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

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense medium-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

5.0

“Even if the reporter mentions the attacks, he won’t acknowledge the cause. At first, Laina wondered how it could be so easy for so many people to dismiss what they saw with their own eyes. But she quickly realized her mistake. How had she reacted when she saw the video? The same way the cop did that night: with disbelief, a deep lack of understanding, and the desire to pull it all back into something she could name and fit inside her skull… How hard must it be for everyone else, seeing a shaky video on their television? How deep was the release of pressure once the evidence went away? That terrifying weight, gone in an instant. What relief. Everything could go back to the way it was. Reality is a contract, after all.”

TITLE—No Gods, No Monsters
AUTHOR—Cadwell Turnbull
PUBLISHED—2022
PUBLISHER—Titan Books

GENRE—fantasy // sci-fi
SETTING—“present day”, kind of…
MAIN THEMES/SUBJECTS—multiverse trope, incredible sci-fi/urban fantasy world-building, werewolves & other “supernatural” creatures, monsters, gods, the universe, secret societies, community, love & friendship, family dynamics, tons of queer characters, stories & storytelling traditions, the nature of reality, quantum physics, beautiful literary writing style, character-centric narrative, revolution, solidarity economics

“What else but destiny could be so poetic and devastating at the same time.”

WRITING STYLE—⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
CHARACTERS—⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
STORY/PLOT—⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

BONUS ELEMENT/S—👀 it’s a secret 😂

PHILOSOPHY—⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
PREMISE—⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
EXECUTION—⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

“When the woman opens her eyes, he sees a little surprise on her face. She’s suspected he could do it. She’s read stories about dragons. But Dragon is not a story. Dragon is real.”

My thoughts:
This book really blew me away. It’s super hard not to overhype it. 😂 I am so so so excited that this is just the first in a trilogy because I definitely one thousand percent need a lot more of this world and these characters because I am hooked. I also can’t say any more because this is one of those books you have to go into with as little info as possible. If you like the subjects & themes I listed above then you’re good for this one, *trust* me. 😉

I would recommend this book to readers who love to be philosophically and intellectually challenged by their fantasy / sci-fi reads, especially when they have ultimately wholesome and very queer themes. 😙👌🏻 (And this is me giving some major side-eye to the reviewers on goodreads rn: 👀😑)

Final note: I’ll definitely be rereading this one before the release of book two if anyone is interested in a buddy read! It’s definitely one of those books that is super conducive to group-reading. HUGE thank you to Kiki of @ifthisisparadise for hosting one and to the author, Cadwell Turnbull, for his incredible conversation with us afterwards. I’m definitely a new, big fan. 🤣

“I’m not meant to be a thing that makes sense.”

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

CW // death, hard drug use & addiction, police shooting, racist hate crimes/murder, gun deaths, death of family members, toxic relationships (Please feel free to DM me for more specifics!)

Further Reading—
  • more Cadwell Turnbull
  • Ursula K. Le Guin
  • I actually need to go back through the book and collect all the titles and authors referenced because there were a lot and I want to read them all 🤣
  • THE GOLGOTHA TETRALOGY, by RS Belcher
  • The ‘Science Fiction as Philosophy’ Great Courses lecture series taught by Dr David Kyle Johnson
  • The Haunting of Hill House (2018 tv series)
  • Lovecraft Country (2020 tv series)
  • THE UNBEARABLE LIGHTNESS OF BEING, by Milan Kundera