WE ARE THE CRISIS by Cadwell Turnbull

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

“None of this gets to the heart of Ridley's questioning. The true heart is a sort of infinite regression. How many monsters? Where did they come from? The world of monsters exists beneath the human world. What is the world beneath that? Or the world above? The heart of the question is the fear of infinite unknowns, descending forever, turtles all the way down. Places to hide and places hidden. The universe has legs.”

TITLE—We Are the Crisis

SERIES—Book Two in the Convergence Saga

AUTHOR—Cadwell Turnbull

PUBLISHED—Nov 2023

PUBLISHER—Blackstone

GENRE—speculative fiction/sci-fi/fantasy

SETTING—our world/s, & others

MAIN THEMES/SUBJECTS—monsters (vampires, werewolves, woo-woos, soucouyants, witches, dragons, seers, shapeshifters, mind-readers, universe walkers), gods, multiverses, marginalization, fear-motivated policy, racism & hate-crimes, agency & autonomy, love & interpersonal relationships, community support & solidarity, co-ops & collective economy theory,  responsibility of creation, surveillance ethics, secret societies, fictionalized historical figures, a-chronological/four-dimensional storytelling

“This power is the one that frightens me the most, for how easily it can get to the heart of other people, their most primal motivations. It is always fear. Sometimes it also contains a bit of love.”

Summary:

This is book two in the Convergence Saga by Cadwell Turnbull—book one was NO GODS NO MONSTERS.

My thoughts:

What to say about book two. What a wild, thought-provoking, & beautiful ride! I loved how much deeper into the world we got. I loved all the extra details, character interiority, worldbuilding, philosophy, politics, explorations of monster theory & solidarity & the nature of universes… I loved seeing Dragon’s character develop more & I loved the new character of Alex.

Thanks to my reading group I feel like I have a good handle on plot, themes, & the world except for like a few things related to the nature of some characters’ magic & how exactly the universes function but I am totally fine with not having all the answers as there is still a third book to come that I trust will expand & clarify a lot of the gaps in my understanding.

I was also really intrigued to hear Turnbull say in his author interview with @sistahscifi that all of his writing is interconnected & more or less takes place in the same “world” or “universe” (as much as any of his stories can be confined by terms like “worlds” & “universes”) so I think I’m going to see if I can go through the whole oeuvre, reading his short stories, articles, & essays linked on his author website as well as rereading THE LESSON & books one & two of the Saga before coming to book three. Especially since his larger themes & deeper philosophy is my favorite thing about his writing.

I would recommend this book to readers who like challenging reads & are ok with not fully knowing what is going on at any one point in the story. 😁 This book is best read in community. In fact, I highly recommend joining in with the rest of the Cadwell Turnbull Readalong crew on IG because it really helps to work through all the different plots, universes, characters, motivations, secret societies, alternate histories, etc. etc. as a group because yeah it’s veryyy complex. (Then you get to enjoy my weeks-late questions after something everyone has already discussed only just clicks in my brain. 😆)

“…I can feel the darkness waiting just outside the light, and it feels deeper, like a shroud. I find myself praying that the lights don't go out. I pray that the darkness doesn't consume us.”

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

CW // body gore, hatecrimes, bombings, torture, death of loved ones,  (Please feel free to DM me for more specifics!)

Season: Fall or Winter

Music pairing: apparently there is a playlist on Spotify somewhere but I haven’t been able to find it. 🫣 Please lmk if any of y’all have the link to it!

Further Reading—

• The Stolen Heir duology by Holly Black

  • Read my ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ review for THE STOLEN HEIR on storygraph here.

  • Read my ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ review for THE PRISONER’S THRONE on storygraph here.

• Ursula K Leguin—TBR

• LOTE by Shola von Reinhold

  • Read my ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ review for LOTE here.

• FLEDGLING by Octavia Butler

  • Read my ★ ★ ★ ★ .5 review for FLEDGLING on storygraph here.

• Milan Kundera (UNBEARABLE LIGHTNESS & IMMORTALITY)

• True Blood (2008, tv drama series)—TBW

• RING SHOUT by P Djèlí Clark

  • Read my ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ review for RING SHOUT on storygraph here.

• The Legendborn Cycle by Tracy Deonn

  • Read my ★ ★ ★ ★ .5 review for LEGENDBORN on storygraph here.

Syllabus:

• PLAYING IN THE DARK by Toni Morrison

• THE DARK FANTASTIC by Ebony Elizabeth Thomas

• MONSTER THEORY by Jeffrey Cohen—TBR

• THE PHILOSOPHY OF HORROR Noël Carroll—TBR

• SKIN THIEF by Suzan Palumbo—TBR

• COLLECTIVE COURAGE by Jessica Gordon Nembhard—TBR

• EXPERIMENTS IN IMAGINING OTHERWISE by Lola Olufemi—TBR

• THE UNDERCOMMONS: FUGITIVE PLANNING & BLACK STUDY by Fred Moten & Stefano Harney—TBR

• WORMWOOD STAR: THE MAGICKAL LIFE OF MARJORIE CAMERON by Spencer Kansa—TBR

• THE MARVELLOUS EQUATIONS OF THE DREAD by Marcia Douglas—TBR

• FINNA by Nino Cipri—TBR

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