Reviews with content warning for Suicide - No Gods, No Monsters

tw: drug use, animal death, death, suicide, medical trauma, child abuse, suspected police brutality, active shooter situation, possible transphobia, prejudice, murder

cool facts: urban fantasy, first of a series, mostly third person and multiple viewpoints + timelines, lgbt+ (including an ace character!), BIPOC author, my first book by him, no steam (level 1), short chapters

tldr summary: what if monsters were real? would we accept them if they revealed themselves? feat. werewolves, vampires, witches, seers.

vibes: mysterious, tense, confusing, a little creepy, dark. excellent writing. a few head scratching moments about science-y stuff like the separation of atoms and alternate timelines. i’m very curious to see where this story goes.

Content Warnings

obscurepages's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.75

Wow wow wow. This took me on quite a ride and made me question what we know about the world.

It dove into the paranormal/supernatural, the secret organizations, the magic and the scientific theories that surround us, the reality that we know, the hardships that people go through, the society and the system we live in.

Another thing that really impressed me is the writing style and the prose. It was dark and eerie and so captivating. And the fact that the author blended horror, fantasy, and science fiction and he did it so brilliantly. 😭👏

There are a lot of characters and it can get confusing/hard to keep up. However, the way these different characters and their perspectives intertwine was so cool and impressive. (And hello??? That unnamed narrator?!) Kudos to the author for creating such an intricate yet satisfying network of point of views.

I really enjoyed reading this y'all. This one surprised me and I loved it!

E-arc from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Full review soon!

Content Warnings

ceilidhwilliams's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

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nini23's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

From one of Cadwell Turnbull's interviews with Lightspeed Magazine, he describes his upcoming book as "modern retelling of the civil rights movement of the ’60s and ’70s, but with monsters." Indeed, the title No Gods No Monsters derives from an anarchist slogan "No gods, no masters" meant to be a "call against discrimination and hierarchy," as explained in the climactic protest at the book's finale. No Gods No Monsters opens with a horrifically common occurrence in the United States, the shooting of an unarmed black man Lincoln by police and his sister Laina is informed. In the midst of her grief, she is mysteriously handed a video of the events which show her brother and others turning into wolves.

Ambitious, with multiple threads of polyphonic stories, this sprawling novel defies neat categorization - urban fantasy, speculative fiction, science fiction, social commentary. We readers are dipped into the lives and stories of diverse individuals and families including:
- Puerto Rican lesbian female Rebecca also a werewolf, Laina's lover
- guy returned to his home island of St Thomas, US Virgin Islands, his brother Cory Turner died
- Ridley coop bookstore owner asexual trans biracial (half white, half black)
- Monsters: Dragon rescued by Order of Asha, Melku (also from St Thomas) - tech mage, Sonya- invisible, Cassie/Cassandra - seer, sight mage, Damsel - witch, Yuni, Sarah - werewolf
- 2 orders of monsters, rogue ones, unknown organization forcing them into open
- Sociologist Karuna Flood born in Nepal raised and adopted by Irish parents in Ireland, went missing
- Sondra, senator running again for reelection, from St Thomas, Sondra monster, sister Sonya is a souyoucant (bloodsucking supernatural being from Caribbean folklore), Sondra's parents are werewolves who adopted Sonya
- Hugh Everett quantum physicist who discovers a new wave theory, neglects his family with devastating consequences
- Henry who falls into a cult Golden Dawn from loneliness after divorce

At first, the stories seem disparate, we are dripped backstories across timelines and geography but slowly the interconnections and common themes emerge. I love that the author gives space for the stories to breathe and for readers to reach realizations. One of the refrains is "So it fucking goes" - shitty things happen, is it derived from Vonnegut's famous 'So it goes?" There's drug addictions, racial injustice, spousal physical abuse, family inability to accept LGBT members, suicide, lung cancer from second-hand smoke of smoking spouses, PTSD in military. Close family and friends wonder in regret and self-recrimination whether they could have done more to help, to reach out, made a different decision in the crossroads of fate and time. This is where the concept of multiverses and alternate outcomes, alternate selves pops up with regularity. I felt that the theory of quantum mechanics that sets up this concept a little thin and basic. Also although the stories tried to be empathetic to everyone's pain and trauma, I thought in the subset story of Cory and his ex-wife Keren, his side was given too much emphasis, over-explained vs Keren's terror, I didn't think she had anything to apologize for.

The term 'monsters' is deliberately provocative, because if we treat beings different from us monstrously, what does that turn us humans into? With the release of the video of werewolves that is subsequently altered, there is the Fracture, those who acknowledge the existence of them and those who deny it. Fear, paranoia, violence and desire for destruction of the other pervades; even those who know the 'monsters' personally hesitate to support their cause publicly for fear of their safety.

I really enjoyed the range of No Gods, No Monsters. From a peanut growing coop (and the fascinating method of plant reproduction underground geocarpy) to the flavors of St Thomas (rum, obeah, souyoucant, hurricane, struggle to gain statehood status, iguanas, working at the local Kmart, local slang pahnah) to the SF elements (teleportation, mysterious omniscient fractal sea entity with first person narration, tracker soul worms, memory wipes, particle physics) to the abilities of the different 'monsters,' it's complex and action-packed. But beyond the thriller elements are hard pointed questions of prejudice, allyship, inequality, justice.

No Gods, No Monsters will be released on September 7th, 2021 by publisher Blackstone Publishing. Will definitely be reading book 2 of the Convergence Saga when it comes out.

Thanks to Blackstone Publishing and Netgalley for an ARC of this book in exchange for an unbiased review.

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