I’ve read a couple of horror/monster related novels already this year, with Mark Matthews’ The Hobgoblin of Little Minds being the pick of the bunch. Cadwell Turnbull’s second book, No Gods, No Monsters, is a different beast altogether, if you pardon the pun. Both authors offer a fresh take on the werewolf mythos, preferring to focus on the psychological effect of actually being a monster in a contemporary environment. Whereas Matthews’ book is a visceral gut-punch, Turnbull’s novel is more reflective, has a larger cast of characters, and weaves its story through time and locations which don’t, at the outset, seem to connect with one another. But they do, in the end. How Turnbull gets there is genius.

It’s a difficult book to give a synopsis of, but I’ll try. The book is framed and narrated in parts by Calvin who, like the author, is a native of the U.S. Virgin Islands. He ends a relationship when he learns of his brother’s death. He goes back home to reconnect with his niece. Laina, who I consider to be the main character, has also lost her brother, Lincoln, who was gunned down by police. Echoes of police violence on people of colour in the U.S. and elsewhere weighed heavy on my mind as I read this and other parts of the story. Laina learns of a video of her brother’s shooting and immediately shares it online. It is proof that monsters live among us, because her brother was one. But the video is mysteriously edited, leaving Laina and her husband Ridley knocked back emotionally.

And that’s just two of the many character arcs going on here. Throughout the novel we learn of a war between two secret societies: one wants to let the world know that monsters co-exist with regular humanity; the other uses violent means to suppress the information. Caught between the two is a young boy with powers of his own, enough to turn the tide one way or another. He is protected by a group of women which includes a tech mage and a woman who literally takes her skin off and becomes invisible. The boy, who I won’t name because it’s a spoiler of sorts, is hunted by a man who’s been maimed in a ritual. It’s all sorts of crazy, and somewhere in the back of it all, there’s a debate on quantum physics and the ability to slip between dimensions. So, some of what happens occurs in our world, I think, while other events occur in a parallel universe.

One of the many things I love about this book is the diversity of its characters. Cadwellr Turnbull brings them to life in a way I’ve not experienced in my reading too much of late. Turnbull brings his Caribbean culture to life in these pages, flavouring his book with characters that do not identify as ‘straight’ or binary. Despite being self-proclaimed monsters in the classic sense, they are as human as you or I, and share similar needs and identities as any of us on this planet. This book left me with a need to read more fiction by authors who don’t look like me, or live a lifestyle similar to mine. I consider this a must in this day and age.

Although No Gods, No Monsters is a fantastical tale, brilliantly written and told, the depth of feeling and sense of urgency is as real as anything you would see in our world. This book will sit with me for some time to come.

My thanks goes to NetGalley and Blackstone Publishing for supplying me with an ARC of No Gods, No Monsters, in exchange for an honest review. The book will be published on September 7, 2021. Get your copy now. You won’t regret it.

The description of No Gods, No Monsters sounded absolutely insane and I obviously had to request an ARC... Unfortunately it left me disappointed. The story is well written, don’t get me wrong, but it’s so incredibly slow paced and the bouncing between past and present got a bit overwhelming.

Overall it’s a pretty solid read, just wasn’t for me

No Gods, No Monsters details the discovery of “monsters,” the events leading up to this reveal, and how the world copes with this discovery. The story is told through a cast of characters who at first appear to be unconnected but are slowly revealed to have fewer degrees of separation than originally thought. Told in a non-linear timeline, which may not be for all readers, and with a slow build that makes sense when one remembers that this book is intended to be the first in a series (The Convergence Series).

I began this book with a generic idea of what to expect from an urban sci-fi fantasy but in the reading it seemed to bleed into the supernatural/paranormal genre. I say this largely because of the focus on werewolves and other shape shifters, which to me speak more to the supernatural. Not a bad thing, it simply meant I had to reorient myself and my expectations. There were urban fantasy elements as well and though they were not prominent in this book it seems as if they will feature more prominently in future installments of this series.

I appreciated the BIPOC and LGBTQI representation found in the main characters - none of it felt forced or like tokenism. There is a strong focus on the characters, othering, and social justice that seemed to outweigh world building which could be a downside for some who prefer a fully fleshed-out world from their SFF.

This was not a book I could read passively because of the non-linear timeline and the large cast of characters. There are many threads that only come together in the end and if I forgot what happened earlier it became confusing and required a quick skim to remind myself. The build was slow but I’m glad I stayed with it to the end because the last portion of the book was highly engaging.

No Gods, No Monsters attempts to do a lot and it succeeded overall - I would definitely be interested in seeing what comes next in this series!

cw: sexual abuse, drug use, suicide, gun violence

Goodreads review - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3864890531
Instagram review - https://www.instagram.com/p/CLzcaf2A6zh/?igshid=1hfrqyae60kxr

When monsters decide to come out of closet the world will have to deal with it the best it can.
I loved the idea and description of this book. Unfortunately, I found it difficult to get into and slow paced. A lot of emphasis is on psychology and thoughts while changing point of view and timeline too fast for me to start to care about any one character.
Love the inclusivnes.
Might be a good fit for reader enjoying slow thriller.

"No Gods, No Monsters" is an urban fantasy that seamlessly combines 'traditional' urban fantasy elements with modern-day politics, activism, and a diverse cast of characters. It's got secret societies and anarchism, werewolves and solidarity co-ops, and even a character whose name and role is a delightful nod to Greek mythology. Ultimately, it is a deeply compelling story about connection, compassion, love, family, and what it means to be a person. And also, a little bit, about monsters.

The story is told in a series of interconnected chapters (framed by a first-person metanarrative of sorts) focused around separate characters, whose lives being to intertwine with each other in various ways, and finally rocketing to a dramatic, chilling climax and final convergence. I generally appreciate stories told from multiple perspectives and centering a variety of characters; while I do believe it worked well for this book in the end, it was jarring at first, especially the occasional switches from first to third person narration. It's eminently worth sticking with, though, if you find it similarly disconcerting; eventually, the characters' stories connect very naturally, and the different perspectives create a great deal of investment in each separate thread of the story.

I'll be very happily seeking out Turnbull's previous and future work after reading this. Four stars, and very enthusiastically recommended.

This is a gorgeous, strange and unexpected book.

Set in a world where monsters reveal themselves to be real, this book unpacks the social and political ramifications of such a revelation. We look at this through several different characters and lenses, and each is a powerful prism of supernatural fantasy to consider questions of oppression, injustice, and anarchism.

There's so much to love here. The prose is sublime. The storytelling is constantly surprising and inventive. And this book just pulses with righteous rage at the very real world we inhabit, a world where we're often the monsters ourselves.

This one is going to be a standout of 2021.

This was a DNF at 20% for me, but I do think I'll be an outlier here. This was a DNF for me at roughly 20%. Thank you NetGalley for the chance to check it out!

I have to say, I think I'll be an outlier here, and most people would love this book if the synopsis appeals to them. It was too choppy, with short, POV-switching paragraphs, to really capture my attention. Not quite horror, not quite sci-fi, not quite fantasy--I can see why this is a positive thing to most readers--but not too appealing to me because it feels like Trying to be genre-blending. It could be a quick and satisfying read, but is definitely one worth fully paying attention to.

A lot of other reviewers are using "ambitious" as both praise & criticism, and that feels pretty spot-on.

Okay, this was almost a 3 star read for me, but the last 1/3 of the book popped it up.

This was super fascinating. I haven’t read many urban fantasy books before, and it was very interesting adding a supernatural aspect, as well as quantum physics, and some secret societies into the mix.

I will say it was confusing at times in the beginning with the huge cast of characters, and sort of being thrown into their lives without having enough build up or knowing whose story you were reading at each chapter. It would have benefitted from having each chapter’s “narrator” listed at headers.

I loved the way everything came together at the end, and how deeply you had to dive into each person’s story to understand exactly what was going on. It was massively different from anything I’ve read before.

Thank you, NetGalley, for the ARC!

This book is strange and lovely. The characters intertwine in interesting way. The mysterious narrator did make this difficult at first but I found it to be really novel. The book asks and does not answer, which I enjoy. I wouldn’t put in my middle school library but it could hang in a high school.

This book had a lot of characters that made it hard to follow.Talented writer story was masterful. However this book would be better as a movie than a book. But I did enjoy the story.

I'm a little on the fence about this because I wasn't too acquainted with the author or his work and am acutely aware that I'm not the intended audience here, but I do think the blurb is a bit misleading, missing a few content warnings, and doesn't make it clear that lacking threads of context will make it tricky to really connect with and keep track of these characters (which the fractured narrative only compounds). Still, the agile writing keeps the story dynamic and adrenaline-charged, there are interesting plot points stemming from the ornamental integrations of occultism and secret societies, the queer and trans rep is pretty unparalleled and the pop culture references are close to pitch-perfect.

No Gods, No Monsters is about the monsters living among us, along with secret societies of both good and evil. This story follows a large cast of characters who overlap throughout the story. Some are human, some are gods, and some are monsters. There are many minority groups represented within this novel, including POC, Puerto Rican, transexual, bisexual, asexual, etc, I was intrigued by the premise of the story, but I feel the execution was a bit rough. Some of the chapters are quite long and they jump from present to past and there were multiple times in the story when I didn't know whose POV it was. The story felt very disjointed and confusing. There was some beautiful writing within the story, especially around character dialog. Once I got to know some of the characters I really enjoyed learning their stories but I felt as though a lot of it was done backward and it left me feeling confused right up to the end of the book. While I would be interested in seeing how it all plays out for these characters, I didn't enjoy so many POVs and I don't think I could read another story in this back and forth format with so many protagonists.

Thank you to NetGalley and Blackstone Publishing for providing me with an ARC of the book in exchange for an honest review.

This book was alright. I wasn’t a fan of the style of narration - the way it spoke like everything was happening in the moment they were telling us. And I was not used to the fact that the protagonist was a full grown adult. That was partly my mistake, but I went into this book fully expecting a teenager or at least a college student, and then coming across a grown adult as the protagonist threw me off and I immediately felt disconnected from the story. However, with the concept itself and the way minorities were represented in the book, I cannot bring myself to completely dislike this book. So while I appreciate it, No Gods No Monsters just isn’t for me.

**5 Mysterious, anarchist, ACAB stars!**

No Gods, No Monsters is absolutely fantastic. Cadwell Turnbull wrote an incredibly unique fantasy novel laced with so many real world problems that were represented in such fascinating ways it was hard to turn put it down. There are definitely some heavy topics in here, so be aware that it is not a light book, but it is worth it. You just have to pay attention.

> Like most things, love came as a decision: I'm going to look harder at this one.

The story starts off with Laina hearing news of her brother's brutal murder by the police. This starts a string of many seemingly unrelated events in many people's lives. The world finds out that monsters are real, and they are living among us, risking their lives to seek safety in visibility. But why? Why are they making this display now? What is happening to make them do this?

> There is no way of knowing how many world-changing events were precipitated by the phantom cause of paranoia, but the number is sure to be vast.

If you are not paying attention to this book, it is a little easy to get lost. The chapters are short snippets, and there are many characters who get their point of view represented. I imagine many reviews are going to speak on this piece. However, to me, the multitude seemingly unrelated characters functioned to remind me the extent to which police violence, othering, and oppression can seep into every aspect of society, and affect people who don't even seem to be connected. It functioned to remind me that stories of people like this are often forgotten for the same exact reason. Sometimes there are just too many, and not enough attention bestowed upon them. It reminded me constantly of the bigger picture.

> No one knows who he was, how he died. He'll be lost in all this, his tragedy a deleted footnote. Unless someone ***says his name.***

What impressed me the most about this novel was that, though the characters seem to be unrelated, Turnbull connects each character **just enough** that it reminds you that they are connected somehow. It is just the perfect balance to keep you interested in all of their stories, separately and together. There are little Easter eggs in each point of view that remind you that the stories are going to connect, as long as you are a little bit patient.

No Gods, No Monsters is a play on words of the popular anarchist and labour slogan "No Gods, No Masters" which is often used as a chant at protests. This book is a a definitely piece of work in the step of justice within literature. Go Cadwell Turnbull, you nailed it!

## Big Takeaway

No Gods, No Monsters is an incredibly inclusive story about othering, oppression, police violence, connection and how we stay safe and fight back. Though it is heavy at times, and there are many characters to follow, it is absolutely a wonderful work of art.

After recently finishing and enjoying Cadwell Turnbull's first novel The Lesson, I was excited to read this one -- a book with a title referencing an anarchist slogan that promises monsters, mystery, and magic! -- and I was not disappointed.
Turnbull really excels here at crafting a narrative from disparate stories that, for much of the novel, seem unrelated; what begins feeling almost like a short fiction collection weaves and intertwines into a whole that exceeds the sum of its parts (though those parts, alone, are intriguing). The novel's description didn't quite prepare me for how disconnected -- and non-linear in time -- it would be. I do think some readers really won't be into it, but my only criticism would be that I wonder if there is perhaps too much here -- perhaps the basis of a series squished into one novel -- but overall, I feel that it works.
I enjoyed the references to authors I've read and know well (Goldman, Rocker, Bakunin, and even Nietzsche's eternal return), the explanation of the slogan in the title, and the explorations of co-operative organization, the potentiality of protest to change things, and the possibilities for solidarity across difference. I also very much appreciated the diverse representation in the novel, and the author's ability to simultaneously maintain the distinction of quite a few different points of view without losing his own voice in the process.
Finally... the writing is just stunning.
Thank you to NetGalley + Blackstone for providing me with an ARC in exchange for my review.
Content warnings: police brutality, gun violence, drug abuse + addiction, domestic abuse, sexual abuse, some gore

The premise of this book grabbed my attention, but it was executed in a way that I found difficult to follow. There are many POVs and the book jumps around frequently between plots, time periods and characters making it a bit disjointed and confusing. The characters are well created and interesting, but I often had to keep flipping back to remember who each character was and what they were doing when I last saw their POV. The plot is very original and creative and the tone was a dark style that worked well for the material. I loved the author’s creativity but feel this book would have benefited from additional editing to the format. More indicators of who the POV was and what timeline, longer sections that related before starting something new, more time with each main character, etc. This has such potential and great ideas, I think with some formatting changes it would have been a much higher rating from me. I would read another book by the author because I enjoyed the unique concept.

Thank you to NetGalley and Blackstone Publishing for providing me this eARC to read and review.

#NoGodsNoMonters
#NewSeries
A good start to a new fantasy. It has a lot of characters, but a very intriguing plot.

English/ Spanish
First, thanks to Netgally for letting me read it in advance in exchange for an honest review.

No gods, no monsters is complicated, but let's try to organize my thoughts. Everything starts with a corpse, all good stories start with a death body, right? The story goes like this; Laina has lost her brother Lincoln, a couple of days after the funeral she receives a disturbing visit and a video related to Lincoln’s death is released on the internet revealing that monsters are real, that werewolves exist and that beasts are walking among us.

Here we find ourselves among a lot of characters that leads us to secret societies, gods looking for silence and protest in favor of liberty and against hate crimes and discrimination.
The good aspects:

Well I have to say the account is one of the strongest points of the book, the author has an incredible management of the time, the memories and the monologues. Even though it has a lot of information it is easy to follow the story thanks to the writing style.

The only bad aspect I can recall is that there are too many characters and it is very difficult to follow what happens with each one of them. At the beginning there are Laina and Ridley, then we have a teacher inside a secret society o wanting to enter in one; after there is a dragon and so on. Sometimes it looks like the book is not going to take back the stories of the previous character, because it keeps introducing more almost every chapter. And when the old ones appeared again I didn’t even remember them.

Basically the problem of the plot is that inside a complex structure there are way too many characters and it is difficult to keep track of them and their personal plot.
To sum up I really enjoyed the book, the topics behind the story gave a lot to think about and to reflect on. The plot kept me at the edge of knowing what was going to happen next. 4/5 stars.

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Todo empieza con un cadáver, así es como inician las buenas historias, ¿no es cierto? La historia va algo así, Laina ha perdido a su hermano Lincoln, un par de días después del funeral recibe una visita perturbadora y un video relacionado a la muerte de su hermano se hace viral en internet revelando que los monstruos existen, que los hombres lobo son reales y que aquellas bestias caminan entre nosotros. Así es como iniciamos esta historia, pero no lo es todo.

Nos encontramos después con distintos personajes que nos llevan a sociedades secretas, dioses que buscan silencio y marchas en favor de la libertad y en contra de los crimenes de odio y la discriminación.

Lo bueno: bien debo decir que la narración es de los puntos más fuertes de este libro, tiene un manejo impresionante de los tiempos, los recuerdos y los monólogos. A pesar de que tiene demasiada información no se hace pesado de leer, y eso es gracias a la escritura.

Lo único malo que puedo decir de este libro, es que tiene tantísimos personajes, que es muy difícil de seguir, en un principio de la historia nos presentan a dos personajes; Laina y Ridley, después nos pasamos a un maestro, después pasamos a un dragón y a veces parece que el libro no va a retomar a los personajes anteriores, o que los olvidó en algún punto, por que cuando vuelven a salir simplemente ya no los recordaba.

Aquí el problema es que tiene una historia y una estructura tan compleja que le exige al lector atención, pero con tanto personaje es difícil centrarse en el problema principal. Por lo que parece, va a haber una continuación, igual hubiera sido mejor distribuir los personajes para que fuera más sencillo para el lector tener una continuidad en los eventos que estaban sucediendo.
En general me gustó mucho, los temas de trasfondo me dieron mucho en que pensar y reflexionar y la trama me mantuvo siempre al margen de querer saber que iba a suceder. 4/5 estrellas.

Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher, and Cadwell Turnbull for the opportunity to review this book.

This book starts with Laina getting the news that her brother has been shot and killed by Boston cops. But this case is not what it seems, something much bigger is at play here!

The writing in this book was beautiful and I thought the premise of this book sounded great. Unfortunately I found it pretty difficult to follow with the book jumping around a lot between different point of views. I really wanted to love it but I just found it hard to connect with this book.

CW: sexual abuse, child abuse, drug use, police shootings, mass shooters

It is hard to describe this book because I admit I’m not entirely certain what happened, but I’ll do my best. Laina’s estranged brother Lincoln is killed by the police because he allegedly became violent and threatening in a drug-induced crisis. The police refuse to release the tape of the shooting, which understandably makes Laina suspicious. After all, Lincoln was naked during the confrontation, how threatening could he have been? Laina is given a USB containing the video of the shooting by an apparently disembodied voice and what she sees on it doesn’t make sense: a scared policeman pursues a monster - some kind of big wolf - down city streets and shoots it but, after the monster dies, Lincoln is lying there in its place. Laine posts the video online, and the world wakes ups the next morning to the knowledge that monsters are real. Later that same day, more wolf-like monsters block a bridge and turn back into humans in front of the police and cameras. Very soon, the end of both videos disappears from every recording of it on every computer and camera in the world so that the evidence of monsters is erased, and most people go back to not believing. Hate rimes against suspected monsters escalate while some groups of humans work to become allies and protect monsters. Meanwhile, at least two groups are working against each other: one wants the existence of monsters out in the open while the other wants it to remain hidden. Or something like that.

I loved this book right up until the end. It’s an intricate piece of work, with multiple characters who intersect at crucial moments, and it always hides more information than it reveals. It explores philosophical questions and scientific theories, perhaps hinting that the line between Good and Evil, Right and Wrong, is more difficult to perceive than we think, and that magic could be explained by quantum physics (or quantum physics could be explained by magic). Some of the creatures and the magic are derived from African, Caribbean, Indigenous and other traditions outside the white Western world, which feels original and I would have loved to learn more about this aspect of the fictional world. The mood is a dreamy kind of dread, the pace is slow and deliberate so that the tension mounts and I was constantly afraid of a terrible tragedy happening. When the tragedy does happen, it is very familiar, something we see on the news time and time again, although it is driven by magic.

The only reason I can’t give this book five stars is that there isn’t really an ending as such. I turned the page, and was faced with the blank pages at the back of the book. Over, just like that. While there is a hint in the dialogue just before that end that what happened was only the beginning and that similar events will occur in an almost cyclical fashion for some time yet, I didn’t find it satisfying. Some of the characters had just found each other and I was interested is seeing what they would do together. The motivation of the group that causes the tragedy is not explained, so that the mystery remains nearly as opaque as it was at the start of the book. I understand that this how life is, the truth is rarely presented wrapped up in a neat little bow, but fiction is usually more tidy than life.

I have a feeling (perhaps that’s all in my head) that there is an analogy made between the “monsters” in the book and Black people in the United States and other predominantly white societies: the fear others feel about them and the violence this causes, the way in this book they are killed by the police out of misunderstanding and the influence of something that is outside them.

I’m having trouble summing up my opinion of this book, but I know I will be thinking about it for a long time, which is why I am giving it a rating of 4.5 stars. Any book that carves out a place in my head is a book I recommend, even if, as in this case, I was disappointed by the pieces left unresolved.