No Gods, No Monsters

A Novel (The Convergence Saga, Book 1)

By: Cadwell Turnbull

Narrated by: Dion Graham

One October morning, Laina gets the news that her brother has been shot and killed by Boston cops. But what looks like a case of police brutality soon reveals something much stranger. Monsters are real. And they want everyone to know it.

As creatures from myth and legend come out of the shadows, seeking safety through visibility, their emergence sets off a chain of seemingly unrelated events. Members of a local werewolf pack are threatened into silence. A professor follows a missing friend’s trail of bread crumbs to a mysterious secret society. And a young boy with unique abilities seeks refuge in a pro-monster organization with secrets of its own. Meanwhile, more people start disappearing, suicides and hate crimes increase, and protests erupt globally, both for and against the monsters.

At the center is a mystery no one thinks to ask: Why now? What has frightened the monsters out of the dark?

The world will soon find out.

©2021 Cadwell Turnbull (P)2021 Blackstone Publishing

Interesting characters and intrigue

The story was slow for 2/3 but the last 1/3 really was great. I wish the world building had come together more quickly. That being said I did like the characters and was intrigued to know more and more. I will probably read the sequel.

Good, could be better…

Has a very “American Gods” vibe. The over all story was interesting, and though some have complained about the bouncing around, I did not mind that. It fit the style of the story.

The performance was good, the cadence of the narrator’s voice was sometimes odd, but his voice and voice acting were solid.

Overall I enjoyed the story, and I am very interested in the next installment.

Incredible plot, characters … very compelling multiple narratives

It was so good I didn’t want it to end. I went back and Re listened and it was even better the 2nd time - so much nuance

Too disjointed

This is a good book that could have been a great book. The story was too sprawling and diffuse across too many characters. Maybe it’s set up for the next book. There’s some good allegory to current events in the story. Overall, it could be much better.

Liked it

I liked how all of the stories became entwined at the end. I did not like that I could hear the narrator's intake of breath.

Too many 'main' characters

good narrator, slow storyline with a lot of characters to keep track of. all in all I struggled to finish.

Difficult to review

I really thought that this book was going to knock it out of the park for me but unfortunately it didn’t. At least not for me personally.

I actually loved the way the author wrote and I thought the reader did an amazing job. I really just did not love the plot.

Too many characters and points of view. Too much jumping around. Hard to follow at times.

Good if you know what you're getting into

Here are some things that I would have wanted to know going into the book:
The story moves around in time and place A LOT. You will probably need to play close attention - not a great book to have in the background while doing other things.

The character who is speaking from the first person perspective is able to see and hear things without physically being present. This is not outright explained until later on so there's a section near the beginning of the book that is very confusing (at least to me).

The characters all matter. Even ones that seem like throwaways or not terribly important come back into the narrative later.

This is nowhere close to being a fairytale and I have no idea why audible has it tagged as such. The only resemblance is that there are supernatural things happening.

This is definitely a trilogy. Don't expect any kind of feeling of resolution at the end of this book.

That being said, if you go in expecting these things (or if like me, you start it expecting an urban fantasy fairytale, get confused, do a lot of google research and then restart the book), it's really good. The performance of the narrator is on point. His differentiation of the character voices could be a little better but it is there and decent, and his natural voice is pleasant.

The premise of the story is really interesting and I like the realistic take that it has on what things might be like if monsters were real. I would have preferred a bit less jumping around between times and perspectives but I do like that it gives you a full view of the situation at hand (although interestingly there are a couple of major players/factions that you never get the viewpoint of - perhaps that will be in the sequels).

Best narration I’ve heard in many books

I can’t wait for the next book in this series to arrive. It is so refreshing to be in a narrative centers around Caribbean culture as well as supernatural motifs. The narrator slowly reveals themselves in wonderful ways. All of the characters are fresh and contemporary. This author clearly lives in the world and is sensitive to all the exciting change and culture around them. Good pulpy fun with endearing with and absolutely brilliant performance from Dion Graham

Intriguing

The writing is beautiful, narration is captivating, and plot unique. I do wonder if I would have benefitted from reading the physical copy. I struggled with keeping people and relationships straight in my mind. The story jumps around wildly and sometimes without warning.

I definitely want to know what happens next!