Catherine's Pick: No Gods, No Monsters by Cadwell Turnbull

No Gods, No Monsters by Cadwell Turnbull is a twisty knot of a book. Told from the perspective of a first-person narrator who is disembodied for most of the novel, it recounts the lives of several people around the time that monsters reveal themselves to the world only for secret societies to try and hush up their existence again. A woman finds out her brother was killed in a police shooting, and then, she discovers he was a werewolf. A man hunts down clues left in an internet forum, and they lead him to a meeting of a secret society. A boy who may be a dragon is raised in seclusion to be a tool and finds freedom when a ring of fire ants opens a portal to the outside world. Many threads converge at a protest for monster rights.

Who is to say where they will go?

This is not a standard urban fantasy story. Turnbull has written a beautifully literary novel with references to The Unbearable Lightness of Being and Slaughterhouse-Five and a cast that is incredibly diverse in race and sexuality. If you are willing to sit with it and unknot the inaccuracies of its plot, there are surely rewards to be had here.

Availability: Book; eBook & eAudiobook in cloudLibrary
 Rating: *** Stars (I liked it)
 Reviewer: Catherine, Cataloging Librarian

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 No Gods, No Monsters

SERIES: Convergence Saga #1
 AWARDS: LibraryReads Favorites: 2021
 GENRE: African American Fiction; Urban Fantasy

TONE: Atmospheric; Suspenseful; Thought-Provoking

STORYLINE: Intricately Plotted; World-Building

WRITING STYLE: Compelling; Stylistically Complex

LOCATION: Boston, Massachusetts

SUBJECT: Loss; Missing Persons; Monsters; Police Misconduct; Protests, Demonstrations, Vigils; Secrets; Violence; Werewolves

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