Overall this is a great book, but it is written in a way that I found really difficult to follow. There are some fantastic ideas in this and it's quite genre-bending... but it was a bit too convoluted for me. I had some trouble keeping up with such a non-linear plot. That being said, it's extremely well written and I'm sure that many people will love it.

Thanks for the ARC.

A narrative told in a series of linked stories. This is the first of a series. These two things worked against each other a bit for me. If I have linked stories, I want the satisfaction of a complete narrative to make it feel successful. If I have a first of a series, I need to feel fully invested with a grounding in a focused single hero. Having said that, the author beautifully draws scenes and I enjoyed the way many of the transitions between stories worked.

This was such a good read. The author did a great job of setting up a rich world filled with unique creatures and secret societies, while still grounding their work in the very real racial/gender/social hierarchies that push people to fight for their rights to exist. The characters grapple with the right way to fight for acceptance and the right way to push against a system that does not recognize them. At the same time, the fantasy world is rich, full of relatable characters, and the story reveals itself to you in a satisfying way. Told through a series of short interconnected chapters, this book would appeal to those eager to explore a world of fantasy and lore but who don't necessarily need all the loose ends tied up in a bow. I'm hoping the author releases more books in their universe because I really enjoyed reading it - the world building gave me Neil Gaiman vibes.

This book was not for me - I will not be posting a review on any other platforms. thank you to the publisher for the advanced copy

This I such a hard review to write. First, let me say how beautiful the writing is in this book. It's very poetic and conveys so much emotion. The concept is interesting and it did keep me engaged enough to finish. Unfortunately the numerous characters and abrupt changing of POVs kept dragging me out of the story. While I liked the book, it just wasn't the book for me.

In this genre-bending fantastical thriller, Cadwell Turnbull delivers a fresh and original take on your typical crime/murder mystery story. A wonderfully inclusive cast of characters (more of this, please!), Turnbull delivers a mythical mystery, introducing monsters, werewolves, and something that's pushing them out of the darkness and into the spotlight. An excellent setup for what is sure to be a thrilling series!

Thank you to NetGalley and Blackstone Publishing for advance access to this title!

This book was interesting, and the writing style of the point of views makes it difficult for me to review it. The style of this book is best described as chaotic. The pieces still feel disjointed, and most of my questions were not answered. The representation is fantastic, and the overarching plot intriguing. But the execution has left me feeling like I didn’t read anything at all.
The body horror and gore in this book was well written, and fun to read (if you’re into that kind of thing). As individual stories, this book was incredibly interesting. If you like speculative horror, and urban fantasy with modern monsters, this book would be the one for you. I just wish the ending was a bit more satisfying.
Full review will be posted on August 30th, 2021.

Turnbull writes a visceral and complicated world of shapeshifters, ghosts, and dragons, all butting up and shuffling against the painstaking modern humanity, and the result is a delightful friction. The pacing is carefully literary at times, favoring worldbuilding over any single character, but No Gods, No Monsters, is a strong, thoughtful story about what it really takes to be human.

Thanks to Blackstone Publishing and NetGalley for the advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review. This book has received a lot of press in the months leading up to its publication. Unfortunately, I struggled with it and it was a DNF for me. I may come back to it later and give it another try.

"No Gods, No Monsters" was an incredible book that I actually sped through. The characters were relatable but inspiring, the writing kept me interested and racing through each chapter, and the storyline was unique, full of life and powerful.

I went into this book completely blind but I am so glad I NetGalley sent this my way in an exchange for an honest review.

On the surface, this is a book about monsters and their desire to be known. But as the storyline untangles, you can see the incredibly important themes of identity, trauma, oppression and family. It's a book that stops you in your tracks and will ignite conversations across book clubs!

This was my first time reading Cadwell Turnbull's work but I am eagerly waiting for what comes next!

"No Gods, No Monsters" will be released Sept. 7, 2021...so keep it on your TBR!

I absolutely loved this book. The writing was flawless, and the setting felt gothic and was absolutely spectacular. Turnbull clearly plotted this entire novel out very intricately, and all the characters fit together in the most marvelous ways, moments of intensity overlapping at very perfect moments. Also, I definitely connected to Laina, and I enjoyed her voice and viewing these events from her perspective.

I would like to thank Netgalley for sharing a copy of this book with me. While I was intrigued by the description. Unfortunately, I did not finish reading it. Soon after starting it I learned that this was simply not a book for me. While I could catalogue all of the reasons for my feeling, I respect that many people may enjoy this book but I enjoy my reading too much to spend time with a book that I so strongly disliked

What a wild ride!



When Laina awakes on an October morning with the news of her brother’s disturbing killing by a Boston police officer, we are left wondering, is this just another case of police brutality, or is there something more lurking in the shadows? With videos that are seen one day, and then the next are gone without a trace. And monsters. Monsters have come out of hiding and start to walk the streets adding to the impending chaos.



This book hooked me from the first line all the way to the last word. The jumping of time frames kept me on my toes and added to the suspense. This urban fantasy novel was amazing in every way possible. And when I saw it was the first in a series, I just about passed out! There’s more?! YAY! While I felt some characters were a bit under developed and lacked some, seeing it was the first book eased that disappointment. As with all great series, characters are constantly forming and increasing with personality. I cannot wait for the next book.

The structure of this novel hindered my ability to fully appreciate the beauty and depth of Turnbull's story. Every time I got attached to a person and their journey, I was snatched away and wandered lost until I regained my footing. Then, I was snatched away again. It was frustrating and limited my ability to connect.

"She sets the thought on fire and lets the smoke curl away to nothing before it can do any harm."

There are beautiful lines and there are deep, thoughtful concepts that could take several readings and different meanings depending on who's reading and where they are in their life experience. I predict this book will generate a lot of great discussions. It seems to me to be a classic-in-waiting for those with the patience to read through the disjointed narrative.

I'd have liked a little less Le Guin~ish societal lecturing (does anyone not know what a cooperative is and how it works?) and more time understanding the narrator's unique ability and purpose. I'm hoping the next book goes into greater detail about the secret societies and their politics. As it was, this felt like laying foundation for something much larger and awesome to come.

The powerfully emotional ending, though. Stay for that. And points for diverse representation. Love to see real and complex people in fiction.

"I can't change the course of history. I can't make it so that things work out. Every universe exists complete from the start. It's already happened."

Thank you to NetGalley and Black Stone Publishing for a review copy in exchange for my honest opinion.

This book takes place in a world where mythical monsters such as werewolves and ghosts have always existed, but have stayed hidden. Suddenly, monsters begin coming out of the shadows and committing crimes, including killing the brother of the protagonist, Laina. Suddenly the entire world starts devolving into chaos as people panic at this monumental revelation. Hate crimes and murders begin rising as more monsters come out of the woodwork, including monsters inside of people. All of this is a metaphor for our current world, where we "other" many people of different religious or ethnic groups, and the hate crimes that are perpetrated against them as a result of this hate and fear. You can easily see the parallels to the modern-day, but it doesn't get too preachy, which is good. It's a fun page-turner, even if it feels a bit overstuffed with too many characters and monsters to follow. But if you can keep up with the myriad characters, this will be a fun read.

You know, I wasn’t expecting this book. Like, I knew I had it, that’s not what I mean. No Gods, No Monsters by Cadwell Turnbull really just took me by surprise. It’s gorgeously written with a VERY intricate plot. I genuinely didn’t want to put it down at times, even as I was falling asleep (not due to the book, but due to have two children under the age of four).

Okay, so what is so good about this book? The plot centers around several disparate characters that are all a part of a massive secret: Monsters and Gods are real. The book starts with the murder of Laina’s brother in what looks like your regular old police brutality. But then, Laina receives a USB drive with the real, unedited footage of her brother’s death. Her brother was a monster. Then, shortly after, a pack of werewolves decides to make themselves known by standing in the middle of a highway and shifting. Weirdly enough, even though it was on national news, no one remembers how that actually happened.

There are secret societies trying to help protect monsters from humans. There are politicians wanting to come out as monsters and vie for their freedom. There are tons of different monsters coming to terms with the new world they live in. There are dragons, werewolves, seers, techmages, all working together to prevent a catastrophe. It’s so good.

HOWEVER, it is a bit confusing, especially if you don’t read it in a few sittings. It took me a couple weeks to get through it and it was hard to follow at times. I had to go back and look at characters and the like to figure out what was going on. So, my recommendation is to read this in as few days as possible (mainly because it is JUST SO DAMN GOOD).

4/5, 8/10

I highly recommend picking this book up on September 7th, 2021 at your favorite indie bookstore.

This was a fascinating and complex book. The changing perspectives was intensely well executed and fascinating, though it took about 25% of the book to get comfortable with it. The concept was interesting and the characters excellent. The deftness of the weaving together of all the narrative threads was wonderful. Once I got used to the pov switches and learnt which characters were which, this was an outstanding read.

For the right reader, this is probably an excellent book. I can recognize that it's one that makes you want to think, to examine how society reacts to things. In the quarter of the book that I forced myself through, I highlighted several passages that were quite meaningful. Perhaps the most gripping one was:

"Sometimes, if enough people scream loud enough, the combined effort might get into the head of someone powerful."

It's nothing earth-shaking, but just seeing the words put so plainly down on paper made me sit back, breathe out, and go "Yeah.. Dammit. Yeah."

and there was a quote that could be read as a pretty damning (though truthful) indictment of human gullibility.

"Anything with substance can be manipulated. one becomes ten, then a hundred. And pretty soon, the whole world flaps it's wings."

So, it's not that I didn't like the messaging in No Gods, No Monsters, as much as it is I recognize that I am simply not the correct reader for this book. I have sworn that this year I will not force myself to read things that I am not enjoying, and as such, am stopping at 26%.

*DNF*

20% into this book, and it is taking me so long to gather the energy to continue reading. I just never seem to be in the mood for it. So far, none of the characters seem to stand out, I haven’t read for a week and I have forgotten all of their names. I don’t blame the novel though; it is probably my fault.

40% update: I have decided not to continue with this. It is definitely not the book’s fault I just didn’t vibe with it. I was never in the mood to read and then the Netgalley time I had for it expired. But maybe I will give it another chance in the future, who knows? Anyways, I’m sure someone else will love this!

Humanity by and large is not a fan of things that go bump in the night.

Or for that matter the creatures we imagine dwell in the shadows or which don’t conform to our idea of what is normal and right; for an expansive, inquisitive species, we have a fatal tendency to stay within solidly-etched lines that scream solid and known parameters.

But in Cadwell Turnbull’s luminously imaginative novel No Gods, No Monsters, people have no choice but to face up to the fact that the stuff of their nightmares – their ill-informed nightmares it must be noted because the “monsters” of the book are not all monstrous or worthy of fear and loathing – as they begin to come out of the shadows and the places between realities and make their presence known.

Turnbull never actually comes out and says exactly why the werewolves, shapeshifters and dragons think they are safer out in the light and the known spaces that in the hiding places that have served them well for millennia, but it is intimated that something is lurking in the darkness that is heinous and awful that the monsters, such as they are, feel safer in the harsh light of bigotry and hatred than in their traditionally favoured boltholes.

There should be unsettling and it is for many people who resort to lashing out and striking back rather than seeking to broaden their understanding of the complicated complexity of life which does always take the forms we expect. (Example A are the bizarre creatures that lurk in the depths of our oceans; they don’t appear like anything we know and yet they are just as valid an expression of life as any other.)

In a storyline that is wildly, brilliantly imaginative and yet grounded in nuanced layers and an intimate understanding of the confounding contrariness of the human condition, Turnbull seeks to expose the dark underbelly of society and, no, it does not necessarily belong to the world of monsters, though some genuinely evil terrors do indeed reside there.

No, the underbelly in question sits firmly and squarely in the realm of bog standard Homo Sapiens, many of whom see the emergence of these once-fantastical creatures as some sort of declaration of war on the so-called certainties of the world around them.

The truth is, as Turnbull beautifully and affectingly evokes through the stories of a number of interconnected people, is that what we accept as normal and known sits firmly within the often limiting confines of our perceptions.

Even when we see the truth and hidden wonders of the world, there are many among us who prefer to tell themselves them imagined it all or that they thought it all up in a moment of madness.

This happens again and again in No Gods, No Monsters and takes place even when footage has gone viral and, you would think, there can be no arguing back from the truth of what the eye has seen and the heart now knows to be true.

The brilliance of No Gods, No Monsters, which is written so achingly and intimately beautifully that you are immersed in its gently powerful narrative within words of its opening, is that it tells its explosive story, not in overwrought narrative punctuation points, awash in hysteria and melodrama, but in the quiet stories of its characters.

Laina is the first of the many compelling people we meet in the book, a young woman involved in an open relationship with husband Ridley and girlfriend Rebecca who has to grapple with the violent shooting death of her junkie brother by police.

In and of itself that would be catastrophically traumatic but as she watches the video of her brother’s last moments, she is struck by a strangeness so palpable and powerful that it upends everything she ever thought she knew about life.

She reacts relatively positively to the shredding of the certainties of life she once held to, but others are not so fortunate and No Gods, No Monsters goes between those who deal well with the shadows coming alive and sending their inhabitants out into the light, and those who do not and are caught in secret societies dedicated to ending the “threat” of the monsters within and without.

It is a revelatory exploration of the way people react to unexpected and unsettling change because Turnbull isn’t content to lay everything out in stark black and white; here in No Gods, No Monsters are authentically complex tales of the good and the bad in humanity and an intelligent questioning who the real monsters are in this story.

Its narrative hangs together in a wholly unique way with No Gods, No Monsters switching times and tenses, diving in and out of our world into fantastical realms between worlds – the multiverse makes an appearance and it’s cleverly handled – all while telling a tale through the eyes of wholly disparate group of people.

The only downside to what is just about every way a breath of fresh air in the urban fantasy genre is that we are only able to spend limited amounts of time with a sprawling cast of characters; however, this is ameliorated to a reasonably satisfying degree by the interconnectedness between this vast assemblage of characters.

In the end, while the characters matter and Turnbull realises them in way that make them memorable, what really comes to the fore in No Gods, No Monsters is how much we lie to ourselves about what matters to us, what we want from life and what we would be willing to accept if all our understanding of how life is were slowly but surely blown to smithereens.

This is a novel that has a huge amount of explosively impacting things to say but which does it in a slow-building way that allows you time to understand the people involved, the sheer scale of what they are confronting, and the enormity of what is happening to society.

Richly emotionally resonant, fantastically clever and sublimely, affectingly well written, No Gods, No Monsters is a compellingly poetical but brutal tale of how humanity in all its diversity (and it embraces queerness and a host of other divergences from the main with a passion) talks a big game of curiosity and thoughtful endeavour but how often falls over the feet of its own prejudices and flawed perceptions with much work remaining before we can truly say we have lived up to our potential to embrace life in all its wondrous multiplicity of expression and exuberance of possibility.