Book Review | No Gods for Drowning | Hailey Piper

 

BOOK REVIEW

NO GODS FOR 

DROWNING

BY HAILEY PIPER

 

ABOUT THE BOOK

IN THE BEGINNING, MAN WAS PREY.

WITHOUT THE GODS, THEY'LL BE PREY AGAIN.

The old gods have fled, and the monsters they had kept at bay for centuries now threaten to drown the city of Valentine, hunting mankind as in ancient times. In the midst of the chaos, a serial killer has begun ritually sacrificing victims, their bodies strewn throughout the city.

Lilac Antonis wants to stop the impending destruction of her city by summoning her mother, a blood god—even if she has to slit a few throats to do it. But evading her lover Arcadia and her friends means sneaking, lying, and even spilling the blood of people she loves.

Alex and Cecil of Ace Investigations have been tasked with hunting down the killer, but as they close in—not knowing they're hunting their close friend Lilac—the detectives realize the gods may not have left willingly.

As flooding drags this city of cars and neon screaming into the jaws of sea demons and Arcadia struggles to save the people as captain of the evacuation team, Lilac’s ritual killings at last bear fruit, only to reveal her as a small piece in a larger plan. The gods’ protection costs far more than anyone has ever known, and Alex and Cecil are running out of time to discover the true culprit behind the gods’ disappearance before an ancient divine murder plot destroys them all.

Set in an alternate reality which updates mythology to near-modern day, NO GODS FOR DROWNING is part hunt for a serial killer, part noir detective story, and unlike anything you’ve ever read before.

 

 

REVIEW

Blending cosmic horror, grimdark fantasy and detective noir, No Gods for Drowning takes place on the continent of Aeg, which, since the gods left ten years ago, is now threatened with disaster.

As Aeg is about to be drowned by the sea, the telepathic beings known as the Glories are threatening to destroy the city. Not only that, there’s a serial killer on the loose!

No Gods for Drowning tells the story of a group of people caught up in these events. There’s Captain Arcadia Myrn, a former military soldier, haunted by her career and the effects of a massacre that her company perpetrated years ago, who is now a flood evacuation captain. Then there is her lover Lilac, the daughter of a god, who is trying to bring her mother, the God Logoi back after the gods left. Amongst this is Arcadia’s former fellow officer Alex North, who now works as a Detective with his partner, the gifted Cecil Gillon and is now attempting to solve the spate of killings in Aeg.

The book opens with the serial killer scoping out her victims, and then carrying out the ritualistic killings. Piper does not hold back with a visceral description of why the killings are happening or what there suspected outcome is. Furthermore, Piper boldly lets us know who the killer is from page one, following the perpetrator throughout the book.

No Gods for Drowning is a frenetically paced fantasy that has a plot that is so packed with gods, monsters, secrets and lies that you need to have a lie down for while when you have read it. In the midst of all this we then have a disaster waiting to happen that threatens not only the land, but the very essence of creation.

In terms of world building, Piper manages to build a world with a 1940’s level of dinginess, whilst refraining from info dumping and complex layer building giving the barest of detail but just enough to move the story along, because that is the important thing in this book – the story!

At times the book can be a little overwhelming as the plot is very busy, runs at an extremely fast pace, throwing everything but the kitchen sink at you, but this also the strong point of the novel. There is never time to get your breath as there is always something happening – if it’s not ritual murders, it’s a Twister style disaster epic with a backdrop of cataclysmic events to keep your heart rate up.

If you like fantasy that strays from the norm, then No Gods For Monsters is well worth your time.