spootilious's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.0
Read: August 16, 2023
Title: No Gods, No Monsters
Title: No Gods, No Monsters
Series: The Convergence Saga #1
Author: Cadwell Turnbull
Genre: Fantasy Horror
Rating: 2/5
Review:
Author: Cadwell Turnbull
Genre: Fantasy Horror
Rating: 2/5
Review:
I don’t really have a lot to say about this one. I didn’t… NOT like it, but there isn’t much I specifically liked either.
What I can say is that the writing style is beautiful. It is obvious that Turnbull is very talented. However, the storyline and the characters have this sort of vagueness that keeps anything from truly standing out.
From what I can tell, most people complain at how the story jumps around and the points of view shift so strangely. I can understand their point. I suppose I’ve read enough novels written this way that it wasn’t too bad for me. Though I will say with just a small shuffle of one or two chapters Turnbull could have kept the mystery while still making the shifts less jarring for the reader. In my opinion he didn’t quite manage what he was going for.
I will also say that physically reading the book makes it more understandable than listening to the audiobook which is what I first attempted. Dion Graham is one of the sexiest narrators I’ve come across but there was nothing he could do with this one to make it easier to understand.
Overall, not a bad book but not a great one in my opinion. Bit overhyped but love the writing style 😊
Quotes:
N/A
TW: Rape, Murder, Gore, Vore, Body Horror, Mass shooting, General Violence
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Hate crime, Mental illness, Murder, Body horror, Cannibalism, Violence, Transphobia, Gore, Blood, Physical abuse, and Police brutality
Moderate: Suicide attempt, Suicide, Rape, and Torture
plesiosaurys's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Physical abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Mass/school shootings, Grief, Kidnapping, Drug use, Drug abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Blood, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Alcohol, Addiction, Body horror, Confinement, Hate crime, Police brutality, Suicidal thoughts, Cannibalism, Gun violence, and Terminal illness
gilnean's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-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
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicide, Suicide attempt, Torture, Blood, Cannibalism, Child abuse, Animal death, Cancer, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Addiction, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Forced institutionalization, Gore, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Mass/school shootings, Medical content, Mental illness, Murder, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Terminal illness, Violence, and Xenophobia
Moderate: Alcohol, Body horror, Deadnaming, Pregnancy, Transphobia, Eating disorder, and Vomit
Minor: Excrement, Sexual content, and Pedophilia
nini23's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
From one of Cadwell Turnbull's interviews with Lightspeed Magazine, he describes his upcoming book as "modern retelling of the civil rights movement of the ’60s and ’70s, but with monsters." Indeed, the title No Gods No Monsters derives from an anarchist slogan "No gods, no masters" meant to be a "call against discrimination and hierarchy," as explained in the climactic protest at the book's finale. No Gods No Monsters opens with a horrifically common occurrence in the United States, the shooting of an unarmed black man Lincoln by police and his sister Laina is informed. In the midst of her grief, she is mysteriously handed a video of the events which show her brother and others turning into wolves.
Ambitious, with multiple threads of polyphonic stories, this sprawling novel defies neat categorization - urban fantasy, speculative fiction, science fiction, social commentary. We readers are dipped into the lives and stories of diverse individuals and families including:
- Puerto Rican lesbian female Rebecca also a werewolf, Laina's lover
- guy returned to his home island of St Thomas, US Virgin Islands, his brother Cory Turner died
- Ridley coop bookstore owner asexual trans biracial (half white, half black)
- Monsters: Dragon rescued by Order of Asha, Melku (also from St Thomas) - tech mage, Sonya- invisible, Cassie/Cassandra - seer, sight mage, Damsel - witch, Yuni, Sarah - werewolf
- 2 orders of monsters, rogue ones, unknown organization forcing them into open
- Sociologist Karuna Flood born in Nepal raised and adopted by Irish parents in Ireland, went missing
- Sondra, senator running again for reelection, from St Thomas, Sondra monster, sister Sonya is a souyoucant (bloodsucking supernatural being from Caribbean folklore), Sondra's parents are werewolves who adopted Sonya
- Hugh Everett quantum physicist who discovers a new wave theory, neglects his family with devastating consequences
- Henry who falls into a cult Golden Dawn from loneliness after divorce
At first, the stories seem disparate, we are dripped backstories across timelines and geography but slowly the interconnections and common themes emerge. I love that the author gives space for the stories to breathe and for readers to reach realizations. One of the refrains is "So it fucking goes" - shitty things happen, is it derived from Vonnegut's famous 'So it goes?" There's drug addictions, racial injustice, spousal physical abuse, family inability to accept LGBT members, suicide, lung cancer from second-hand smoke of smoking spouses, PTSD in military. Close family and friends wonder in regret and self-recrimination whether they could have done more to help, to reach out, made a different decision in the crossroads of fate and time. This is where the concept of multiverses and alternate outcomes, alternate selves pops up with regularity. I felt that the theory of quantum mechanics that sets up this concept a little thin and basic. Also although the stories tried to be empathetic to everyone's pain and trauma, I thought in the subset story of Cory and his ex-wife Keren, his side was given too much emphasis, over-explained vs Keren's terror, I didn't think she had anything to apologize for.
The term 'monsters' is deliberately provocative, because if we treat beings different from us monstrously, what does that turn us humans into? With the release of the video of werewolves that is subsequently altered, there is the Fracture, those who acknowledge the existence of them and those who deny it. Fear, paranoia, violence and desire for destruction of the other pervades; even those who know the 'monsters' personally hesitate to support their cause publicly for fear of their safety.
I really enjoyed the range of No Gods, No Monsters. From a peanut growing coop (and the fascinating method of plant reproduction underground geocarpy) to the flavors of St Thomas (rum, obeah, souyoucant, hurricane, struggle to gain statehood status, iguanas, working at the local Kmart, local slang pahnah) to the SF elements (teleportation, mysterious omniscient fractal sea entity with first person narration, tracker soul worms, memory wipes, particle physics) to the abilities of the different 'monsters,' it's complex and action-packed. But beyond the thriller elements are hard pointed questions of prejudice, allyship, inequality, justice.
No Gods, No Monsters will be released on September 7th, 2021 by publisher Blackstone Publishing. Will definitely be reading book 2 of the Convergence Saga when it comes out.
Thanks to Blackstone Publishing and Netgalley for an ARC of this book in exchange for an unbiased review.
Ambitious, with multiple threads of polyphonic stories, this sprawling novel defies neat categorization - urban fantasy, speculative fiction, science fiction, social commentary. We readers are dipped into the lives and stories of diverse individuals and families including:
- Puerto Rican lesbian female Rebecca also a werewolf, Laina's lover
- guy returned to his home island of St Thomas, US Virgin Islands, his brother Cory Turner died
- Ridley coop bookstore owner asexual trans biracial (half white, half black)
- Monsters: Dragon rescued by Order of Asha, Melku (also from St Thomas) - tech mage, Sonya- invisible, Cassie/Cassandra - seer, sight mage, Damsel - witch, Yuni, Sarah - werewolf
- 2 orders of monsters, rogue ones, unknown organization forcing them into open
- Sociologist Karuna Flood born in Nepal raised and adopted by Irish parents in Ireland, went missing
- Sondra, senator running again for reelection, from St Thomas, Sondra monster, sister Sonya is a souyoucant (bloodsucking supernatural being from Caribbean folklore), Sondra's parents are werewolves who adopted Sonya
- Hugh Everett quantum physicist who discovers a new wave theory, neglects his family with devastating consequences
- Henry who falls into a cult Golden Dawn from loneliness after divorce
At first, the stories seem disparate, we are dripped backstories across timelines and geography but slowly the interconnections and common themes emerge. I love that the author gives space for the stories to breathe and for readers to reach realizations. One of the refrains is "So it fucking goes" - shitty things happen, is it derived from Vonnegut's famous 'So it goes?" There's drug addictions, racial injustice, spousal physical abuse, family inability to accept LGBT members, suicide, lung cancer from second-hand smoke of smoking spouses, PTSD in military. Close family and friends wonder in regret and self-recrimination whether they could have done more to help, to reach out, made a different decision in the crossroads of fate and time. This is where the concept of multiverses and alternate outcomes, alternate selves pops up with regularity. I felt that the theory of quantum mechanics that sets up this concept a little thin and basic. Also although the stories tried to be empathetic to everyone's pain and trauma, I thought in the subset story of Cory and his ex-wife Keren, his side was given too much emphasis, over-explained vs Keren's terror, I didn't think she had anything to apologize for.
The term 'monsters' is deliberately provocative, because if we treat beings different from us monstrously, what does that turn us humans into? With the release of the video of werewolves that is subsequently altered, there is the Fracture, those who acknowledge the existence of them and those who deny it. Fear, paranoia, violence and desire for destruction of the other pervades; even those who know the 'monsters' personally hesitate to support their cause publicly for fear of their safety.
I really enjoyed the range of No Gods, No Monsters. From a peanut growing coop (and the fascinating method of plant reproduction underground geocarpy) to the flavors of St Thomas (rum, obeah, souyoucant, hurricane, struggle to gain statehood status, iguanas, working at the local Kmart, local slang pahnah) to the SF elements (teleportation, mysterious omniscient fractal sea entity with first person narration, tracker soul worms, memory wipes, particle physics) to the abilities of the different 'monsters,' it's complex and action-packed. But beyond the thriller elements are hard pointed questions of prejudice, allyship, inequality, justice.
No Gods, No Monsters will be released on September 7th, 2021 by publisher Blackstone Publishing. Will definitely be reading book 2 of the Convergence Saga when it comes out.
Thanks to Blackstone Publishing and Netgalley for an ARC of this book in exchange for an unbiased review.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gun violence and Mass/school shootings
Moderate: Addiction and Gore
Minor: Suicide attempt, Suicide, Terminal illness, and Physical abuse
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