Book Review: We Are the Crisis by Cadwell Turnbull (Convergence Saga #2)

 

 

We are the Crisis by Cadwell Turnbull   (Convergence Saga #2)

338 pages, Hardcover
Published November, 2023 by Blackstone Publishing

The first book in this series No Gods, No Monsters was by first book by Cadwell Turnbull. It is an Anarchist werewolf novel with lots of cosmic horror. It is a book that has a major character who is a member of a collective book shop that is a bi-racial, asexual trans anarchist who grew up reading Leguin and Bakunin alike. In many ways, this novel’s pitch-black fantasy and moments of cosmic horror combined with monsters we can root for feels like Clive Barker’s Cabal if he grew up listening to anarcho-punk and being an activist. If I read the book without a bio and author photo I might have stereotyped the author as a green-haired crust punk, but Turnbull is a black author who grew up in the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Interview I did with Cadwell on book 1  (My audio is messed up he sounds great)

Now in the interview, he admits at the time he had not yet read Barker, the comparisons were not intentional. This series referred to as the Convergence Saga takes place mostly around Boston after ‘the fracture effect’ an event that outs the existence of monsters to the world. The first novel that centered around an anarchist bookstore and activism was something I related to and had locked me in for this series.

Set three years after the first book, members of the wolf pack are starting to disappear and the suspects are a radical ant-monster group called Black Hand. This group seems to mirror the rise of MAGA and anti-LBGTQ organizing that we have seen rise as society has become more accepting.  On the surface, it would be easy to paint this series as a civil rights allegory. It is that but also touches on cosmic horror elements and magic itself.

As much as I loved the first book I had to re-read my review to stoke my memory, that said as soon as I started to read the story came back to me. Again the activism at the heart of the story worked better for me than the action.

Like the first book, the first scene to stand out to me was a meeting of New Era a pro-monster group. Turnbull is interested in how these communities organize, and you do that through meetings. “Ridley, for those who don’t know me, I co-own the bookstore in Union Square, in Sommerville. I don’t mean to speak out of turn, but when you say ‘protect each other,’ how far are you willing to go?”

No one has an easy answer to that question. The scene where a woman becomes a wolf in the meeting is one of the most powerful of the series.

“You can look at her,” Ridley is saying.  “That’s the whole point. See that she is not dangerous.”

In the modern world, the right is organized around and by othering, and creating fear of immigrants, Trans people, and liberals themselves who they mock as Lib-tards. The chief allegory of this series could seem on the nose if it was so accurate in scenes like this. This could come off as silly, and it requires the reader to step off the cliff with their imagination a bit.

 Civil rights and the debate over them appear to be the theme of this book and the cosmic forces directing the pro and anti-monster in a war or conflict is where we are heading. If there is one weakness the monsters are not as weird and diverse as they could be. That said weird monsters are not exactly the point. We Are the Crisis feels like it says sides, corners, and ideas I can’t come close to understanding all of. I think that is one of the best things about it. The level of thought and care in the storytelling is clear. If you were dispassionately describing the concept it might sound goofy. It is not, it is powerful storytelling that speaks to the struggles of otherness in our culture.