This was an odd book. I went into it thinking that it was going to be this cool book that explored what it would be like if monsters were real and were pushed out of hiding. Instead, I found myself reading this interwoven narrative filled with too many characters that never really made sense. There were so many characters, timelines, and other dimensions? that it became really convoluted and hard to read. There was a lack of cohesion that made all these levels of the book feel like separate stories instead of one novel.

After reading, I was left with questions and a distinct lack of answers. I am honestly not sure what I read. I know it wasn't what the summary made it out to be, because it was both more and somehow less at the same time. I think the author did a great job exploring different themes; however, I can't say that I enjoyed the book.

When I first saw this one, I was excited. Perfect Spooktober read right? (I tend to start a little early 😂) Sadly, this one just wasn't for me.

Overall disappoinment.

It isn't the writing, because the writing is beautiful. For me, it's the flow.

It's also that this isn't a fluid story. It's more like a lot of little stories put together that sometimes have the same characters and sometimes have more .. a lot more. I'm just not a reader who enjoys this type of format.

I think those that enjoy short stories with characters that aren't fully recognized or explored, may enjoy this one. I, however, love well developed characters and a fully flowing storyline. One reason I don't usually read short stories. Had I known this one follows that guideline, I would have passed.

I sincerely appreciate the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with a review copy. All opinions expressed herein are mine and mine alone.

This book is lovely. It's written so beautifully -- It's like what THE STARLESS SEA wanted to do, but actually done well. The social commentary and allegorical storyline is strong, and I'm always here for a outsiders = monsters story. The perspective felt fresh. `

But the writing style is what really drew me in. NO GODS, NO MONSTERS isn't always easy to follow, but what a ride!

I dont know if I was just disappointed by this because I had high expectations but I found this to be a bit lackluster in some areas. It's not a bad book and I think a lot of people are going to like but I just didn't. I'm not sure why I didn't like it, but I didn't.

I too wanted to like this but I got lost in the varying voices. Laina has no idea of the extent of the monsters that exist in our world until her beloved brother is shot by a police officer and she's sent a video where he's transforming from a werewolf. This leads her into a new understanding and exploration. Turnnall offers a a wide-ranging look at the monster community, as it were, through characters such as Rebecca, Calvin, and Harry. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. I'm sure others will enjoy it and I put this down, unfinished. with great regret.

No Gods No Monsters is a scifi/fantasy novel by author Cadwell Turnbell, and the first novel in a longer series listed online as the Convergence Saga. The novel is really short - Amazon lists it as 330 pages, but digitally the length is equivalent to what I tend to think of as around 200 pages - but it is absolutely filled with ideas and characters. In a similar setup to quite a few other books, Turnbull creates a world (and more than one world) that is like ours, except that monsters/supernatural beings (werewolves/seers/witches, etc) have lived in the shadows for generations....until a sudden event brings the out into the open.

But Turnbull does especially well in No Gods No Monsters, and what makes this book something special, is that he uses this world to deal with issues of race, of family, of police and gun violence, and of solidarity between peoples who may not be similar except in how they are in danger from the larger world. The novel is told in a very nonlinear and sometimes disorienting fashion, jumping from character to character in various places and subplots that feel disconnected for large stretches, but the characters are all done so really well that it mostly comes together in the end to something that hits hard. It still is unfortunately only book 1 in a series though, and the book feels like it, with so many plot threads not coming together here, but the characters and themes have me eagerly anticipating book 2.
-----------------------------------------------------Plot Summary------------------------------------------------------
When Laina gets the word that her brother was shot and killed by the cops, she doesn't know what to think, having not seen her brother in years after he spiraled into addiction. Laina has an urge to know what really happened, an urge answered by a mysterious voice coming from nowhere, which leaves her with a strange video that is soon leaked to police - of her brother being a wolf when he was shot, before transforming back into his human form. Soon it becomes apparent that werewolves like her brother, and the girl who follows him to Laina, are only the tip of the iceberg of what is out there: "monsters" are real, and have always been.

But it soon becomes clear that there are secret societies out there made up with or dealing with the monsters, at least one of which seems determined to put the genie back in the bottle by magically erasing the video evidence....and by taking more drastic measures. But the reveal of the reality of monsters can't be easily forgotten, and sprouts prejudice and hate, and soon those monsters and monster-adjacent people living in secret solidarity find themselves in the crosshairs of these societies and their mysterious goals.

And for these people, for a man who can see it all happening through their minds, nothing will ever be the same.
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No Gods No Monsters is a hard book to explain or talk about, because the story is told in a fashion that is extremely uninterested in making it clear to the reader what's going necessarily going on, or what the overarching plot is. The book is written with a framing device as being told by a man returning to St. Thomas some time after the death of his brother, and occasionally returns to the story of this man (Cal) as he interacts with his brother's daughter. But the framing device is not isolated from the rest of the story, and so Cal's first person view occasionally pops up within the stories he is telling, with him clearly having more of a role - and a presence - somewhere within these stories, a presence that a few characters can seemingly see and interact with, which just adds to the mystery of it all.

But most of this book takes place in these stories, which follow one of several really well developed and interesting (and largely LGBTQ and PoC) characters in a world turned upside down by the appearance of "monsters". It starts with Laina, the girl I mentioned in the summary above, whose brother Lincoln's turns out to have been a werewolf before he was shot and killed by police. Then there's Rebecca, another werewolf and member of Lincoln's pack, who gets into a relationship with Laina and struggles to deal with several members of her pack getting scared away by threats. Then there's Ridley, Laina's husband (who's trans male and ace), who runs a cooperative bookstore and focuses on more socialist organizing, to the disappointment of his parents.

And then there are the other characters who are affiliated with one of the two cults/secret societies that deal with monsters, such as Dragon, a young boy raised by the splinter Cult of the Zsouvox for some clearly terrible purpose, who is rescued by the other organization, and just wants to do good and be himself. There's Sondra, a young senator in St. Thomas who is from a family of woo-woos, dog shifters with the ability to smell other monsters/beings of the supernatural, who cares for her invisible adopted sister, the blood-drinking Sonya and helps Sonya's faction, the Order of Asha, reluctantly, and wonders what happened to her missing parents. And all of the named characters above are just the point of view characters - there a whole bunch of supernatural and non-supernatural other characters who are well built and really interesting parts of this book that I don't really have time to mention here.

These characters are all really well developed despite the short page length of this novel, and it allows the plot, which is sprawling all over the place until the end, when the major characters all converge on a rally in support of the monsters, to hit some really interesting themes - themes of prejudice, of police brutality, of horrifying lethal mistakes, of solidarity between peoples with different interests, of love and blood relation, etc. It's about the cost of obsession, the impacts of choices that one regrets, and issues of free will vs destiny and more. Like I mentioned above, the book is far more interested in exploring these themes and its characters that forming a single cohesive plot, although it starts to make moves towards that end in the final few chapters.

Really that's the one weakness of this book - while it drew me in and kept me reading eagerly throughout, it isn't long enough to really pay off all of its plot threads, most of which it keeps open and mysterious for the next book in this series. It isn't a dealbreaker here, because the characters and themes explored here are so interesting, with a lot happening in the climax, that I'm not left feeling wholly unsatisfied by the result....but at the same time, it feels kind of like we missed out on a lot of what was being built towards.

So it's got first book problems, but other than that, it's really good, and well well worth your time - it won't take you long to read, but it will stick with you quite a lot.

I'm very disappointed to say that I genuinely struggled to get through this book because I was so excited from the blurb and from the reviews. No Gods, No Monsters follows multiple perspectives, from different characters, from different times, jumping back and forth. I usually don't mind multiple narrators, but I just felt like it was badly done here. Because of this, it has many storylines thrown together and it becomes a bit difficult to untangle each of these storyline threads─the “cult,” the pack of werewolves, the “dragon” child, and Laina and her relationships. It felt like the author was solely trying to be mysterious.

I adored this book. It's the first book I've read by Cadwell Turnbull but it certainly won't be my last.

Turnbull is incredibaly talented and has an empathetic and inclusive voice that is so welcome in the genre of urban fantasy. I am impressed that he was able to effortlessly weave a Black Lives Matter and civil rights plotline into a horror-adjacent contemporary fantasy that really belied his love of some of my favorite authors like Ursula K. LeGuin, Octavia Butler, N.K. Jemisin, Nalo Hopkinson and Nnedi Okorafor (this book especially reminded me of Okorafor's LaGuardia series).

The characters were so diverse and fleshed out. There were a lot of them, but his writing made them feel very real and I cared about the fates of each of them.

Ostensibly this is a novel about what happens when people find out that monsters are real and are living among us. What it really is, is an insightful story about what it means to be human through the lens of understanding monstrosity. In this way, this book geniously hearkens back to that foundational Science Fiction work: Mary shelley's Frankenstein.

My favorite part of all was how Turnbull was able to blend quantum physics, Caribbean cosmology and social commentary into a weird, original, fun, scary and all around excellent read.

I read this book while also listening to the audiobook and what a fantastic story. At first, it was hard to follow, especially when listening to the audiobook because there are so many interwoven stories and characters that it was difficult to keep them all straight. However, once I got about a quarter of the way in I was hooked. I had a better understanding of who all the characters were and it was a wonderful journey to see how everyone was connected in the end. Turnbull did an excellent job creating the characters and the storylines, I couldn't put the book down. The audiobook was also done very well, especially considering it was just one narrator as opposed to a cast of narrators with this many characters expected to be narrated. Highly recommended!

Give NO GODS, NO MONSTERS time and it will thoroughly reward you with a rich story, fascinating characters, and a world that is just begging to be explored and savored in equal measure. I've never read an urban fantasy novel quite like this one, and I was surprised that I felt myself going along with the ride through every character POV change (which I often struggle with as I like to fall into character's heads and readjusting can take me out of the story) which just speaks to the talent and skill of Turnbull's characters and worldbuilding.

Not to be missed for fans of urban fantasy, though this is definitely a heavy read at times.

Thank you to NetGalley and Blackstone publishing for the ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. This is a absolutely incredible story with literally every paranormal monster you could think of and even some that you never did. There is a lot of time and place hopping between sections which got a little confusing at time, as well as a lot of characters to keep track of. There’s time travel and multiverses and quantum physics. There were times I felt like I wasn’t smart enough for this book. The representation in the book is top notch with trans, queer, and poly characters and a diverse cast of characters. As the stories between to unfold and intertwine it just got even more incredible. I’m excited to see where this series goes because it was definitely an incredibly original world and story.

This will be one of those reviews where I'm not sure that I can do the book justice to express how good it is.

There are creatures among us, but they make sure that their existence is a secret. This changes when Laina is sent a video of her brother transforming into a werewolf before being shot to death by police. She uploads this to the internet, sparking a domino effect that has far reaches.

This book reminds me of The Bone Clocks and The Glass Hotel. Beautifully written books will never get the love they deserve because there are elements of sci-fi/fantasy in the stories.

Each chapter follows a character who is a fully nuanced person. Everyone is connected in ways that are either immediately figured out or understood later. Characters that are introduced earlier become fully dimensional people during their chapter.

The only problem I had was that it ended and I have to wait for the next book. I wanted to keep reading about what happens next. There is more to their world than the main characters or the reader knows. There are more connections to be made.

Review based on an advanced reader copy provided through Netgalley for an honest review.

Definitely towards the more literary end of the urban fantasy genre. It’s a series of interconnected vignettes of different people as the world becomes aware of the supernatural. Be sure to pay attention at the starts of chapters when it tells you when it is and which Earth it is. That’ll help keep track of the connections. It won’t be the book for everyone but this is a good choice for someone wanting a book to make them stop and think.

This is a wildly ambitious fantasy novel. I appreciated it's allegorical resonance and cultural relevancy (honestly one of the most inclusive books I've read in a while, regardless of genre). It's sprawling in its scope and at times it's tough to keep track of all of the character relationships, but for the most part it succeeds with its epic approach.

Before I get into the juicy bits, let’s start by saying “thanks” to NetGalley and Blackstone Publishing for giving me the opportunity to read this book before publication.
And now what you’re really here for: was this a good book?
The answer, yes…and no.
I did like this book! Cadwell Turnbull is a fantastic writer, so much so that I immediately added his other book, The Lesson, to my TBR. I liked the characters, which is really important to me, because not liking the characters is one of my least favorite things to have happen while reading—except for in some circumstances where the character is one you’re not supposed to like, like Humbert Humbert. The problem is when someone writes a character with the intention that readers will like them, but it doesn’t work. This was not one of those circumstances. I also really liked the concept: monsters were real the whole time, and you didn’t even know until a literal werewolf transforms on live television. I also really liked the resonating idea throughout the book of “no gods, no monsters,” and watching the characters wrestle first with the realization that while gods and monsters do exist, the meaning behind the mantra of “none above, none below” holds true.
So you may be thinking, “Abi, it sounds like you just enjoyed this book, why did you say it wasn’t good?” And I’d say, “well I did say it was good, I just also said it was a little bit not good.” So for the little bit that was not good.
I was confused about what was happening for 80% of the book. Now that I’ve had some time away, I think I’ve wrapped my head around the general plot points, but as they were happening, I found myself flipping back pages to reread sections because I’m going, “wait a minute, that doesn’t make sense.” And the point of view really threw me for a loop too because it’s first person omniscient, which is pretty atypical and a little off-putting, right? And at first I didn’t realize that’s what it was going to be so then when suddenly there was an “I,” I was like “hold up,” and then had to reread that chapter. And sometimes I’d get so caught up in the third-person narrative that I’d forget about the first-person narrator until they reinserted themselves into the story left me going “oh, shit, yeah. There’s an omniscient observer here.” And then I’d reread that part to see if remembering that someone was watching it changed the way I read it. (It did. It made everything vaguely unsettling, and also has left me feeling a little uncomfortable in my own life. Is someone watching me right now and reading my mind? God, I hope not.)
Anyway, I think I’ve gone on long enough for this book review so here’s who I recommend it for:
* People who like fantasy creatures in our world
* People who like pointed political commentary with a side of dragons
* People who don’t mind having to reread sections because timelines can be confusing
* People who are smarter than me and so don’t have to reread when timelines are confusing
And finally
* People who want to feel vaguely unsettled for a week after reading because they start wondering whether 1) there really are monsters living among us and 2) someone is narrating their life right. now.

This is, most definitely, a must read.

Monsters are real! What the hell are we gon' do now?
I didn't know what to expect from this story, but it delivered everything I liked and more. There's monsters, every type you could possibly imagine, from werewolves to... dragons? There's eldritch terrors picked right from Lovecraft's imaginarium, there's secret societies, time and space travel, and a mysterious narrator.

It's an absolute page turner. A completely diverse cast of characters, LGBT+ and race-wise, that's gonna make you want to know more about every single one of them. Sometimes a fantasy book, sometimes a thriller one, many times a horror. And it all happens seaminglessly. The prose is great, much like a literary fiction.

The audiobook is amazing, but i wouldn't recommend reading it only on audio just because the story is very complex, with a web of characters that might be hard to follow just on audio. I listened to another book with the same narrator, Lovely War, and he also did a wonderful job there. Dion Graham puts an emotive tone to every chapter, elevating the reading experience.

I'm so so happy it's the first in a series because i NEED the next books. I feel like this one just showed me the tip of the iceberg and I'm so excited to see what else is there in the universe Cadwell Turnbull created.

I received an advance copy of this book through netgaalley to review and here are my thoughts.

Off the bat, I am bias because I am a Virgin Islander and therefore any book that has characters that reflect my homeland well…I’m going to like. That being said this book had some hard to get over flaws. Mainly, the transition between character point of view (and there are a lot of characters) is very choppy. It took several pages for me to sometimes realize whose story/ point of view I was reading. Second flaw was the sheer amount of characters introduced at one time. I had to make notes to keep track. We were sometimes introduce to a character and I wouldn’t read about them again for another 10 chapters.

I will say I love the descriptive writing. Turnbull made me see the images and the scenarios he wrote as if they were right infront of me. While I wasn’t invested in all of the characters, the ones I was invested with had me crying, stressing and cheering for them.

Overall, if you like a really complex fantasy novel then you’ll like this. I gave it 3 1/2 stars and am looking forward to the sequel.

Have you ever stopped and thought how the world would react if one day images of real "monsters" living among us were leaked and viralized? Cadwell Turnbull certainly asked himself this question and, as a consequence, he gives us his second urban fantasy work, “No Gods, No Monsters”, after his debut with "The Lesson".

It all begins with the horrible news that a young man has been brutally murdered in a police chase in Boston. Laina, devastated by the death of her brother, sets out to find the truth behind this event, to the point of letting the world know that monsters are real, live among us and now looking for ways to protect themselves from people out of the shadows.

Reading this book is like looking into the fragments of a broken mirror; they all belong to a whole, but individually they do not reflect the same thing or in the same way. That's the charm this story has and, in some way, that's what have kept me glued to its pages. The fact that the narrative shifts from one character's perspective to another in different time spaces takes it a bit away from the idea of a novel, getting closer to a compilation of small stories that string together gradually till reaching the climax. On the other hand, this was a problem for me when trying to gain affection for the characters, which in most cases was not possible and, perhaps, that is the main reason why I can't give it a higher score. Still, Turnbull manages to convey the feeling of meeting an old friend every time a character reappears at another point of the story.

Secret societies, science, anarchy, mystery, power of the people, a dash of gore and an ACAB message are some of the things that fill this book with appeal.

The book might seem complex, but Turnbull uses a very simple and light writing style, which facilitates the flow and understanding of the events, without missing the opportunity to provide lyricism and beauty to the narrative. On the other hand, I must confess that I found the changes from third person to first person frustrating at first, but it was just a matter of getting used to it.

This is not the type of story I usually consume, but the wide range of diversity and the great representation of collectives in the main characters kept me reading regardless. Of the things I was most pleasantly surprised by is the author's use of nonbinary pronouns that, at least I, find for the first time in a book. In addition, Turnbull focuses on a large number of issues that affect society and threaten the safety of millions of people so I highly recommend this book to all those activists who can see reality reflected in this, as well as to all those who are looking for a book to finish their reading slump or simply to enjoy an addictive story in crescendo.

Keep in mind that this is just the beginning of this ambitious and promising story. Personally, I will be watching for the release of the second book! I want to thank netgalley and the publisher for giving me access to the ARC of this book!!!!

Content warning: death by police officer, discrimination-based violence, guns, drug abuse, drug addiction, cannibalism, suicide

This book has everything. It’s got shifters, conspiracy theories, communities coming together, families falling apart, time skips, parallel universes, and the meaning of truth in light of things incomprehensible. Turnbull delivers another genre masterwork that this time blends literary fiction with urban fantasy, where werewolves and weredogs exist alongside humans, some of which want to ascend to godhood.

With heart-wrenching prose and deft navigation of several POVs, No Gods, No Monsters is a wild ride that I didn’t want to end.

This book is high octane chaos from start to finish. It flows with the ferocity of a river. It starts with a shooting and escalates to frightening reveals about the very literal monsters among us. Turnbull balances so many characters, each with their own stakes and desires, twisting towards a climax where it all begins making sense. I found myself dropping my jaw at the layers and levels of emotion woven throughout. It hits hard with both the heaviness of its social commentary and the terrifying wonder of its fantastical elements.

What really resonated with me was the way Turnbull has his characters navigate so many different types of grief is particularly effective. It’s mirrored particularly well in the story of Cory, whose life falls apart due to drug addiction, and a college professor who falls into the literal Order of the Golden Dawn. They navigate threads of losses both temporary and permanent, but when things go off the rails in each storyline, there are ripple effects to the experiences of the other characters. There’s never a moment in the narrative where any character’s arc feels separate from the overall narrative around fighting against what feels like relentless oppression and stunning breaks in reality.

Definitely a must-read for those who love shifters in their stories and those seeking a more literary bend in their speculative fiction.

Holy wow, this was such a fun read! Initially, I felt like I was lost, because of being bounced around to other characters. But there's a logic there! There are all these wonderful vignettes of sorts that tie back to this main point. I loved the mention of Golden Dawn, I loved all these nods to real and fantasy. I truly cannot wait for book two!