Reviews with content warning for Drug abuse - No Gods, No Monsters

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No Gods, No Monsters by Cadwell Turnbull

29 reviews

dancers_and_dragons's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious tense slow-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? No

3.75

Turnbull does an excellent job of handling multiple points of view, but be warned that if you do not like books where points of view are thrown around a lot, you are not going to enjoy this book. The twists of third person to first person was well-layered, and finding out

who Calvin (the narrator) was definitely kept me curious, though I wish we had learned his name before, as it felt a bit like a self-insert framing of the book and I was quite confused for a while.

The book made me a bit rabid in my curiosity to find out what was going on, and still dragged a little with certain points of view. I did feel, as the book went on, that they made more and more sense (especially when people started getting connected to each other and I wasn't just listening to one person over here and another person over there, but actually had stories coming together). I enjoyed most of the characters, too, and found their stories and motives compelling. Still, though we see many sides and many stories around the same theme, we're kept in the dark about a lot of things as the reader. It made sense from a narrative perspective, but for me this is why I ranked it lower than 4 stars. I wanted to know why things were happening, and wish we'd gotten a better picture of the grand scheme of things a little earlier in the book, so I could put things in perspective.

Ultimately, I'm definitely looking forward to reading the rest of the books in this series, but it was a challenging read in a way I wasn't expecting. I definitely need a little mental break from confusing books for a while, though!

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ledolehide's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

Pretty intense book. There's so many moving pieces I did not understand how they would come together, but for the most part they did.

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clown_the_basking_shark's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional medium-paced

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

5.0

Wow, this was not what I was expecting

Regular Review Style:

1. I love Dragon

2. I HATE HARRY! HE PISSED ME OFF!

Here's the real point: Paranoia has a physics to it, and even with something as insubstantial as paranoia, over time it gains substance, has weight. Secret societies are a result of paranoia, not the cause.

3. See above quote. This was the only thing I liked from Harry's perspective (And Dragon). Mostly because, this is the same type of logic that forms cults. Make a group of people paranoid and you can manipulate them. It's also the reason an uneducated society is easier to control. If people are uneducated, they're less likely to do their own research or be able to tell credible sources from not credible sources, therefore they listen to those in power, those who *say* they have the knowledge (heavy on the say). They won't question those in power. Societies that are uneducated cause little change in systems even when they are bad (for a real world example, take the dark ages in Europe).

4. No Gods, No Monsters is a genius title

5. I know Ripley had his problems but I did enjoy his perspective, I also really liked Laina's perspective.

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aformeracceleratedreader's review against another edition

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medium-paced

3.25

Parts of this was really intriguing other parts not so much. Didn't know this was a series but it is interesting enough that I would be down to read the next one if I can get the audio from my library.
There are A LOT of characters and their own back stories along with the current roles in the main plot. It can get kind of confusing trying to remember who is who /what their life has been so far.
There are some content/trigger warnings so make sure to check them all if you are sensitive to a variety of topics.

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megnut's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious slow-paced

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

3.5

Each thread of the story is interesting... but it's hard to follow and keep everything straight because there's so many. And that means the plot doesn't really seem like it can move forward much.

It's a fascinating world, but I don't really feel like I got to see or experience it much.

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caseythereader's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional 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? Yes

3.0

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spootilious's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

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

2.0

Read: August 16, 2023
Title: No Gods, No Monsters

Series: The Convergence Saga #1
Author: Cadwell Turnbull
Genre: Fantasy Horror
Rating: 2/5
Review:

I don’t really have a lot to say about this one. I didn’t… NOT like it, but there isn’t much I specifically liked either.

What I can say is that the writing style is beautiful. It is obvious that Turnbull is very talented. However, the storyline and the characters have this sort of vagueness that keeps anything from truly standing out.

From what I can tell, most people complain at how the story jumps around and the points of view shift so strangely. I can understand their point. I suppose I’ve read enough novels written this way that it wasn’t too bad for me. Though I will say with just a small shuffle of one or two chapters Turnbull could have kept the mystery while still making the shifts less jarring for the reader. In my opinion he didn’t quite manage what he was going for.

I will also say that physically reading the book makes it more understandable than listening to the audiobook which is what I first attempted. Dion Graham is one of the sexiest narrators I’ve come across but there was nothing he could do with this one to make it easier to understand.

Overall, not a bad book but not a great one in my opinion. Bit overhyped but love the writing style 😊

Quotes:

N/A

TW: Rape, Murder, Gore, Vore, Body Horror, Mass shooting, General Violence

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