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migdali 's review for:
No Gods, No Monsters
by Cadwell Turnbull
I adored this book. It's the first book I've read by Cadwell Turnbull but it certainly won't be my last.
Turnbull is incredibaly talented and has an empathetic and inclusive voice that is so welcome in the genre of urban fantasy. I am impressed that he was able to effortlessly weave a Black Lives Matter and civil rights plotline into a horror-adjacent contemporary fantasy that really belied his love of some of my favorite authors like Ursula K. LeGuin, Octavia Butler, N.K. Jemisin, Nalo Hopkinson and Nnedi Okorafor (this book especially reminded me of Okorafor's LaGuardia series).
The characters were so diverse and fleshed out. There were a lot of them, but his writing made them feel very real and I cared about the fates of each of them.
Ostensibly this is a novel about what happens when people find out that monsters are real and are living among us. What it really is, is an insightful story about what it means to be human through the lens of understanding monstrosity. In this way, this book geniously hearkens back to that foundational Science Fiction work: Mary shelley's Frankenstein.
My favorite part of all was how Turnbull was able to blend quantum physics, Caribbean cosmology and social commentary into a weird, original, fun, scary and all around excellent read.
Full disclosure - I received a copy of this book from Net Galley & the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
Turnbull is incredibaly talented and has an empathetic and inclusive voice that is so welcome in the genre of urban fantasy. I am impressed that he was able to effortlessly weave a Black Lives Matter and civil rights plotline into a horror-adjacent contemporary fantasy that really belied his love of some of my favorite authors like Ursula K. LeGuin, Octavia Butler, N.K. Jemisin, Nalo Hopkinson and Nnedi Okorafor (this book especially reminded me of Okorafor's LaGuardia series).
The characters were so diverse and fleshed out. There were a lot of them, but his writing made them feel very real and I cared about the fates of each of them.
Ostensibly this is a novel about what happens when people find out that monsters are real and are living among us. What it really is, is an insightful story about what it means to be human through the lens of understanding monstrosity. In this way, this book geniously hearkens back to that foundational Science Fiction work: Mary shelley's Frankenstein.
My favorite part of all was how Turnbull was able to blend quantum physics, Caribbean cosmology and social commentary into a weird, original, fun, scary and all around excellent read.
Full disclosure - I received a copy of this book from Net Galley & the publisher in exchange for an honest review.