THIS WAS SOO GOOD, REAAD IT, trust me you won't be disappointed. It was different not a bad different just not like anything I've read before. I loved learning about the different monsters and their abilities. The first 30% or so was a bit confusing with the introduction of the different characters and not knowing who was telling the story and how they connected but once we cleared that hill I was good.

After a quick review, the story felt a bit scattered. Not sure our patrons will enjoy. The premise was fascinating, though! Thank you for the ARC!

Did not finish. The description seemed really interesting, but unfortunately the book just didn't grab my attention. I just could not get into it.

The premise of this book was really intriguing, not my normal genre. So glad I took the chance. Told through multiple points of view, this is a fantasy novel that is so timely, it almost followed the current headlines of today.

I am slowly beginning to enjoy more urban fantasy, and this one is only making me enjoy the genre even more. There are monsters here, for sure, and the author does a good job of conveying the fact that there are REAL monsters of the hairy, dripping-fang variety but also monsters that live within us. Which monsters are the worst would make for a great book club discussion.

The characters and action are both vividly drawn, sometimes moving so fast I had to go back and re-read passages just to make sure I caught it all! The ending appeared to set the stage for a sequel and maybe even a series. Urban fantasy fans will enjoy.

Recommended.

Fantasy is a genre that takes me out of my usual comfort zone, but No Gods, No Monsters was an entertaining read. I found the story strange, dark, and unsettling and enjoyed the multiple story lines. Fans of fantasy will surely want to pick this up this fall.

Thank you to Blackstone Publishing and NetGalley for this ARC.

No Gods, No Monsters is definitely not going to be the book for everyone, but I enjoyed it immensely.

The story was strangely told, as sometimes the narrator will refer to themselves as I, but then we switch to what seems like multiple POVs of other people in third person. This was deliberate, as we do eventually figure out why. I think there will be people who won’t give this book a chance to reveal itself, but I just went with it.

The story had multiple plots, characters, and pieces that didn’t seem to go together for quite awhile. It was a lot to keep track of, but something told me that my patience would pay off. I should share that I recently read Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo and loathed it for 50% of the story and stuck with it and ended up absolutely loving it. The darkness and existence of secret societies were really the only thing in common with that book, but it was enough to keep me intrigued and keep me invested in the story. Plus, I enjoyed the Caribbean inspired elements and setting and wanted to know more about who I thought was the main character.

No Gods, No Monsters was so clever.. I loved the way it tied in real Orders and quantum theories to build a plausible story. It was so well done! Also, the title and mantra mirroring that of No Gods, No Masters was pretty brilliant. There were just so many layers to this in so many ways and I loved that.

I also loved that the creatures walking among everyone were called monsters, like they owned the all inclusive name despite any negative connotations. There weren’t 20 names for different sects of people, it was just monsters. I feel that this book was really inclusive, which I enjoyed, but I loved the lack of labels the monsters were giving themselves in this story. I love the fact that we are doing our best as a society to share what makes us who we are, but I do grow a little tired of the constant need to categorize and label everything, so I found that to just be refreshing.

This wasn’t a neat book that told a linear story, but it was totally worth powering through and letting it tell it’s story in its own way.

I definitely recommend this and I couldn’t’ stop thinking about it when I was reading it. I don’t always share the plots of every book I read with my husband because I read SO many books and he doesn’t need recaps of every single one, but this one was weird and interesting enough to get me talking about it nonstop for the past couple of days.

No Gods, No Monsters is a book you have to go with the flow on. I loved it, in the end, but I think it's going to be one of those books that polarises readers.

Almost flow of conciousness, almost (initially) a series of linked short stories, rather than a novel, the reader is greeted with the sister of a man shot by police, as she is led to the discovery of the truth behind his death. In this way, Cadwell Turnbull starts as he means to go on, with monsters just another of the many marginalized groups in the world. Different in their own way, but just as human and just as vulnerable to injustice and misunderstanding - just as undeserving of either.

This was a tricky book to get into, I won't lie; the narration moves from person to person without warning, and between perspectives just as abruptly. Even the omniscient narrator turns out to be first person; it's a little jarring in places, but if you're able to get into the flow of it it really does work beautifully. It helps that the writing is gorgeous, and that the characters are easy to connect with - the more you can trust the author to eventually pull back (some of) the curtain, the better time you'll have. The range of diversity in both the monsters and the human characters was just perfection.

This is the first book in a series, and there's a fairly open ending; it matches the story style, and doesn't walk too close to the cliffhanger style, so I'll certainly be back for book two.

This somewhat disjointed but chilling tale of an alternative reality where monsters are real, but remain mostly hidden, reads like a collection of linked stories. We meet recurring characters, but they are largely on different trajectories. Turnbull is particularly adept at showing how denial, misinformation, and willful ignorance can effect perceptions of reality. Recommended for fans of P. Djeli Clark and Joseph Fink.

When Laina's brother dies, her first inclination is to believe that Lincoln is just another Black man who is killed at the hands of police in America. She soon learns that this may have not been the case when a USB drive mysteriously appears in her apartment. On that drive is the truth about the last moments of Lincoln's life, will she be ready for what it reveals but more importantly will the rest of the world, once she decides to release it???

No Gods, No Monsters is book 1 of The Convergence Saga, Cadwell Turnbull's brilliant literary dark fantasy series. Turnbull takes the reader on a beautifully written interconnected maze of events. But interesting and complex characters are the heart of this story, whether they be monster, human, or god. There are a few characters which help to weave each story seamlessly but as the reader you truly are focused on each tale, even though you want to know more about the previous one, you are quickly immersed in the next one, after few paragraphs. Turnbull is always making the reader think with excellent social analysis/criticism and discussion of geopolitics. Finally, I loved the monster mythology which is mostly composed of West Indian/West African folklore. As the reader, I was never quite sure where Turnbull would take me, but once I got there I was never disappointed, and I don't think most readers will be either.

“Monsters existed in the liminal space of half-belief and practical superstition. Even folks who claimed not to believe in God knew not to tempt devils. Superstition provided a certain kind of freedom, allowed a certain kind of power.”

A big epic story that pits regular folks against the forces of the unknown and the great powers of the universe. All manner of monsters are real: werewolves, witches, dragons, gods who walk among us and more hidden from human sight until now. When two secret societies begin warring, the tension of one against the other crushes the innocent between them. When Laina’s brother is shot by police a secret video reveals his part in a werewolf pack. When Harry investigates a missing online friend, he is brutally recruited for violence. When Ridley’s co-op meets to discuss new projects, they discover the unexpected. And a man returns to St. Thomas to unpack is family history, he discovers a unique power of his own.

My one complaint is the world created in No Gods, No Monsters is too big for a single volume. We’ve only just gotten started. It feels like that first hill on a roller coaster, a great ride that promises so much more. With so much going on, it defies easy description but demands a thoughtful read. Now I’m hooked and waiting for the next volume. Underpinning everything is the desire to be fully known, to connect with others who understand and accept completely and to make right wrongs from a past we may not have understood in the making.

If you enjoyed The Changeling, American Gods, and The Stand You will enjoy this book.

I’m having a hard time finding the words to describe this one (in the best possible way.) No Gods, No Monsters explores what happens when the world finds out that monsters are real. What begins as narratives following several disparate characters slowly draws together, observed by a mysterious narrator whose own story is slowly revealed. Literary Urban Fantasy is the closest to a genre I can come up with, with a side of intense, nearly Lovecraftian creepiness. The writing is simply gorgeous, and the representation is stellar, with lesbian, bisexual, asexual, NB and trans rep, as well as Black, Latinx and Asian rep. It’s easy to get lost between all the different characters at first, but if you can stick with it, it’s worth the effort.

tw: drug abuse, domestic abuse, gore

This book was an absolutely wild ride. I spent the entire time completely confused as to what was going on, and even having finished, I'll admit that I still don't really understand it. That being said, I did thoroughly enjoy the writing throughout the book and really appreciate the amount of work that the author put into crafting such a unique and intricate world. I do wish that there had been more of a clear storyline, as I found myself wondering what the point of the book was more than once. I am definitely someone who enjoys an abstract story, but I wish there had been just a bit more clarification as to how the characters connected to one another and what the main conflict of the story was. Despite that, though, I did enjoy this book and will likely pick up the sequel if one is released.

I really thought I would like this book, but unfortunately it just wasn't for me. I loved non-linear story arcs, but I simply could not follow this one. I basically have no clue what even happened in this book. To make matters worse, I didn't like any of the characters, none of them stood out to me and I didn't connect to any. The worst part was that it didn't have trigger warnings because I would have just not picked it up if I had known how triggering it would be for me.

A fantasy of werewolves among us paralleled with comparisons on race. Thoughtfully done but stronger on the fantasy dimension than the political one.

I struggled through this one. There are a lot of threads and it makes it difficult to follow the story. There is a second book, however, I don't think it should mean that you spend the entire first book confused, waiting for it to make sense.

I knew there would be violence but I wasn't prepared for the sexual abuse against children and domestic violence. I can handle gore, but its the details about abuse against children that really put me off the series

No Gods, No Monsters
(The Convergence Saga #1)
by Cadwell Turnbull

This book is one of the strangest books I have read! That's not bad, I love strange! It just makes it difficult to review and make sense to anyone reading the review. I will try to avoid spoilers, there might be a hint of some but in this book you wouldn't have a clue what I am talking about anyway.

Here goes. Werewolves have decides to come out. Maybe someone is making them? But our gal of the story finds out that her brother is killed, shot by a cop. What the cop's body cam reveals is stunning. She wants to find out what is going on. The video goes viral then disappears.

No monsters, No gods is the protest saying as the marches go through towns. But there several monsters and gods in this book and we meet some of each. Not just werewolves but powerful mages, shifters, and more. Gods that walk with nebulas for eyes. Gods that purr. People that teleport between places and some teleport between time. A boy, that is very much not a boy, and he is kind but used as a weapon.

The story unfolds slowly, one person at a time until they all come together. Then it bounces between places, time, and people's lives. This was the difficult part for me. That and Hugh's life. I really got a bit bored there.

This is a different kind of fantasy book then I have read in a long time. Lots of great things going for it. Other than the above mentioned issues, it was great. It is something I had to concentrate on. Not a book to rush through. A book to soak up, to simmer, to bathe in, and let it baste my brain.

I had to wait a few days to review it to really think it over. I did enjoy it and it was the strangest and oddest book I have read this year but that is certainly not a bad thing.
I want to thank the publisher and NetGalley for letting me read this intriguing book!

Thank you to NetGalley for allowing me to read this arc in exchange for a honest review!

For me personally, this was the type of book where you need to pour your full attention into it. That being said, I was confused with the various storylines for a majority of my reading experience. It took me up to around the 60% mark for me to just accept that if need be, I could take a few minutes and try my best to remind myself of the characters and which storyline they were a part of. Once I gave myself that grace, things seemed to click together a little easier. I enjoyed getting to see the different types of monsters and how they see the world from before things were made public and after.

What do we have around here? Apparently monsters have always lived among us, even organized in secret societies (with all the internal struggles that accompany that), and suddenly everything explodes and comes to light. And that is what some want and others do not. The reason for that precise moment we do not know.

I am going to try to organize my ideas, but I want to say that the novel does not present the plot that way so neatly, which is a problem; it is like a pile of threads that you are pulling and pulling trying to untangle the skein, and you find different stamens, and without finding the end of the skein that you were looking for, I must say it. (There is a second book.)

It is a choral novel/ensemble. It has various perspectives of different characters, at different times, and jumps back and forth. The various narrators themselves are not too dense inconvenient, what I did struggle to understand was the perspective of the 'all-knowing' narrator, which is not. He is another character. And it is difficult to me, difficult to make this distinction. Someone may consider it a brilliant, interesting literary device that borders between that 'fourth wall' and what seems to have been perhaps a stream of consciousness, but it definitely does not make it easier to read. As I mentioned in one of my comments, this will probably improve if the novel is read more than once, to understand all these times and perspectives.

The book has a strong level of violence, sexual abuse against children and domestic violence. And its good bit of gore.

I suppose this could count as a kind of allegory about minorities and how in a moment social conflicts erupt, that they are all the same, or something like that. But all this violence and manipulations, without even finding a clear objective, did not end up liking me.

Some real people are mentioned in relation to this story, mainly in relation to cults and secret occult societies that actually exist.

-Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn
https://www.grunge.com/296071/the-tru...

-L. Ron Hubbard and Jack Parsons
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thelema

-Marjorie Cameron and Thelema
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marjori...

The fictional part that it puts, reminds me of some famous horror tales.
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Me gustó? No.
Cosas interesantes? Sí.

+Digital ARC gently provided by Netgalley and publishers in exchange for an honest review+

I was interested in the premise of this book- what happens when monsters or supernatural beings reveal that they've been among us all along? But I had difficulties.

The book jumps around a lot. There were at least three or four different storylines happening when I put the book down. Some of them might have been tangentially connected, but I couldn't tell. It seemed like one character (who spoke in first person) would insert themselves into the middle of other storylines like they were observing, but they were either dreaming, astrally-projecting, or somehow being there without any other characters noticing. I wasn't sure what was happening. The breaks between the storylines themselves were abrupt in transition. Maybe the copy of the book I had didn't have breaks marked as clearly, but I had difficulty with the changing storylines. Also, the characters themselves didn't seem to have distinct voices. There were different characters introduced, but I had a hard time keeping track of who was who because they "sounded" similar to me. Sondra and Sonya, for example. They were introduced in the same sentence and I couldn't distinguish them personality-wise.

Tone fluctuated, too. There was a young woman agonizing about her brother, who had been molested as a boy, and how she failed to save him. Then a quick change to a scene about a secret semi-cannibal cult- horror, sort of? Then a character having a beer in St. Thomas reminiscing about old times.

I couldn't seem to concentrate enough to get a handle on what was happening, and I ended up putting the book down for good.