A review by ashleykitkat
No Gods, No Monsters by Cadwell Turnbull

challenging reflective tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character

2.75

With hype such as No Gods, No Monsters, was listed as one of the best books of 2021 by The New York Times, NPR, Audible, the New York Public Library, Kirkus, Library Journal, and Tor.com, which started their review with "Let’s get this out of the way upfront: Cadwell Turnbull’s second novel No Gods, No Monsters is absolutely worth your time. If you’re at all a fan of science fiction and fantasy, if you’re at all interested in deep characterization and interiority playing out against the fantastical, if you’re into the interplay of how genre can operate in conversation with the real world, if any of that is your bread and butter, then you’re good; you can stop reading this review and go pick up the book" I looked forward to this book discussion selection I chose. Unfortunately I finished the book thinking that it was OK. Part of the acknowledgments say: "My new readers. For getting to the end for this crazy thing. I know I have too many characters. Much gratitude and many apologies." That admittance is something that held me up from my enjoyment as I struggled with so many characters and points of view that I wished I had a chart to map out relationships to look back on, especially when it switched from third person to first person without a clear indication of who "I" is that often left me quite confused.  I agree with this portion of a review I found https://everybookadoorway.com/sharp-as-a-knife-no-gods-no-monsters-by-cadwell-turnbull/ that says "I don’t mind a looser plot, but I finished this book and realised I had no clue what was going on. We know that there are werewolves, and a few other kinds of monster, but the shape of the supernatural world is barely hinted at – all we get are tantalising, frustrating bits and pieces that promise that whatever we’re picturing, it’s bigger and weirder than that. No Gods, No Monsters ends up feeling like a drawn-out prologue more than it does a finished novel." I definitely can't say I did not like the book though as the writing was often beautiful, the characters were intriguing, and I wanted to learn more about the society of monsters. I also learned about new monsters I hadn't known about previously such as a soucouyant, a creature that drinks blood and sheds skin in Caribbean folklore. And interestingly enough, a previous book discussion selection of mine - Djinn City - also contained a boy that shape shifted into a dragon so I was pleasantly surprised to encounter a similar being here. Although I liked the concepts, I wish the narrative itself did not feel so disjointed, and with more clarity, as I read so I could have enjoyed the reading experience more. On that note, the author did write a guide on his website https://cadwellturnbull.com/2021/09/30/a-sort-of-guide-to-reading-no-gods-no-monsters/ to reading this book which is somewhat helpful in understanding the author's intention. I am not saying this is a bad book by any means. It is definitely artsy and plays with a variety of ideas from personal rights to multiverse theory; it is just perhaps not my cup of tea and I find it frustrating when the first book in a trilogy cannot stand alone as its own entity. 
Expand filter menu Content Warnings