm, the leaps in logic that made no sense (I still don't understand how Yeshua made the jump from what Judas said to understanding Judas was the one who would betray him, and I read that passage four times in case I missed something), and the sentences that end oddly and feel incomplete.

Sigh. I was really excited for this one!

[Quill&Queer]

i saw two seasons of interview with the vampire and this is where i've ended up

[౨ৎ bennett •𖤐🌷 · Rating 4 out of 5]

𖦹.ᡣ𐭩˚ started 10.05.25
˖ finished 10.05.25
. ݁⊹ . ݁˖ . ݁ / ∿‧⁺. ෆ
❝yes, made love; if lucifer
is his love, he's been unmade
and remade.❞

「 ⸝⸝📋⊹ 」

[korinne · Rating 2 out of 5]

I am a huge Lucifer/Satan fan. I was raised Christian, but I always really liked him, even before I knew I’m queer (as being older and online, I’ve realized many other queer people feel connected to him as well). I’ll read basically anything that portrays Lucifer in any way. Angels Before Man is one of my favorite books, and I’m in the process of writing a novel where Lucifer is the deuteragonist.

On the flip side, I have never been a Morgan Dante fan. Don’t think I’ve enjoyed even one of their books. I like their prose; it’s flowery, and fun to read. Their writing is good! Granted, I hate first person, and I hate present tense, and Morgan utilizes both, but a good book can make me look past those things. Unfortunately, Dante has yet to impress me. The premises of their novels always sound interesting, like something I’d enjoy; but their novels always end up being so boring. I was really holding onto the hope that I was going to enjoy this book, even if it was bullheaded by my bias towards Satan. Much to my disappointment, that was not the case.

The Saint of Heartbreak is not interesting. It’s a slog to read, and doesn’t really do anything particularly interesting with itself. It feels empty—a largely boring story with no real sense of direction. There was no point. The characters aren’t likable. I didn’t care about them. Judas is a one-dimensional teary-eyed idiot, and Satan was wishy-washy and inconcrete, like Dante couldn’t decide who he was supposed to be. The story focuses on their relationship, but they had no chemistry. There’s no buildup, either, I’m just told how their relationship progresses, rarely getting to witness it myself. I felt like they never spent any meaningful time together, never had any meaningful conversations, and every scene that attempted it fell flat. The side characters felt the same: boring characters I’m told have whatever which kind of relationship with whatever which person, but I’m just told that’s how it is, without any of it being displayed.

This book was, frankly, a waste of my time. If you’re a fan of Morgan Dante, I don’t doubt you’ll enjoy this book, but it just wasn’t for me. I will no longer be picking up Dante’s novels, but I wish them best in the future.

I was provided an e-ARC by the author in exchange for an honest review.

[Hugo #freepalestine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Surprisingly I quite enjoy this, despite some of the decisions that were made in this book that made me questioned if this would be better off as a fanfic rather than a book.

Judas and his never ending grief and self depreciation and how eventually he found solace within it when he realized that lucifer will always saved him through it all and stitch him back up together so they can play house in hell for eternity ( I'm hoping that God will change his prophecy somehow) like come on, you just hate gays thriving.

[Thérèse · Rating 2 out of 5]

As a Judas Iscariot apologist, I was pretty excited to read this one. Granted, I'm more intrigued by the relationship between Judas and Jesus, but I was interested to see where the author would take a romance between Judas and the Devil.

The first 10% of this book is in Jesus (Yeshua)'s point of view and, let me tell you, it is banger after banger. Jesus was brought to this earth to experience the world as we do, to be a man. A man first, something else second. Morgan Dante understands that. Jesus is written as such, as a person who gets angry, scared, irritated, and, most importantly, who loves. The dynamic between Jesus and Judas in this first part is heartbreaking.

The wine on his tongue has soured, along with the truth. I know you love me, I know you’ll be the end of me, and I forgive you, I love you. Don’t hate yourself for this. Don’t hate me.

Jesus asking Judas not to hate him... gaah. Because at the end of the day, aren't both of them just acting out God's will? I don't want to be so blasphemous as to say that they are both puppets on strings, committing what I like to call mirror-suicides, but, well. If the shoe fits.

Morgan Dante has a fascinating way of looking at the way Judas plays into the Passion. They are what made me realize that both Judas and Jesus are pawns, just in vastly different ways. Like the Devil says in the book, "you're the same [...] You're both martyrs." I think if this entire story would have focused on this idea and/or remained in Jesus's point of view, it would have to be a five star read.

Unfortunately, when it switches to the Devil's point of view is when the story begins to lag. This isn't because Dante is a bad writer; on the contrary, I find a lot of their sentences to be stunning. I just really do not like how the Devil is characterized in this. It reminds me a bit of Angels Before Man, which I hated (sorry). Here, Lucifer isn't scary, isn't rebellious— he isn't even particularly cruel. He's just lonely and wants someone to love him. While I'm sure being the King of Hell gets lonely at times, I just cannot vibe with a pathetic Lucifer characterization. I was hoping for the Judas/Lucifer relationship to be twisted and toxic, not fluffy and sweet.

This story also just gets boring. Really, nothing happens. Judas comes to Hell, the Devil and him have a conversation (which sometimes turns into sex, making me wonder what my mother would say if she saw me reading this). The Devil laments about how he is unloved and always comes second to Jesus, who Judas loves more. Rinse and repeat until the love confession happens and they adopt kids together. Yes, literally. By that point, I was out .

Lucifer, or the Devil, is an immensely interesting figure both within and outside of Biblical text. So much more could have been done with or said about him, but alas.

I really wish this had worked for me. As it did not, I am humbly asking Morgan Dante to write a Jesus/Judas book, as I am interested in exploring their ideas about those two in much further detail (and without a sad, pining Devil in the mix).

[chai ♡ · Rating 4 out of 5]

i guess shout out to judas for giving us iconic bible lore.

[Salomé · Rating 5 out of 5]

« Nearly two-thousand years,” Judas whispers against his brow while Lucifer cups the back of his head, “and I didn’t think it could feel like this. »

There are books which you can’t tell people about. Books so special and rare and yours that advertising your affection feels like a betrayal. idk who said that but this is my book.

[Anna · Rating 5 out of 5]

I sobbed so hard it’s not even funny. Amazing book I need more. 4,75 ⭐️ (only because there are some small things that bothered me a little but it didn’t take away from the overall experience 10/10 will read and cry about it again)

[Krys (spicy.spine.breaker) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Judas, the saint of heartbreak. The saint of unfortunate decisions. Martyred without even Heaven as a consolation prize.

I loved it. Judas and The Devil, hand in hand as two of the most hated creatures in existence, but they hate themselves the most, and the TRUAMA. And LILITH! Lilith is honestly everything I’ve ever wanted to be.

Anyways, check CW & FRTC but for now, quotes

If only the Devil had someone to pray to. Judas is the closest thing to a saint he has

_____________________________________________

“He throws away all his ‘perfect' creations in time. You'll see, and you can remember the golden kingdom. You can remember my face, if I cannot see that oh-so-tender countenance myself when the butchery starts. We'll see what you think of sweet Father then."

_____________________________________________

I know how you feel, the Devil would say if he were welcome. Heaven killed everything I loved, too.

_____________________________________________

The Devil is God's traitor, messenger, instrument, and Judas is Yeshua's.

_____________________________________________

He is, after all, only good for being an instrument of grief. Is this all this is? Judas punishing himself by sleeping with the worst, most loathsome creature.

_____________________________________________

Father, Father, Yeshua wept. My God, My God, why have you forsaken me? To be loved by God is to be left.

_____________________________________________

Judas will be hated for centuries to come, the next one-thousand years, this man who made the wrong choice out of fear, out of love. Most might rejoice to be forever unforgotten, even in infamy. But he can see now from Judas' wide eyes, oh so bright and wrought, that these knives will skewer him again and again.

_____________________________________________

“…. what if the prophecies written in the old book are true, and I end up in the lake of fire forever?"
"I'll be there with you.”

[T.D. Cloud · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Saint of Heartbreak is a two millennia-long slow burn between two of the Bible’s most maligned figures—Judas and the Devil. Full of longing, self-loathing, mutual understanding, and eventual healing, it’s a beautiful tale that proves that anything is possible, be it change in the depths of Hell or forgiveness for our most grievous sins—even if said forgiveness has to come from another sinner damned just as deeply as you.

Morgan Dante’s work makes you feel seen in ways you didn’t even know you needed to be seen, and I thoroughly enjoyed my reading experience, even as someone with as much spirituality as a door knob. Give it a read if you’ve ever related a little too much to Judas or simply wanted to think about him in ways Sunday school never dared let you tread. It’s a worthwhile way to spend your time and will stick with you far after you’ve finished the final page.

[Joscelyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've never read the Bible. But this is all canon to me now.

Everyone needs a hug. Can I hug them all? 🫂 Beautiful writing. I would read so much more of these two. ❤️❤️

[Faye 🫀 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very conflicted about my thoughts on this!

Positives:
- very delicious/decadent writing
- I loved the angst
- I was quite impressed by all of the literary callbacks/references
- very similar writing style and tone to Angels Before Man!!!

Negatives:
- there was just something missing for me a little bit. I loved the first half & was sitting at a solid 4-5⭐️, but the second half kind of lost me a little?
- I know this is conflicting, but I feel like there was so much going on it almost should have been a longer novel? Or some of the plot/references should have been cut to have this feel a little sharper?? Idk exactly, but something just felt a little off with the pacing
- this one is me being picky, but I wasn’t the biggest fan of how Judas was characterized/his lore changed??

[Arta reads at night · Rating 5 out of 5]

5⭐️
This is the deepest study of grief, self blame, shame, self punishment and living with consequences of events I’ve ever read outside of philosophical texts.
And it’s brilliant.
Part of the focus of the book is on our relationship with a parent figure and how profound the suffering of loosing this relationship can be.
The importance of freedom of choice and control over one self.
It took some getting used to the writing, sure. But it’s beautiful, has this kind of blunt lyricism and profound sadness.
It’s utterly heartbreaking and beautiful.

“Even this is God’s realm, as far away as His love may me. The Devil cannot even say this is a place of God’s hate; it’s His indifference. Constant reminders that they once mattered to Him, and now they don’t.”

[Sheila Miranda · Rating 5 out of 5]

From the very first sentence, Morgan Dante crafts an immersive world with richly painted imagery. The romance, the angst, the blood, and heartbreak are so beautifully written I devoured this book in one sitting. The prose is lyrical, the characters invoke so much emotion, and the descriptions of the circles of Hell are delightfully detailed.

[˚₊‧꒰ა mj ໒꒱ ‧₊˚ · Rating 4 out of 5]

this book was a really interesting take on the biblical characters i often saw villainized as a child in catholic school. i think if you were oddly fascinated by the devil or by judas (and ridiculed or felt shame for it), you may enjoy this book. i read the whole thing in one sitting and was fully immersed. i only docked it one star because sometimes, i found myself glossing over the devils lengthy rambles. although i don't think you need to have biblical knowledge to read this book, i found that it helped me to understand the emotions and reactions the characters had on a deeper level.

if you enjoyed the teras trails, you'll probably enjoy this as well. definitely check the trigger warnings.

[Hannah · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't really know how I felt about this book, from an objective standpoint I feel like there were a few loose ends and that it ended at a weird point and from a personal standpoint I wasn't totally convinced of the characterisation but that's kinda how theology works so I can't judge that aspect too harshly

[sara · Rating 5 out of 5]

"and before the devil can interrogate it further comes the thought: i wish judas would smile once."

woooow! queer people who grew up catholic are about to go craaaaazy over this one! morgan dante i'm begging for at least five more of these!!!!

[mckenna · Rating 2 out of 5]

well written gay religious mob boss fanfic with dashings of self-hatred.
loved the religious aspects. loved the writing. hated the story. loved at first, but then it just became wattpad-esque with flowery writing. whatever

[Olivia · Rating 4 out of 5]

this healed something deep in me.

[･ﾟ✧♘Bella♘✧･ﾟ · Rating 4 out of 5]

✨️ 𝔗𝔬 𝔟𝔢 𝔩𝔬𝔳𝔢𝔡 𝔟𝔶 𝔊𝔬𝔡 𝔦𝔰 𝔱𝔬 𝔟𝔢 𝔩𝔢𝔣𝔱. ✨️

[Al · Rating 1 out of 5]

I'm so sad I wanted to like this so bad!! It was too repetitive and predictable for me.

[Juuu · Rating 2 out of 5]

I lost it at Judas knitting dog sweaters.