Do you ever read a book and feel like you need one of those giant conspiracy boards with the red string?
Because that is how I felt thru out this book. So much so that I will be purchasing a copy to tear apart and create a conspiracy board. I do feel that I must wait until I can get a paperback as somehow it feels wrong to subjugate a Hard Cover to that level of use.

Turnbull's writing is incredibly gorgeous that I found myself so engrossed that it took me way to long to realize that we were seeing characters reoccur, and that I should have paid more mind to the names of the individuals in the beginning.
I'm honestly excited for the opportunity to read this again, because this book is so packed with information wrapped in gorgeous writing that I'm sure that there is so much more I will see by delving back in.

IT IS GAY! IT SLAPS. It has some good representation of polyamorous relationships.

I did learn today though, that this book is not a stand alone novel it is part of a series. (Which makes the ending make way more sense)

I am a big fan of monsters. I believe that there are unexplained beings all around us and there are things we don't understand. I don't believe that we are the only intelligent being in the universe. If you are like me, I think you would enjoy this book.

This book combines fantasy and the real world issues that we are facing today, but puts different faces to them. What do you think would happen if it was revealed on a global scale that monsters existed? And as you're trying to get a handle on that all of a sudden all of the proof is wiped from existence and all you're left with is the question of what you actually saw. A question if you just conjured those images in your mind or if you did see it and you realize there is a force powerful enough to wipe viral videos from existence (we all know how hard, if not impossible, that is).

This book has a lot of points of views. I think this helps with getting the full scope of the story and seeing the way it affects different people that are within this story. This allows for empathy and clearly is something I wish we had today - a way to see an issue from all sides. However, this does add to the confusion. This book is kind of all over the place which I think is also the allure of it. It's from many different perspectives and it goes between different time lines, different universes, and doesn't fully explain each monster and god. Instead, it gives you tid bits that you won't understand without following the whole book. There are still things left open ended that hopefully future books (this is meant to be a series) will address.

Overall, I enjoyed this. Once I got the rhythm of the writing and understand each POV, their roll (as much as I could understand) and how they related to each other I thought this was an incredibly interesting book. This was an audio book for me and the narrator did a fantastic job as well. I recommend this for those that are interested in civil rights issues and especially those that enjoy the paranormal/unexplained. My one piece of advice, embrace the confusion and roll with is.


Thank you Netgalley and Blackstone Publishing for an advanced eCopy for an honest review.

I'm unsure what I was expecting going into this novel, but whatever it was wasn't anything like what it actually is. That's not a bad thing, but I am unsure exactly how to articulate my thoughts on this book. I don't even think I could properly summarize it, but I'll try my best.

This novel begins with Laina finding out about her brother's death. What seems like another tragic case of police brutality is revealed to be much more-- there are monsters living among humans. This event spurs the monsters of the world to come out of the shadows and fight for recognition and equality. But there seems to be another force that is fighting against the monsters, trying to keep them hidden. As you travel further and further into the book, you find more questions than answers, but one thing remains at the top of the list: why have the monsters been hiding? And why are they choosing now to be seen?

This book is very much character-driven. That is kinda my jam, so I enjoyed that aspect of the book, but I know that's not for everyone. I received an ARC of the audiobook, so the introduction of all the characters caused me to be a bit confused at first. The confusion about the plot and characters caused it to be a bit of a slow start for me. However, once I figured out the growing connections between the characters and how the overall structure of the book was going to be shaped, I started to get more and more into it. The writing is beautiful, and the characters are fully realized and perfectly imperfect. The book is structured so that you can really take a deep dive into the characters' lives and pasts which causes you to become more and more attached to them. The narration by Dion Graham only added to the richness of the characterization. There is an abundance of bipoc and lgbtq+ rep as well which is seamlessly incorporated.

This very much felt like the setup of the plot to come in future books in this saga. It was wonderfully weird and thought provoking and I can't wait to read what happens next.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC of this audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

No Gods, No Monsters is the type of book I can see becoming really popular; because the story itself was interesting and original and it had a lovely haunting vibe that will draw people in. The writing was also really good and captivating. I just know many people will go crazy for it.

With that said, this book just wasn't for me. I found it way too hard to follow and I just kept getting confused. Too much going on with too many perspectives were my biggest problem; but like I said, I can see people really enjoying it, just didn't work for me personally.

If anyone is looking for something different with some good writing I highly recommend you check it out for yourself though.

I was lucky enough to get both eARC and Audio ARC access to No Gods, No Monsters via NetGalley and I want to thank whoever approved both! I really love having the option to experience a book both ways. I'm writing one cohesive review through Goodreads and will be submitting to the different NetGalley listings from here, so please forgive the audiobook component in the ebook/print book listing.

Monsters have always walked among us, and sometimes we get to peek behind the veil and see the truth. No Gods, No Monsters opens with a young woman named Laina getting bad news about her brother's untimely death, and jumps off from there revealing monsters left, right, and centre entangled in different lives and communities. It's weird, it's exciting, it's full of mystery, and I'm not sure what I think of it now that I've come out the other end. I don't think I get it?

I'm not sure if this was meant to be a cohesive plot or several disjointed stories, but it felt disjointed, and I kept wondering if I'd drifted off and missed something big. I think this is probably the sort of book that needs to be read slowly and carefully, not set to up for audio playback as the listener knocks out mundane tasks. Nevertheless, I enjoyed the chaotic mystery of this book and I do think it'll definitely find a strong cult following.

In terms of the audiobook recording, this is not the best. All of my audiobook apps are defaulted to 2x playbacks speed, and some books seem slow to me at that, but this one tempted me to slow it down. That means the narration is quite fast-paced and may be too fast for readers who don't normally speed up their audiobooks. On top of that, sometimes when a character other than the POV character was speaking, the narrator adopted a voice that was somewhere between Yoda and Kermit the Frog, and it was... distracting.

I was excited about this book, but it fell flat for me. The book skipped around a lot and I was often very confused as to what was happening. It was hard to keep the stories and characters straight, especially with only one narrator. I wanted to like this book and I think others will definitely enjoy it, but it just wasn't for me.

I liked the premise but it fell flat for me on execution. The story was being told from a lot of viewpoints in the voice of one narrator & it got confusing at many points. I could follow the general storyline and what was happening but it was often a struggle to really get into the story because I kept asking myself “who is this again?” “Wait, what’s going on?” “Why are we here?” I think I would’ve enjoyed it more if it was narrated from multiple voices or less viewpoints.

This book absolutely blew me away. On the surface, it is an urban fantasy with light horror elements about humanity realizing monsters exist. But anyone who picks this up expecting a typical urban fantasy might be put off by what they actually will get.

Similar to Turnbull's debut novel, The Lesson, No Gods, No Monsters is more of a literary speculative fiction. There is a wide cast of characters who's connections slowly start to form to a larger story, and there is more of a focus on word choice and theming than plot. Also similar to The Lesson, the themes in No Gods, No Monsters are not being hidden. The monsters are very clearly a stand-in for other marginalized groups and there were some pretty timely messages about misinformation and the way society reacts to information it doesn't like. For example this response when a main character asks a friend they are a monster denier:

"Okay. You know about flat-earthers, right? Don't get me wrong, I know the earth is round. But I can empathize with the desire to hold things firm in your own hands. I've seen monsters the same way I've seen pictures of space. It makes sense to leave some room for doubt, to be uncertain."

It's hard to say much more about the book, as the beauty of it is unraveling the details as you read, but I think if the reader goes in with the right expectations, they will love this. The prose is sparse and hauntingly beautiful at times. The cast of characters got confusing but never so muddled that I lost trust in Turnbull knowing what he's doing. I hate to use the word enjoyable because the content of this book is incredibly heavy, with content warnings for police brutality, sexual assault, drug addiction, overdose, and more, but I loved watching the layers of this story unfold.

About the audiobook specifically, Dion Graham's narration was wonderful. He remains one of my favorite narrators. Though I will say there is a first person narrator throughout that occasionally got disorienting while listening to the audiobook. I would still absolutely recommend listening to the audio, but it might be helpful to have a physical or e-copy version of the book to follow along.

Lastly, nestled in the acknowledgements, Turnbull states that references to The Lesson in this novel are meaningful so you can bet that I will be rereading both The Lesson and No Gods, No Monsters with my highlighter and tabs readily available before the sequel comes out.

4.25 Stars

Content warnings at end of review.

Thank you to Netgalley and Blackstone Publishing for an ALC of this book

A diverse cast of characters come together when Monsters are publicly revealed to be real, and a power struggle between those who want equal rights for Monsters and those who want them swept under the rug begins.

Firstly, I want to say that I would love to reread this book with a physical copy in my hands, because there were so many characters that I was getting a little lost with just the audiobook. That being said--I don't think it was the audio's fault at all, and I loved loved loved the narration by Dion Graham .

There were so many amazing characters with diverse identities that I loved! This was dark and tempting and I loved reading/listening to it! I thought it was so interesting and I love that this was just the start of a series! Can't wait to read more!

Pub Date: Sept 7, 2021

Content Warnings
Graphic: Gun violence, Violence, Racism, Police brutality, Mass/school shootings, Death, and Grief
Moderate: Gore, Addiction, and Body horror
Minor: Child abuse, Suicide attempt, and Drug abuse

God damn, this book is beautiful and brilliant.
At first I thought I was maybe too dumb (or too white) to understand what Turnbull was getting at. But the story ends up weaving together so beautifully and perfectly. The only issue I really had was keeping up with all the characters and how they connect. Will probably reread soon but keep a list of all the characters so I can better connect the dots.
The audiobook narrator does a great job, though he does randomly take long pauses between words mid-sentence

So as much as I wanted to like this book, I ended up a little confused. There were a lot of different characters telling the story from their own POVs & it was a little hard to follow. Maybe because I was listening instead of reading? And as pleasant a baritone of the narrator, it might have been more helpful if there was a full cast reading each character.
The story itself is very interesting. Monsters living among humans. Humans knowing but not accepting. Apparently this is going to the first novel in a series and I’m very curious to find out what happens so I’ll definitely keep up with the series. Maybe I’ll just read it next time. Instead of listening. :)

*Special thanks to NetGalley & Macmillan Audio for early access to this title.*

There are monsters living among society in secret but a video shows they exist. It goes viral and it creates chaos…
This book has an interesting premise with the political and social undertones however I had a difficult time following it. There are different characters and scenes that made it challenging for me to easily grab on and enjoy the ride.

I received this book as an eARC from Netgalley. All opinions are my own!

Be sure to check trigger warnings for this book!

Monsters have begun to come out into the world. They want the world to know they're here. But no one is asking what has scared them out of the dark.

The concept of this book was really intriguing and it's definitely a book with themes that make you stop and think! As all kinds of monsters come out of the dark, the story really starts to test the definition of a monster and 'what it means to be one. It also touches on more current events issues such as police brutality and racism, and I think those things were done very well and added depth to the story.

The writing itself is very beautiful and the narrator did an amazing job! His differing voices and accents were spot on, and I greatly enjoyed listening to him read this book.

My issue with this book was that it was excruciatingly hard to follow. The writing was beautiful, but I essentially had no idea what was happening. There are so many different points of view and different timelines that weave together that I simply could not keep up and grasp what was actually happening. Each different section was easy to follow the smaller plot within it, but it was so hard to put together the overarching plot that I simply couldn't do it. I wonder if this would be more manageable to do with reading the physical book, and I do wish that sort of format had been what I had read. I simply felt as though I couldn't enjoy the story because I was trying so hard to put the pieces of it together.

If you're looking for a thought-provoking and intriguing story, this is the book for you! I would just recommend reading the book over listening to it.

Unfortunately I just couldn't get into this one and had to DNF at about half way through. I found the narrator hard to pay attention to and the story just wasn't grabbing my attention. Much thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the chance to read this early copy.

This book, wow, this book blew me away. I am not sure I would have had the same reaction to the print version. Dion Graham's narration made an incredible difference to me. I have rarely had an audiobook that ​immersed me so completely in its world.

This was an incredible book. It all begins with a shooting. It seems to be a story that we're all familiar with, police shooting an unarmed man. But as the book goes on it becomes so much more. The point where the book turns was a huge surprise. I seriously did not expect "that." The narrator was fantastic. When he was doing a woman's voice I wasn't thinking this is a man doing a woman's voice I was thinking this is a woman's voice. And the same thing when he did the man men's voices or the child's voice. His accents were wonderful. But just the way he tells the story he's not reading it he's telling it. Really incredible I'm definitely going to be looking into him more for future books

Spoiler:
I didn't understand some of the Multiverse stuff but the explanation of photons was better than my high school chemistry teacher.

Thank you for my early review copy. I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I believe this book will be a huge bestseller.

"Nothing ends. It bleeds."

This is a struggling review between audio and the book itself. For an audiobook I'd rate this a 2/5. The enjoyment of the plot, characters and overall novel landed more among the 3/5 range. For total review purposes I'll place it at a 2.5 in total.

I may have made the mistake of going for audio on this novel. Though the narration comes in halted breath and tries it's best to provide auditory depth to the circumstances, feeling and chaos that is this novel; it falls short of the marker for me. The pacing was choppy and took too long to adjust too. The breathy moments didn't add up to what I felt were scenes that didn't require the cadence. The hardest part were the characters and different side stories going off in numerous directions. I truly feel that to experience the exquisite prose and connect the dots more effectively, the physical or digital book would be a better way to go.

This is a truly unique read that takes the existence of monsters and makes them real when they show themselves after a brutal attack. It's a book with characters that fight for rights and others that silence that fight; a different view on prejudices and the harsh truth of acceptance. There is violence, characters that walk the morally grey line, drugs, abuse and a scientific mindfulness that makes you think Stephen Hawking laid some divine intervention into the plot a smidge.

In the end this wasn't fully for me but I can appreciate the talent that went into creating the diverse subplots, the different character dynamics and how it all tied together in the end. Thank you to NetGalley for the opportunity to listen to this advanced audiobook for an honest and unbiased review.

I read this novel a while ago, and have been raving about it ever since, so when I saw the author tweet about the audiobook, I knew I just HAD to get my hands on it - and let me just say, this did NOT disappoint.
This is potentially the best audiobook narration I have ever heard. EVER. To the point where I truly believe that even if Urban Fantasy is not your usual genre, I recommend you still get your hands on this. The narration completely animated the story exactly as it deserved to be animated: that is to say, beautifully. Listening to this was an immersive experience, utterly delightful.
The novel, too, was a delight upon a second read (or listen, in this case).. I loved every second of my first read, but this is a novel that I could read over and over, and feel truly rewarded each time I do so. I previously described the world as a piece of origami that you unfold carefully; reproaching the story felt like undoing the origami to find another smaller and more delicate piece of origami hidden and waiting underneath.
Frankly I have no idea how Turnbull does it, this is a phenomenal novel. I genuinely have not stopped thinking about this novel since I first entered it's pages, and the thoughts it left me with have been swarming in my head since I set it down.
If you like a wonderful narration, beautiful plot, and diverse cast of characters, filled with thought provoking moments that don't shy away from the big things, this is for you. Really, if you want an excellent novel, I assure you, No Gods No Monsters is that.

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!

My review for No Gods, No Monsters will not make a lot of sense. The main reason for this is that, to be quite frank, I did not ‘get’ this novel. I did try, I persevered in spite of my mounting confusion, hoping that at some point I would be able to understand the what/why/who/hows of this story…but, having now finished, I can safely (and sadly) say that I’m not sure what was the point of it all.
I’m fine with authors keeping their cards close to their chests. Two of my all fave novels, The Fifth Season and American Gods, do require the reader to have patience in order to understand their narratives. But here, I was never able to catch up with the story. The author seems intent on being as mysterious as possible, which results in a narrative that is confusing for the sake of being confusing. While I liked some of the aesthetics and ideas that were at play, however, I struggled to make sense of far too many scenes, so much so that it hindered my overall reading experience.

We meet Laina, whose brother was shot by a cop. What seems yet another horrific case of racialized police brutality turns out to be something far more bizarre. Not only is Laina's brother revealed to be a werewolf but turns out that there are many other types of monsters living alongside humans. After a viral video reveals this, lots of people ‘lose’ it.

Many of the storylines weren't particularly developed or easy to understand: we have a section follow a cult of sorts, a few bits on a pack of werewolves, another on a ‘dragon’ boy, and a few about Laina and her partner(s). A lot of the time I just struggled to understand how certain subplots fitted in the overarching storyline, as, more often than not, the supernatural element is only hinted at and we don’t always witness it first hand. This just made it harder for me to believe in this particular ‘world’, which, from my perspective, suffered from having a far too-vague world-building. Not only we aren’t given detailed descriptions of these ‘monsters’ but it seemed weird that one viral video would result in people going on to marches against monster 'hate'.

The characters were just as vague as their story, their personalities sidelined in favour of creating a confusing atmosphere. I often got them confused with each other, and some, such as that guy who joins the cult, felt very...unnecessary.

I will say that I appreciated how intersectional this was. The majority of the characters are QPOC, and we get some refreshingly casual lgbtq+ rep (so that we have trans, ace, & queer characters) as well as a (fairly) positive depiction of a polyamorous couple. The monsters are very much a metaphor for minority groups who have been historically persecuted and are still being discriminated against.

But, as much I liked the author’s message (or what i perceived to be their message) I had a hard time reading this novel. Not only was the pacing uneven but scenes that could have been easy to follow were not. The characters play obscure roles in their own stories, and I wish they’d been more fleshed out.
All in all, I’m not sure who I would recommend this to. I usually love storylines that aren’t afraid to be, shall we say, ambiguous, but Turnbull takes it to a whole new level. Confusing and surprisingly wearisome No Gods, No Monsters wasn’t quite the urban fantasy read I’d hoped it would be.