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3.6 AVERAGE
3.6 AVERAGE
challenging
dark
emotional
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
DNF @35%
Just not feeling it. I'm bored, confused, and skimming.
I'm sure it's a great book on something. Just not for me.
Just not feeling it. I'm bored, confused, and skimming.
I'm sure it's a great book on something. Just not for me.
4.5 stars
absolutely stunning. this is an urban fantasy about humanity being confronted with the existence of monsters, but is also very much an allegory for the current state of the world and the way marginalised communities are treated. this book is both political and driven to explore all the nuances of human fear and love, and it's absolutely a book that deserves to be reread in further depth. there is just so much going on here that i know i've missed some things on the first read.
the prose is literary and so poetic, it's gripping and just straight up beautiful. the narration style feels like a trance, and every time the mysterious narrator made a reappearance it YANKED me back into the present day which was just so well done and very cool. the NARRATOR, man. what an insanely fascinating choice of pov.
there are a ton of time jumps and flashbacks and SO many characters it can get a little confusing at times, but i really enjoyed how this made the whole world feel so much more fleshed out. there are so many moving parts and i think it was executed well. it's very much a Trust-the-process style of storytelling, i had to just have faith that the story would reveal only as much as i needed to know.
overall, i loved the world and the different creature factions and the way all these characters' stories eventually slotted together. this monster version of the world was so fascinating and i liked all the different approaches and discourses, i thought it was a bit of fun speculative fiction. i loved all the queer poc rep, it made my little heart happy, and i liked the way the rotating povs informed the next parts of the story.
if you liked nk jemisin's The City We Became, i think you'd like this one too :)
absolutely stunning. this is an urban fantasy about humanity being confronted with the existence of monsters, but is also very much an allegory for the current state of the world and the way marginalised communities are treated. this book is both political and driven to explore all the nuances of human fear and love, and it's absolutely a book that deserves to be reread in further depth. there is just so much going on here that i know i've missed some things on the first read.
the prose is literary and so poetic, it's gripping and just straight up beautiful. the narration style feels like a trance, and every time the mysterious narrator made a reappearance it YANKED me back into the present day which was just so well done and very cool. the NARRATOR, man. what an insanely fascinating choice of pov.
there are a ton of time jumps and flashbacks and SO many characters it can get a little confusing at times, but i really enjoyed how this made the whole world feel so much more fleshed out. there are so many moving parts and i think it was executed well. it's very much a Trust-the-process style of storytelling, i had to just have faith that the story would reveal only as much as i needed to know.
overall, i loved the world and the different creature factions and the way all these characters' stories eventually slotted together. this monster version of the world was so fascinating and i liked all the different approaches and discourses, i thought it was a bit of fun speculative fiction. i loved all the queer poc rep, it made my little heart happy, and i liked the way the rotating povs informed the next parts of the story.
if you liked nk jemisin's The City We Became, i think you'd like this one too :)
adventurous
dark
emotional
inspiring
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Sometimes I don't care that hardly anyone reads books anymore. Other times it baffles and angers me that when a good movie or TV show comes out the whole world knows about it and watches it, yet when a masterful, life-altering book is released barely a peep is made unless you know where to look. No Gods, No Monsters is the kind of book that makes me wish reading was mainstream, mostly so that I had people to talk to about it.
I only heard of this book because it was in my Slingshot planner's list of books to read in 2024, and it being there was worth the price of the planner. Caldwell Turnbull is a writer to the fullest extent of the word. There are multiple stories in NGNM, taking place in different parts of the world, and different universes altogether. Just when I started thinking that I wasn't going to be able to follow them all, they seamlessly fell into place to tell a scary, philosophical, intricate tale of monsters, secret societies, magick, anarchy, polyamory, physics, and too many other topics to count.
This book is part of the Convergence Sage, the second of which is now on my to-buy list. Turnbull has also written a previous book, The Lesson, which I obviously have to check out as well. If you're looking to go on a fun adventure, I highly recommend you follow me on this journey.
I only heard of this book because it was in my Slingshot planner's list of books to read in 2024, and it being there was worth the price of the planner. Caldwell Turnbull is a writer to the fullest extent of the word. There are multiple stories in NGNM, taking place in different parts of the world, and different universes altogether. Just when I started thinking that I wasn't going to be able to follow them all, they seamlessly fell into place to tell a scary, philosophical, intricate tale of monsters, secret societies, magick, anarchy, polyamory, physics, and too many other topics to count.
This book is part of the Convergence Sage, the second of which is now on my to-buy list. Turnbull has also written a previous book, The Lesson, which I obviously have to check out as well. If you're looking to go on a fun adventure, I highly recommend you follow me on this journey.
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Taking place in Boston, No Gods, No Monsters follows Laina whose brother is murdered by Boston cops but quickly turns out not to be police brutality but rather monsters. Monsters who are done with hiding away.
This story has many POVs; honestly, I don't think it worked for me. Many storylines were wholly uninteresting to me and became boring to follow. Turnbull is great at prose and building backstory and character but this story didn't work for me and I have no interest in reading the sequel. I still want to check out his debut and anything else he does because he can write but this one didn't work for me.
For urban fantasy fans who want a more diverse perspective and explore monsters that intersect with marginalized populations. 3/5
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Close to 'American Gods' with more mythical creatures and less gods. Interweaving stories and characters in the rising action was great - except for (what I found) confusing time traveling. As the first in a series there's some unanswered questions that left me unsatisfied, but still thinking about the story days later.
dark
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This was such a cool premise, but I found it disappointing. I have no problem with fantasy books throwing me in the deep end, but it needs to lead somewhere. This felt like 400 pages of absolutely nothing happening and very little fleshing out of a huge cast of characters. Nothing was really explained at all, characters came and went so quickly that there was no way for me to feel connected to them. I still don't really understand what was going on outside of the general, overarching plot. Could have been really cool, but just not for me at all.
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes