No Gods, No Monsters gets off to a slow start but soon kicks into high gear with gripping action and a compelling story. Great characters, both human and monster, and a captivating plot that is very well written. I enjoyed this one quite a bit.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to review an ARC of this book. There were some formatting issues with the Kindle version, however.

I have been waiting and waiting and waiting for this book, and I got it as an ARC in return for a fair review. I wanted to love this book (seems like a common refrain for me recently). This story is absolutely haunting, and parts of the story are absolutely harrowing in the best possible way. I expected it to be urban fantasy, and if that's what you're looking for shift expectations now because this is much more literary in nature. This book will polarize readers - to be frank I loved parts of it, but parts of it I almost had to force myself to keep reading it.

In sum: Turnbull is walking on a line of brilliant and profound, and also occasionally... not. Parts of the book were really muddy, which was balanced by lovely prose and a social commentary that smacks you pretty firmly in the face. You have to pay attention to this book, and you have to finish it. I don't know. It's a lot, but if you love Monsters with a capital M, that are actually just people trying to live their lives, and are willing to focus this book is a must read.

Absolutely amazing read! I loved this book and the min theme of how humans and monsters and they aren’t in completely different categories. It’s like the lines are blurred. I read this book so fast and loved all of it!!

No Gods, No Monsters starts out as the story of Laina, whose desire to understand the circumstances that led to her estranged brother’s murder by police leads her to the discovery that monsters live among us. However, the book quickly expands its scope, jumping between the perspectives of a fascinating ensemble of characters, several of whom are creatures humans previously only existed in legends.

Turnbull has written an exceptional story about othering, oppression, family, acceptance, and the rawest aspects of the human condition. The novel is haunting and unsettling at times, with some lines burrowing under your skin and searing themselves onto your memory. But while No Gods, No Monsters speaks to so many familiar truths, it explores them in completely unique — and exquisitely strange — ways. How Turnbull moves between POVs and through time can be disorienting, but if you can trust in the process without demanding too much immediate clarity, reading it is a powerfully satisfying experience. The prose is spellbinding, every character is richly drawn, and it’s driven by a fast-paced plot with several unexpected turns. I was incredibly relieved after finishing to see that No Gods, No Monsters is only the first installment in an ongoing series, since I’m already ready for more.

Wow. Let me start this off and say this one is a doozy.

No Gods, No Monsters is truly a gripping story. I have to praise the writing on this one. It's beautifully written and descriptive. You can tell so much thought and time was put into the characters and their backgrounds. Everyone felt three dimensional and thought out. And they had flaws! Characters did things we didn't agree with but they were never villainized, which I absolutely loved reading. Everyone had a story and a motivation.

The mystery of the narrator was SO intriguing and well done. A nameless floating consciousness seeing into the lives of so many different people that all collide in one great ending.

It took me a little while to get into, however. There's a lot of information and characters being thrown at you in the first one hundred pages. Often, I felt confused about what was happening- but then again, I think that's done on purpose. There are times you meet someone briefly, don't hear from them and then you're in their pov again thinking: "wait who is this?" So when reading, take your time. But once you're in the halfway mark you're completely in it.

I definitely would recommend reading this gem twice. Once you have all the information going back will have everything make a bit more sense later on. But all in all, this is a good start to a series. I'm interested to see where Turnbull takes it.

As the first in a sci-fi fantasy series entitled The Convergence Saga, Cadwell Turnbull’s No Gods, No Monsters takes on the hefty task of introducing every relevant character and plot point necessary to establish the central conflict of the series. The fantastic is revealed to have been waiting just on the other side of what is known, but is knowing the same as acceptance?

When Laina learns that her estranged brother, Lincoln, has been shot to death by police, she initially mourns his murder as yet another in a long line of senseless, race-based shootings. However, in the middle of the night, an unfamiliar voice in her ear informs Laina that there is more to her brother’s death than meets the eye. After procuring footage of the shooting from this mysterious entity, Laina learns that her brother was actually a werewolf, killed while in his animal form. Upon releasing this information anonymously to the world at large, all Hell breaks loose as the knowledge of supernatural beings living among humans comes to light. This revelation sparks an event henceforth referred to in the story as “The Fracture”—the sudden, world-wide rupture between those who integrate this new knowledge and those who deny it.

A clear line can be drawn between the heightened political turmoil the world has experienced over the last few years and the in-universe conflict between magical beings and humans. In particular, the Black Lives Matter movement, as well as the strife endured by LGBTQ+ communities are clear parallels to the story of the self-professed “monsters” in the book who seek equal treatment, protection, and the right to exist out in the open. While admirable in its attempt at allegory as well as its ambitious scope, the multitude of storylines do not truly overlap until towards the end, and the transitions between each section that precedes this merger can be jarring, especially when interjected by the occasional reminder that our omniscient narrator is actually the very first character we were introduced to.

We begin with our nameless narrator, who we learn is returning to his hometown, the island of St. Thomas. He is looking for a new start as a teacher while continuing to grieve the death of his brother, Cory. We then meet Laina, who is also grieving the more recent death of her brother, Lincoln. Laina receives intel on her brother’s death, which proves the existence of monsters, and releases it to the public. Laina is in an open marriage to Ridley, the trans co-owner of a group-owned bookshop. Rebecca, a member of Lincoln’s pack, comes to Laina to discuss next steps now that the existence of “monsters" has been made known; the two of them become involved. Harry is a divorced academic who gets caught up in an online forum, finding clues that eventually lead him to a secret organization, the Order of the Zsousvox, who feed his and eleven other newcomer’s left hands to a boy called Dragon—who does indeed breathe fire and appear scaly—in an act of ritual sacrifice. Dragon’s keeper is an incorporeal, dangerous entity called Smoke. However, Dragon is secretly freed from his prison by other magical beings who seek his help in their plan to protect as many of their kind as possible from an impending war. Dragon’s rescuers are Melku, a non-binary tech-mage, Sondra, who can sniff out and distinguish different magics in addition to transforming into an African wild dog, and Sondra’s adopted sister Sonya, a being who can remove her own skin to become invisible and who subsists on the blood of others.

It’s a lot of information to take in and keep track of.

What makes this more difficult is how often the story stops in its tracks to give readers extensive background information on each character. There is not a consistent flow of action until the point when the storylines well and truly converge during an intense, pro-monster march from Boston Commons to Boston, Massachusetts’ City Hall.

The most intriguing section of the novel is when we are shown the development and use of the omniscient narrator’s abilities, which involve time-travel and the existence of the multiverse. This character’s ability to study situations from every angle of possibility allows him to consider the many facets of inevitability, especially when it comes to the mistakes human beings make, and results in perhaps the most poignant storyline of the book. It is likely that the other characters mentioned above will embark on similar journeys of self-discovery over the course of the series, but in this first volume it is the narrator who experiences the most in the way of mental and emotional growth. The narrator’s particular abilities also allow for the most organic recounting of background information in the story. Since revisiting the past is essential to who this character is, doing so as a means of introducing what we need to know about him is especially fitting.

The prose itself is very readable—despite the length of the novel, it is very easy to find yourself several chapters ahead of where you began in no time at all. With what is hopefully the bulk of the foundation laid in this first volume, and the fluidity of the climactic third act in mind, readers can likely look forward to a gripping, fast-paced epic in what remains of the series, as well as a magic mirror in which ways to engage more effectively with our own world are reflected.

Cadwell Turnbull’s new novel, NO GODS, NO MONSTERS, will be published in a few weeks (September 7). Via NetGalley, I got to read an advance copy, in return for providing an honest review.

Cadwell Turnbull was previously the author of THE LESSON, a parable about colonialism in the form of a story about aliens (from a planet technologically far superior to ours) establishing a presence in the US Virgin Islands (where the author is actually from). That novel excelled at combining vignettes of everyday life with its sf premise, which worked both allegorically (as a representation of colonialism) and intimately and realistically, in terms of the characters and their interactions.

This combination of everydayness with weird/uncanny premises works even better in NO GODS, NO MONSTERS, which makes sense entirely on its own, but which is also announced as the first volume of a trilogy (the “Convergence Saga”). The speculative premise here is one that might more readily be characterized as urban fantasy than as science fiction: there are “monsters” among us in the world as we know it now, shapeshifters (werewolves etc), psychics of various sorts, soucouyants (people from West Indies folklore who can cast off their skins and move about invisibly), and many others.

NO GODS, NO MONSTERS, however, has a far different feel than any other urban fantasy I have read. And this has a lot to do with the everydayness I mentioned. There are magical powers, and there are people using these powers both for good and ill; but for the most part, these powers are just another part of the life circumstances of the people who wield them, and who just want to get on with their lives, pursue activities of value, have romances, and so on — just like everybody else.

This in itself is a brilliant commentary on our social myths and fantasies. All too often, both in works of fiction and in what might be called the social imaginary, a distinction is made between ordinary folks and people with extraordinary powers, who become either heroes/saviors or villains (or both, depending). This type of story itself depends upon a bigoted set of assumptions; since the “ordinary folks” are generally assumed to be straight white men. Think of how the newspapers distinguish between everyman and so-called ‘special interests’ — the “average” American is always somebody like a white male working-class midwesterner who is mad as hell about immigrants and people of color allegedly getting ahead at his expense, and who therefore supports Trump. Why is such a person any more ‘ordinary’ than, say, an unmarried Black lesbian mother of two kids who has to work backbreaking jobs with long commutes just to make ends meet?

Anyway, one of the great things about NO GODS, NO MONSTERS is that it simply ignores such bigoted assumptions. Among the many characters we meet in this book, an ordinary person just trying to get along with their life might well be, say, a biracial trans man who is married to a woman but who generally considers himself asexual, and who is an anarchist activist devoted to organizing bottom-up cooperative enterprises owned and run by their workers (rather than by a capitalist boss). Or an ordinary person just trying to get along with their life might be an ex-drug addict now trying to repair relations with estranged family members, but who is also a werewolf, and who has been able to go straight and pull themselves together due to his bonds with his werewolf community. Or an ordinary person just trying to get along with their life might be somebody like the novel’s narrator, a failed academic who leaves the US mainland and goes back to his home in the Virgin Islands; he isn’t quite sure what he wants, or where he is headed, but he has the imaginative power to enter other peoples’ lives and observe them silently, which is where the material of the novel comes from.

In other words, there are lots of ways of being ordinary; most people just want to get along. It is this wanting just to get along that turns them into social activists, because our society is set up in such a way as to block their flourishing. There are many instances of this in the novel, having to do with racism, economic inequality, heterosexism, and so on. But most strongly, in this novel, it has to do with people having to hide their feelings and their very existence because they are “monsters.” Early in the novel, one of the main characters has to deal with how her estranged brother was murdered, a Black man shot and killed by a cop. Except it also turns out that her brother was a werewolf, and the cop shot him when he was in animal form. Werewolves keep to themselves, and do not harm ‘ordinary’ human beings, but who not part of the magical/monster underground is going to believe this?

In the course of the novel, the existence of monsters is revealed to the general public (or to straight people), in an event called The Fracture. Many of the monsters are more relieved than disturbed by this; they are anxious to come out of the closet and go public with who they are – a civil rights movement arises. But there are also forces seeking to suppress the evidence, and to make the monsters disappear from public view once again. The videos that proliferated across the Internet, showing the transformation of werewolved back into human form, mysteriously get erased. This itself seems to be a supernatural act. For there are also secret societies of monsters with their own hidden agendas, who seek to manipulate events for their own power and profit. And some of the monsters do in fact have scary supernatural powers. And there is also a lot of bigotry against monsters on the part of other people, even otherwise progressive other people. And there is still a lot of violence; this is a book that does not shy from representing murder, mutilation, and other ugly forms of abuse. Some of this violence is of the sort that we expect from the supernatural-with-elements-of-horror subgenre that this book belongs to. But more of the violence comes from straight people killing monsters by shooting guns — a form of violence that monsters are just as susceptible to as any other human beings. Monsters, like other outsider minorities, are much more often the victims of violence than its perpetrators.

NO GODS, NO MONSTERS does not have a single narrative focus; the narrative will stay with one character or set of characters for a few chapters, then switch attention to other ones. This back-and-forth seems to have disturbed some of the more simpleminded advance readers who posted on Goodreads; but it is essential to how the book works. This is a sort of networked novel. Human beings, ‘monsters’ or not, are social beings; nobody is an island unto themselves. What happens to people happens in the context of their relationships to other people. The different characters and plot strands scattered through the novel ultimately turn out to be interconnected — albeit interconnected often by what network theorists call ‘weak ties’, rather than through some grandiose and paranoid design. I have already said that the novel focuses on everydayness, and that it absorbs its supernatural and ‘monstrous’ visions into this everydayness; well, loose entanglements and interconnections are part of this everydayness. The novel gives us a powerful sense that, although nobody is unequivocally in control, nobody is insignificant either. This is one of the novel’s gifts, and part of what makes it so moving.

This sense of interconnection also pertains to the narrator. Though often he is recounting, in the third person, what happens to other people, he also has his own story, and his own emotional problems — his failed relationships, although entirely mundane, resonate strongly with the failures and problems experienced by the other characters, who are either monsters or the straight people who love them. The narrator’s insight into the lives of these other characters is itself something of a monster-like power; his “I” is there, although invisible, when things happen to other people. Mostly he is unnoticed, but sometimes the monsters, with their supernatural powers, are able to detect his presence, He seems, therefore, to be able to travel through time and space via astral projection; there are also references to the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics, and the sad life of that theory’s inventor, Hugh Everett, itself becomes a strand in the novel interwoven with the entirely fictional ones. It is noteworthy how the special status of the narrator who says “I” does not seem like a metafictional/postmodern conceit, but is itself woven into the textures of the novel’s world of networked interchanges, mirroring situations, and general drift. Throughout the book, existential crisis and everydayness also interpenetrate one another.

The novel’s title, NO GODS, NO MONSTERS, is itself a play on the old anarchist slogan, “no gods, no masters.” This is an egalitarian hope, something that cuts against the structure of the system of patriarchal racial capitalism in which we actually live. But such an “axiom of equality” (to cite something that has been formulated in varying ways by such theorists as Jacques Ranciere and Alain Badiou) is essential both to what it means to be human, and now to what it might mean to be posthuman or more-than-human. It is essential to anybody’s flourishing. In the novel, there are both gods and monsters. But the slogan “no gods, no monsters” is chanted by the monsters themselves, and their supporters. The “monsters” we meet do not want to give up being monsters — which is who they are, or what it means to be themselves — but they want to abolish the sense that “the monster” is an absolute other, an aberrant category, designating people (or sentient beings) who cannot be admitted into society. Isn’t this the dilemma faced by so many insurgent groups today (people of color, women, gays and lesbians, trans people, disabled people, and so on) who are always getting accused of “identity politics” when they point up how they are being excluded and victimized precisely on the basis of their perceived “identity”?

In short, NO GODS, NO MONSTERS is a reflection on some of the most crucial issues and social conditions that we are faced with today. At the same time, it is quite singular — different from just about anything else I have read. Its combination of detached drifting and fascination makes for a unique reading experience, a tone I have not found anywhere else.

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.

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.