No Gods for Drowning is a dark fantasy mystery built around mythology. The plot is interesting, and it has a lot of twists. There was really great queer representation in it as well, which I was impressed with. I'm surprised I haven't seen more people talking about this book yet because I could see it being big on fantasy booktok! It's listed as a horror, but I think it's more of a thriller. Regardless, it was a good read and if you're interested in fantasy mysteries I think you'd enjoy it!

If you're read Brandon Sanderson's Laws of Magic, this book broke a law that didn't help me enjoy the book. "The author's ability to resolve conflicts in a satisfying way with magic is directly proportional to how the reader understands said magic." specifically, I didn't understand much and I don't think the gods involved did either.

Piper does a great job of conveying the ability of the gods to make change, just overwhelming cthulhuian power. But a god *accidently* gave her divinity to someone, really?

Mix in monsters, gods a terrible flooding detectives and a serial killer and you still cannot grass the concept of this book. It is The best yet strangest stories I have read. Wow evacuating a town they find dismembered bodies in this leads to an investigation but what the investigation on covers is more devastating that it initially implied. This book was so good and I thought Jody Harris did a great job now reading this book she is so good I have heard her now read books before and think she is one of the best. If you like paranormal And the macab you will love no gods for drowning by Hailey Piper A lot of times when reading books they remind you of other books but this book reminds me of Noah other book. I know people say this book is so original blah blah blah but trust me when I tell you this book is totally original it is truly a stellar audiobook and I can’t recommend it enough. I received this book from NetGalley and the publisher but I am leaving this review voluntarily please forgive any mistakes as I am blind and dictate my review .

I reread this book.

There was a lot going on!

3 friends, 1 serial killer. Crazy back stabbing. Parental love. Loss. Private detectives looking for a killer. Even a bit of romance. Child-eating mermaids/sirens AKA Glories? Gods have left. Are they coming back? What will bring them back? A lot of blood & death! A great immersive world.

Rep: trans lesbian mc, bi mc, ace mc
Rating: 3.75 stars, rounded up to 4

This book is tagged as a horror, but I’d say its a fantasy with noir thriller/mystery/true crime elements. It’s a bit of a mix of everything. I wouldn’t call it scary, but it has lots of death and blood and morally gray characters. It’s not a light read, but it is interesting and has lots of twists. There’s lots of murder, cult/religious sacrifices, monsters, gods and much more.

It starts off right in the middle of the action, one of the main characters is murdering people. That’s one way to start. A lot of these characters are morally gray and do very bad things, for example murder, which they justify by thinking their end goal is worth it. None of them are what they seem. They all have their own secrets and motives they’re hiding. No one is safe. They’re messy characters with messy relationships with their own flaws.

I always love reading about different mythologies and mythical gods. They always sound so cool. In here there’s a sort of ranking system of the god and so-called demi gods or descendants of gods. It was really interesting to learn about and to see some of the different Gods.

I loved the queer rep and how it was normalized in this world. Three of the characters we follow are queer. Even the gods seemed to have a gender neutral term. The author mentions Gods, Goddesses, and Godexs, so I could only assume Godexs were referencing non binary gods, which I really liked.

I feel like multiple narrators would have been beneficial. There are 3 main POVs, but we do follow a few other POVs of side characters briefly. I liked that we got to follow different characters and see what they’re thinking and their motives, but it also got confusing because it often jumps from one POV to the next, without warning. So sometimes I didn’t know who I was following for a bit. But the narrator did do a good job.

Overall, it’s a good read and an interesting world.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an audio ARC of this book

No Gods for Drowning was a giid adventure and love story. My favorite aspect, because of its rarity, is a protagonust who does cryel things for what she believes are good reasons-- that character arc is creative and led me to think about moral justification for violence in interesting ways.