Ms. Hen reviews We Are the Crisis

 

We Are the Crisis

Cadwell Turnbull

Blackstone Publishing

2023

Ms. Hen decided to read this novel, because she had read the other one in this series, and she remembers loving it. She understands that these two books are the beginning of the Convergence Saga.

It had been a while since Ms. Hen had read No Gods, No Monsters, so she had a difficult time remembering which characters were which, and what happened in the other novel.

This novel is about different groups of characters, one of which is Ridley and his pack of werewolves. Ridley owns a bookstore. Also, there is Dragon, a child dragon, who was kept in a dungeon for many years. Another character is Alex, whose mother was a vampire, and whose mentor trained her to be a spy.

The characters work to rid the world of prejudice of monsters. Monsters are everywhere in this world, and all types exist, werewolves, witches, vampires, and woo-woos. Some of the novel takes place in the Virgin Islands, and the characters try to make the area better for each other, but they do not always succeed.

Ms. Hen thinks this is an important novel, because it's about prejudice and racism of all types of creatures, some of which whose abnormalities are not visible right away. The monsters have to be in hiding, and they do not have a community, but they try to find others to help each other from the oppressors, and create better lives for themselves.

This novel ended like the previous one, with a violent climax. Ms. Hen thinks this is inspired by cinema, and not necessarily novels. Ms. Hen doesn't think there's anything wrong with a fight at the end, but she thinks that sometimes books should be more derived from literature than movies and TV.

Some of this novel takes place in the Boston area, and Ms. Hen thought it was charming that Dragon went shopping at BJ's in Medford, which is right near where she lives. A great sense of place runs through the entire novel, whether it's in Boston, or the Virgin Islands, or North Carolina. 

Ms. Hen adored this book, and she can't wait to read the next one. Monsters can be all around us, they could be our neighbors and coworkers, but we might never know, and if we do become aware, we should not be afraid of them, but accept them as they are, and let them live their lives.