THIS SOUNDS BATSHIT CRAZY IM HERE FOR IT

Hey Good People,First off, thank you for coming on this journey with me. Books are nothing without readers. My gratitude is unending.This isn’t a review. (For an unabridged version of this not-review, go HERE.)Can an author review their own work? I think so. I considered giving myself a rating, even. An honest one. But I worry it'd be the sort of thing that sounds like a good idea right up until the internet proves it isn't.So, the better question: do I think this book is worth your time?Maybe.

| | blog | tumblr | ko-fi | |My review for No Gods, No Monsters will not make a lot of sense. The main reason for this is that, to be quite frank, I did not ‘get’ this novel. I did try, I persevered in spite of my mounting confusion, hoping that at some point I would be able to understand the what/why/who/hows of this story…but, having now finished, I can safely (and sadly) say that I’m not sure what was the point of it all.I’m fine with authors keeping their cards close to their chests. Two o...

This unusual literary urban fantasy novel is about more than the paranormal ‘monsters’ living hidden in the human world. It’s a metaphor for minorities of all types who want to be seen and heard. The monsters are representative not only of all types of paranormal creatures from shape shifters to witches, seers, vampires and even a dragon and but also of all colours, races and genders. It’s a difficult book to read if you’re looking for a tightly woven plot. Instead, it’s a patchwork of snapshots...

My favourite book of the year.I am so very much in love with this book – enough to feel the need to write my first full-length review in half a year. As is often the case when a book is this custom-made for me, I am having problems divorcing my enjoyment from that fact – but I loved it so very much!No Gods, No Monsters is literary fiction maquerading as urban fantasy and if there is anything that is my absolute catnip, it is this. The prose is brilliant, the character work perfect, and the struc...

As like the king of authors said: “ Monsters are real and ghosts are real, too. They live inside us,sometimes they win.” This story starts with a dead body! Laina opens her eyes on early October morning to learn the new tragic news about her brother’s brutal killing by Boston police officers. Is this just police brutality or there is something more vicious, blood thirsty and extra violent hidden behind the incident? But there is one reality that no one can ignore: MONSTERS ARE REAL! Mythical cre...

This sounds fucking AMAZING

This story begins with Laina mourning her brother's death. They were estranged for some time as her brother battled drug addiction which only adds to her guilt. At first it just seems like an act of police brutality though what happened doesn't truly make sense. However she discovers it's not that simple when she receives the missing body cam footage from the officer who shot her brother. It reveals that her brother was a werewolf. She shares the footage online and it goes viral though is scrubb...

"Monsters existed in the liminal space of half-belief and practical superstition. Even folks who claimed not to believe in God knew not to tempt devils."No Gods, No Monsters is a series of vignettes highlighting the lives of monsters who have come out of hiding to be witnessed in the light.A pack of werewolves, a young boy with control of flame, a woman without form, these stories weave in and out and combine only to pull apart again.This is not a straightforward narrative, and Turnbull doesn't

You ever feel like there’s a world beneath this one?.... Like we are a speck on some larger thing that we only catch glimpses of.” Laina’s brother was shot and killed by Boston cops. What seems like police brutality gives us a glimpse that Monsters are real and they want everyone to know. Laina watches the video over and over but still cannot process who or what her brother is. After the video goes viral there is a Monsters March that was televised. What is strange is that a few days later no

I was excited for this as The Lesson is a truly phenomenal SF with a lot to say about colonialism that everyone should read. This one didn't land for me, unfortunately, but in a way that makes me suspect it'll be in other people's best of the year lists. Basically it's got a gigantic cast and we switch between many many stories and voices and it's never made entirely clear what's actually going on. We get elusive trails of meaning and hints and lots of parts that didn't make an obvious whole, to...

Magic and monsters roam every corner of this page-turner, but the real star is Cadwell Turnbull's breathtaking prose. A perfect hymn to otherness and the beauty of the strange, No Gods, No Monsters is so good it reads like music. Simply masterful.'

I sat with this a few days after finishing the book in order to attempt to process it. Unfortunately, that didn't help. The writing here is phenomenal. You really get a sense of his characters and settings because his descriptions are so detailed. It's nice to see such a variety of identities. While reading this book, I would get confused. The story jumped to various POVs and it seemed like different time frames and I just couldn't keep up. I think a lot of people will love it, but unfortunately...

Read my full review HERE :) Here is a summary:No Gods, No Monsters is an incredibly inclusive story about othering, oppression, police violence, connection and how we stay safe and fight back. Though it is heavy at times, and there are many characters to follow, it is absolutely a wonderful work of art.*I received a copy of this book for free and am leaving this review voluntarily*

What do we have around here? Apparently monsters have always lived among us, even organized in secret societies (with all the internal struggles that accompany that), and suddenly everything explodes and comes to light. And that is what some want and others do not. The reason for that precise moment we do not know.I am going to try to organize my ideas, but I want to say that the novel does not present the plot that way so neatly, which is a problem; it is like a pile of threads that you are pul...

This story has been showing up in my dreams the last few days, and that's both a good thing and a bad thing. Good, because the story is a haunting supernatural weaving of characters and stories that will keep you turning pages, anxious to see what happens next. Bad, because parts of the story are harrowing, skin-crawlingly creepy or wide-eyed, mouth open I-did-not-see-that-coming weird. On the surface, it is about monsters becoming known in our world, sort of a literary Urban Fantasy. Expect shi...

No Gods, No Monsters is a book you have to go with the flow on. I loved it, in the end, but I think it's going to be one of those books that polarises readers.Almost flow of conciousness, almost (initially) a series of linked short stories, rather than a novel, the reader is greeted with the sister of a man shot by police, as she is led to the discovery of the truth behind his death. In this way, Cadwell Turnbull starts as he means to go on, with monsters just another of the many marginalized gr...

A very not-for-me novel that felt like an embodiment of most of what I hate about literary fiction.The story, such as it is, is a series of inter-linked vignettes with a huge cast of deeply forgettable characters moving forward in time from the revelation of monsters living in our society.I'm sure the author has a point that he's trying to make, and it's all probably an allegory for maligned minority groups (particularly with the way that the truth about them is suppressed in media), but it's ju...

*DNF*Let me just start off by saying that the writing in this book is incredibly beautiful. There is no doubt about that. Now, I can see fantasy lovers, or even anyone who loves supernatural beings, be SO into this. I could see them eating it up and enjoying and hanging onto every word of this story. But, unfortunately it just was not for me. I am not the biggest fan of fantasy to begin with, and I would almost lean this more towards supernatural (which I do enjoy, sometimes). And the synopsis o...

It's worth saying that this isn't really genre fiction. It's literary fiction making use of sci-fantasy & horror genre elements. It's strange and meandering with a huge cast of characters and a maze of plot threads, sometimes pivoting into existential pondering about the nature of reality and choice. It's the sort of book that the right reader might fall in love with and spend hours teasing apart threads of nuance and meaning. I can see the potential appeal because I feel that way about some boo...