Reviews tagging 'Gore'

No Gods, No Monsters by Cadwell Turnbull

22 reviews

gilnean's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Animal death, Cancer, Child abuse, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Blood, Police brutality, Medical content, Mass/school shootings, Cannibalism, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Body horror, Deadnaming, Eating disorder, Transphobia, Vomit, Pregnancy, and Alcohol

Minor: Pedophilia, Sexual content, and Excrement

vaguely_pink's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective tense slow-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? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Child abuse, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gun violence, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Blood, Police brutality, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Cannibalism, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Gore, Transphobia, Violence, Death of parent, Murder, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Animal death, Confinement, Cursing, Deadnaming, Domestic abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Torture, Medical content, Kidnapping, Stalking, Acephobia/Arophobia, and Fire/Fire injury

leahb88's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.75

First of all, I hated the first chapter passionately. But after the initial incident, I was interested and excited to read more. This book was so confusing but in a way where I wanted to figure it out. Each new perspective added gave new information on the situation and slowly revealed the whole picture. The multiple timelines, storylines and points of view created a bizarre but interesting read. Despite all this, I didn’t feel like this book needed a ton of brain power to read - good writing I guess! All in all worth the read!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence

Moderate: Gore

meaghanelizabook's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gun violence, Hate crime, Violence, Mass/school shootings, and Murder

Moderate: Body horror, Child abuse, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Racism, Xenophobia, Blood, Police brutality, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Cancer, Mental illness, Suicide, Terminal illness, and Forced institutionalization

booksandteatime's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence and Mass/school shootings

Moderate: Addiction, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Self harm, Suicide, Police brutality, Suicide attempt, and Death of parent

ofbooksandechos's review against another edition

dark 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? It's complicated

di questo libro non ci ho capito niente. l'ho trovato noioso, forse perché la storia si sviluppa lentamente. in effetti leggendo mi è sembrato che l'autore stesse solo mettendo le fondamenta per il prossimo libro.
non penso continuerò la serie.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence and Violence

Moderate: Child abuse, Death, Gore, and Grief

Minor: Police brutality

more cws: implied CSA, death of a loved one

time4tori2read's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-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? Yes

4.0

Be prepared to write down character names and make a diagram of how they’re related to each other.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Drug use, Gore, Gun violence, and Fire/Fire injury

obscurepages's review against another edition

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! 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Suicide attempt, and Murder

melaniereadsbooks's review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-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? Yes

4.25

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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gun violence, Racism, Violence, Police brutality, Grief, and Mass/school shootings

Moderate: Addiction, Body horror, and Gore

Minor: Child abuse, Drug abuse, and Suicide attempt

nini23's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence and Mass/school shootings

Moderate: Addiction and Gore

Minor: Physical abuse, Suicide, Terminal illness, and Suicide attempt