. ?? ? . ? ? ? . ? ? ?.Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an e-ARC for early review.. ?? ? . ? ? ? . ? ? ?.

Rated 0.5 stars. The Deer and the Dragon is a major miss on almost all fronts.

A bit of praise before the critique; Luna Rey does a nice job narrating and l enjoyed her character voices and performance. I do think it's funny that Piper CJ managed to get someone with a moon themed name to read her book, though.

Now on to the critique.

The audiobook (which was the only ARC format available on NetGalley) did not contain trigger warnings, content warnings, or in fact any kind of author's note about the sensitive content contained within the book. This is a major miss. Here's a shortlist of content warnings for this title.

•Religious trauma
•Abusive parental figures
•Mental health denial
•Psychological breakdowns (the main character thinks she is crazy for many, many years)
•Assault of a woman in her own home
•Being stalked
•Misgendering
•Being drugged without consent
•Being drugged for the purpose of sex
•Dubcon/noncon

This is the kind of stuff that needs to be included. Here's some explanation on the misgendering bit.

•Marlow misgenders her friend Kirby, who is nonbinary, point blank to their face by calling them a "horse girl." Kirby immediately corrects this to "horse person." This is played as a joke.

•At one point, Fauna (the main character's manic pixie dream girl companion) is introduced to Kirby. She says she s their name a lot. Marlow proceeds to say "that's not their real name," and roll her eyes. When Fauna chides Marlow for trying to give out information that isn't hers to give, Marlow glares and says nothing.

•Directly after speaking with Kirby, Marlow reveals the entire reason for Kirby's chosen name, without asking permission to share this story, which is intertwined with a trauma dump to Fauna, whom she met for the first time yesterday. She also reveals that she was the one to take Kirby's virginity to Fauna, whom she met yesterday.

•Fauna's only response to this is to coo and comfort Marlow, and state "I love queer culture."

Marlow, the main character, is an incredible thin and see-through attempt for the author to self insert into a story. Marlow has a literature degree with a focus on mythology. Piper CJ has a masters in folklore. Marlow writes bestselling books and makes millions of dollars and is beloved by fans across the globe, including literal deities who want to make deals with her to have their own pantheons featured in the next installment. Piper CJ writes books. Marlow was an abused child who endured significant amounts of religious trauma because of her parents. Piper CJ has never been shy about the fact that she is a victim of religious abuse, which I found out from a few minutes of googling.

It's fine to self insert into your works. It's a viable way to produce content. The issue comes from the fact that Marlow is an insufferable deadbeat who is unable to the nth degree and treats every single person around her garbage. Here's a rundown of her persona that you get to know in the first third of the book.

•Marlow is laughably rich. Her book series is a current bestseller. People recognize her name in passing. She has the floor beneath the penthouse level at her apartment because she "didn't mind not having the penthouse." She claims to want a simple life and she doesn't want for anything, but drives a BMW, lives in a luxury apartment, and spends money out the wazoo. But the author expects us to see her as a poor little thing who just wants to be normal and go to therapy. This would work if it was written differently but it literally comes off as nothing more than the author's wish fulfillment for her OC (do not steal!).

•Marlow is a retired escort who did sex work to get her start on adult life. This is not a problem in itself, but the way that the author glorifies sex work and presents it as one of the easiest and safest things in the world is neither accurate nor advisable. Marlow didn't have to struggle for her position as a notable escort, she didn't have to work to get reliable clients, and she was handed everything that she needed, including clothes, contacts, references, and appointments, by someone she met on the streets of a foreign country one day.

•Marlow is a bestselling author. She is currently writing book three of her series. She attends conventions and has to force herself to be kind and polite to her fans. She has done so much research to be able to write these mythology filled titles, but when it is recommended that she reach out to a few local witches to try to help her figure out what is going on, she treats them with disdain, rudeness, and disbelief. Which is a great look for a bestselling author, truly. When Fauna, a literally Nordic minor deity, tries to tell her about selkies, Marlow snaps and claims that she's wrong, because she is an expert on these things. She only has three friends at the beginning of the book because she's a shut-in, but she treats all three of them just as badly as the new friends she gains.

•Marlow is the reincarnated princess lover of the prince of Hell and doesn't believe that the white fox/ hot man that has been keeping her company/ having mind-blowing sex with her for over a decade is real. She makes him invisible at one point in time because she doesn't want to see him anymore, and he follows this command to the letter of the law. And she eventually sends him away entirely after a former client stalks her, enters her apartment, an angel shows up to save her by killing said man, as a favor to the demon prince. She is so pissed at the fact that the demon prince does not personally save her after she has treated him a figment of her imagination for years and put restrictions on his actions that she banishes him entirely. And then she mopes around a lot, because she misses him, and finds out that he's not a figment of her imagination, and wants him back.

Those few bullet points already cover enough word count for an entire review where I could just say "this was quite bad." But let's continue.

I'm only going to mention Fauna as a side character because I only had access to the audiobook and can't spell the name of her boyfriend, but Fauna is just as insufferable as Marlow. She is rude, mean, snotty, bitchy, and the epitome of a manic pixie dream girl. She bullies Marlow, makes fun of her, calls her stupid, physically harasses her when she's in shock while waterboarding her in a shower, all of your typical mean girl checklist items. She's a minor deity from Marlow's side of the veil, the Nordic pantheon. Marlow is one eighth fae. They have to go on a a quest to... um... get the demon prince back? Figure out if Heaven is taking the lead in the war? Unlock the secrets of Marlow's past? Something. Pick one, they all happen. That's because---

The plot is a disorganized mess. It's if someone took the splendor and depth of Daughter of Smoke & Bone and put it in a broken down soccer mom van for a roadtrip with three people who only want to sing Hazbin Hotel songs and make out with each other. And yes, this book is marketed as Hazbin Hotel meets Crescent City, and it's nothing either of those, other than the fact that the author clearly loves both of them and wanted to live her self insert fantasy as the princess of hell with a fae for a best friend and a demon assassin as eye candy. I listened to this entire book and I can only tell you the barest details about what was even happening. But I distinctly remember that it was entirely a boring right up until about 40%, when things finally started happening.

Let's end this off by talking about the spice. There's a max of two explicit full length sex scenes in this story. One of them is Marlow having sex with her demon prince boyfriend even though she doesn't think he is real. The other one is a drug-induced lust session where Marlow makes out with multiple people, is unable to control her body or stop herself from taking steps forward, and ends up almost having sex with her demon prince boyfriend because he manages to show up in time. And the only reason this non-consenting drug-induced orgy does not occur is because everyone in the room who isn't a main character dies graphically because it's a trap. This is not cool. This needed to be in the trigger warnings for the book. So, limit the sexy times down to one full length scene max, which still has the issue of one of the participants considering herself clinically insane, because I will not count non-consenting drug induced sexual encounters towards a spice rating when there was no content warning.

To quote my own message from earlier in this review; This was quite bad. I wanted to pick this up to give Piper CJ a shot after all of the issues of her first series (racism, plagiarism, bullying reviewers, occupying reviewer space, etc). Maybe she had a chance to improve and tackle those issues and would put out something really notable. The Deer and the Dragon is just as problematic as the rest of Piper CJ's work. And no, in case you were curious--- there are no dragons.30 s2 comments Madison443 5,938

HUMAN GIRL BANISHES THE PRINCE OF HELL SHE’S BEEN LOWKEY IN LOVE WITH AND THEN HAS TO TRACK HIM DOWN, ACCIDENTALLY PUTTING HER IN THE MIDDLE OF A WAR BETWEEN GODS, ANGELS, AND DEMONS!!!!

This was A+46 s esska37 232

I'm really impressed by the improvement from Piper's previous series! I read this in one sitting and had a blast. This is 100% Piper's element.

Reminder that a goodreads 3 star is "I d it." I have some qualms with it that I'm not going to bother talking about, but overall the book was fine and am glad to see her growth as a writer.12 s1 comment Kelley2 3

I’m Going To Hell And I Can’t Wait.
There truly aren’t words to describe how captivating this book is. I was privileged enough to read an advanced copy of the first installment of the No Other Gods series, The Deer & The Dragon and it’s been the only thing occupying my brain ever since. Living rent free status. As in, read the entire novel in 24 hours... I’ve tried my best to move on and read other works but find myself daydreaming about Marlow and wondering what will happen next in her world. After reading and falling in love with Piper’s The Night and It’s Moon series I didn’t think anything could top it and yet here we are. Somehow this series, just the first installment, already has such a grip on my mind and soul and I know will be the one to make and rebreak me.

The marker of a great book in my opinion is feeling I’m friends with the characters and Piper CJ does it again with this one. The MC and supporting cast have no shortage of personality and the dialogue has me cracking up even on my third (…or fourth or fifth… ok I’ll admit I’ve lost count) reread. The authentic diverse representation is made to be meaningful and plot relevant and humanizes those characters in a way that SO SO many books fall short. The immersive urban fantasy setting had me hooked from the very first paragraph and it kept my interest I was back in my middle school body up until all hours of the night reading the cult classics for the first time. The number of times I laughed out loud, cried, snorted, scoffed, rolled my eyes, and had to throw my tablet across the room were unmatched. I already know the next installment will have me in a sobbing heap on the floor but all I can say is I’m ready to be hurt again.11 s2 comments Kate14 13


Thank you to Netgalley and RB Media for an eARC copy in exchange for an honest review.

1.5 stars

CW: discussions of nonconsensual drugging, sexual assault, dubious consent

SPOILER FREE
Did I have a better time than with Piper’s previous series? In some ways, yes. Did I enjoy myself? Still no. Will I be continuing this series? Not unless I am financially compensated.

PROSE
I would say the prose in this book is simpler— and, therefore, significantly more understandable and palatable— compared to the TNAIM series. I’m glad to see that Piper has improved on this front. Because this is a modern setting, the prose takes itself less seriously, and modern word choice is fitting here instead of wildly out of place. There is still the occasional line that is meant to be descriptive or profound that just doesn’t land for me; for example, the very first line almost made me give up then and there. Because this was an audiobook, the narrator probably helped the writing flow more naturally, so I can’t speak to the actual construction of sentences I normally do. I still thought much of the writing was quite melodramatic, though, lessening the impact of actually important events.

GENERAL CRAFT
I’m pleased that Piper has made some other improvements in her overall craft as well. It seems she paid more attention to common story beats, focusing on establishing a character’s normal world before the inciting incident, and tried using more techniques flashbacks. Unfortunately, she struggles with these new techniques, and the overall story lacks the appearance of structure and has issues with pacing. The setup section really drags, as it consists of monotonous details of the main character going about her day and recalling her past in vivid detail. I appreciate that Piper was trying to incorporate backstory in chunks rather than all at once, but the flashbacks end up interrupting the pacing and do more telling than showing. Up until the inciting incident, which isn’t until roughly 17%, I was wondering what the point of everything was.

The rest of the events up until the climax do have more internal logic than Piper’s previous books but still feel quite meandering at times. The main character gets dragged around by other characters instead of controlling her own story, leading events to feel disjointed and arbitrary at times.

SPOILERS AHEAD

CHARACTERS AND RELATIONSHIPS
I really didn’t enjoy Marlow and how she was written. On paper, I do the idea of her: an escort-turned-author that becomes involved in an otherworldly conflict due to her ability to see through the veil. I thought this story was going to be about Marlow utilizing her people skills from sex work as well as her knowledge of mythology to hold her own among deities. Instead, Piper has created a character that I can only describe as entitled, self-absorbed, whiny, passive, and idiotic.

Marlow is not a fun character to follow. She’s allergic to common sense (moving to another country on a whim, going to her stalker’s house alone, giving her full name to fae despite being supposedly well-versed in mythology and folklore, jumping to conclusions, etc.) and treats everyone poorly (neglecting her “friends,” consciously having to be nice to fans at a signing, looking down on other authors and local witches, trauma-dumping on someone she met a day ago, etc.). The other characters have to constantly save her, and she lashes out when they don’t help so there’s no opportunity for her to grow. Make it make sense.

Marlow is also incredibly wealthy, successful, and special with minimal effort. She is recruited for high-class sex work by a person she randomly met on the street, who then gave her all the resources she needed at no expense. Not only does Marlow not do anything to get this job in the first place, she does not struggle to maintain it; she is immediately very skilled in the work and can retire from escorting after a few years because she is so successful. In my opinion, this is a very idealized and unrealistic depiction of the industry and reads as Marlow simply being naturally so incredible. I would rather see Marlow work to find clients and resources herself (she could still be supported by the other escorts that she befriended), struggle in the beginning, and develop her skills over time. This would make her later success feel more earned and give her more agency.

Marlow goes on to also be a best-selling author, so she has more money than she knows what to do with. I think this success is meant to be inspiring, considering Marlow’s difficult and traumatic childhood. I would be less bothered by Marlow’s status if she was more self-aware about it. She could feel she doesn’t deserve the money or donate to charities. Instead, she lives in a luxury apartment, has many designer items, and makes frivolous purchases with her unlimited credit card.

Despite all of this privilege, Piper still wants us to feel bad for Marlow because she had a rough childhood and struggles with mental health. While, yes, these are challenging things for a person to go through, they do not excuse Marlow’s awful behavior and attitude for me. We don’t see her trying to do anything to help herself, seek support, or take control of her life. I just can’t sympathize with or relate to a character this.

Moving on to other characters. Caliban, the prince of hell, doesn’t get a lot of page time so we don’t get to learn a lot about him that isn’t told to us via flashbacks. We learn that Marlow is his reincarnated mortal lover that he tries to reunite with in every life. This is pretty endearing, but he deserves better than Marlow, to be honest. In this life, Marlow is 1 ? 8th fae, so she can see through the veil and see him (yay, more specialness for Marlow), leading her to believe she is having hallucinations for most of her life. Because Caliban is missing for most of the story, the relationship does not feel developed in the present timeline. We just have to take Marlow’s word that she’s always loved him, despite the reader mostly seeing her trying to deny his existence. I don’t have much to say about Caliban’s actual character. He’s fine, I guess.

I also didn’t particularly Fauna. I think Piper wanted her to come across as quirky and charming, but I found her irritating, petulant, and generally unable. She barely helps Marlow understand what is going on, constantly berating Marlow and calling her stupid (she’s right, but she’s still very rude about it). She also does whatever she wants and prioritizes sweets over everything else, evoking the image of an unruly toddler. Marlow and Fauna are constantly bickering and insulting each other while thinking highly of themselves, but, by the end of the book, Marlow thinks of Fauna as a close friend.

I also don’t have any strong opinions about Fauna’s boyfriend Azrames. I d that he was a more stereotypical demon but was generally easy-going and justice oriented. I’m not sure why he s Fauna, though.

PLOT
While things do happen in this book, they feel more a series of side quests in a video game rather than part of an overarching plot, in my opinion. Marlow feels she’s tagging along with Fauna and Azrames while they do most of the actual work, rather than leading the search for Caliban. I wish there were more sleuthing instead of characters being pointed where to go next by side characters. One of the best scenes for me is the confrontation between Marlow and Fauna versus Marlow’s mother and the angel Silas, but there isn’t much payoff or course correction due to this interaction. This book is mostly just a few characters going to different locations to find objects or information, and I wish there was more substance.

The main point of this book is finding Caliban, right? They get to where they think he’s being held against his will, and he just kind of shows up. I thought there was going to be way more conflict and plot surrounding trying to free him, but, nope, he’s just chilling despite being supposedly trapped. Piper introduces the idea of a town-sized sigil that’s supposedly holding Caliban and other deities, which is a cool idea, but then does absolutely nothing with it. The story, instead, jarringly shifts to undercovering the plot of the deity Astarte who has “taken over” a town and is running a fertility clinic in order to garner more . While this is technically connected to freeing Caliban, it feels it comes out of nowhere because it doesn’t relate to the rest of the plot.

I really disd this whole conflict with Astarte. Lots of deities meddle with humans to gain power and sabotage each other, so I’m not sure why this situation is such a big deal besides that she separated our two main characters who are supposedly deeply in love. To prove that this is in fact the villain of the story, Astarte drugs Marlow so that she has the uncontrollable urge to have sex. The ARC didn’t come with content warnings, and I hope the finalized version fixes that.

As far as I understand, having sex is an act of devotion for Astarte and gives her power and I guess this would bond Marlow to her, but I didn’t really understand why Astarte specifically wants this. We get so little about her beyond being the Villain™. We also don’t get to explore her character any further, because Caliban and Azrames show up and kill everyone. Marlow doesn’t do anything except try to have sex with Caliban, and he does start to engage as a means to distract Astarte. Remember that Marlow cannot give proper consent because she isn’t sober.

This is another instance when Piper does not set up her villains properly and kills them off very quickly. Also, can you even technically kill a deity? I would have d more inclination earlier about who the villain might be or that there would actually be a specific villain in the first place. Also, the messaging about sex in this book is quite confusing. You would think it would be sex positive given that Marlow is an escort, but then the villain is a deity associated with sex and uses sex for nefarious purposes.

WORLDBUILDING
Throughout the book, I was confused about the logistics of this world. I get what Piper was trying to do with worldbuilding, but I don’t think she currently has the skills to handle a world in which the deities of every pantheon exist. This is a super interesting idea, but she does the bare minimum instead of using this premise to inform the rest of the book. For instance, the characters go to hell, but whose interpretation of hell? Or is it a collective amalgamation of all versions of hell?

If all-powerful beings actually existed, we would need to reinterpret many things about our very existence, technology, and lifestyle. For one, across the world’s mythologies, there are conflicting origin stories, so, which is the real one in this book? If deities are real, why haven’t they revealed themselves to gain ? Why don’t they mess with humans for fun? What are the rules and politics of the different realms interacting with each other? Are these tied to human politics at all? Also, deities are notorious for fighting with each other within their own pantheons, and I can’t imagine the amount of chaos that deities fighting between pantheons would unleash, given that one character explicitly says that angels and demons often use the human realm to fight. Piper doesn’t explore any of the fun speculative aspects of her world and instead “worldbuilds” by making all the supernatural and paranormal creatures incredibly hot.

ART VS ARTIST
I’m going to be talking about Piper in the context of her work, not about her as a person specifically. This is interpretation and analysis based on the text.

In my opinion, Marlow is a thinly-veiled self-insert for Piper, and it is difficult to discuss one without the other. Based on my cursory google search to confirm my suspicions, I found that both Piper and Marlow worked in the sex industry, studied mythology and folklore and now primarily write fiction books about the topic, and were raised in a conservatively religious environment, and I can guess that they also have smaller details in common being Norwegian by heritage. It is impossible to not incorporate part of yourself into the characters that you write, but this book felt a weird wish fulfillment for Piper to live vicariously through a wealthy, successful, and powerful main character. I’m not sure if this is how Piper views herself or how she wants her life to be, and I’m concerned with what Piper is unintentionally reflecting about herself through Marlow.

I want to look at two passages from a scene early in the book. Since I received an ARC, I pulled these from the preview feature on Google Books by searching keywords. I’m operating under the assumption that these are the finalized versions of these lines.
I refused to read anything worthwhile these days. Not only did I not want to compare myself to the greats, but nor [sic] did I want to risk being accused of idea theft, but I found that spite was my favorite motivator. Every terrible idiom, every clumsy sentence, every ill-conceived plot and obnoxious main character highlighted ways in which I’d to do things differently.
Gandhi told us to be the change we want to see in the world. He was probably talking about kindness or charity or something, but I preferred to apply it to becoming the author I wished everyone else was.
The call is coming from inside the house. In my experience, Piper’s work itself can be characterized by its terrible idioms, clumsy sentences, ill-conceived plots, and obnoxious main characters. The ability to recognize weaknesses and make improvements is essential to writing. This lack of self-awareness will ly be very off putting to readers.

I think these comments by Marlow are supposed to be witty, but they come across as self-important, flippant, and disparaging. There’s a difference between well-earned confidence and arrogance. Given that Marlow is ly acting as a mouthpiece for Piper, I worry that Piper might also think it’s alright to put down other authors, especially given that she has reacted poorly to criticism in the past. It’s unfair for someone to think everyone else isn’t as good of a writer as them and that their writing is changing the world for the better, but no one is allowed to critique their work. Critique is not personal until you make it about yourself. People who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones.

Also, the mentality of refusing to use references to learn and thinking you are better than everyone else is very unhealthy and unproductive. This prevents authors from growing as a writer and a person and sets them up to not take criticism well. It’s almost impossible to not be influenced in some way by other books. Yet when that inspiration becomes imitation, whether intentional or not, writers need to be able to accept feedback from people who are ultimately trying to help create a more unique story. Everyone can improve their craft, and it’s important to learn from others. If Piper actually thinks she doesn’t need to improve, then she is getting in her own way.

The wording “accused of idea theft” here is also quite leading and ly reflects that Piper thinks that she has done nothing wrong in regards to her own plagiarism controversy. Instead of acknowledging previous mistakes and demonstrating growth, she appears to be doubling down. It’s also pretty hypocritical, considering that Marlow and Piper are profiting by using mythology and folklore from communities that they don’t necessarily belong to. Marlow is working on a book inspired by a mixture of South American lore, despite not being South American and only spending a short time in a handful of countries there. Anyone supposedly knowledgeable in folklore would know that it’s impossible to accurately and succinctly convey information about an entire continent’s folkloric traditions without oversimplification and misrepresentation. Yet Marlow wishes everyone else was better. I just don’t understand how someone can be defensive about stealing ideas when their livelihood is built on using existing ideas from other cultures.

Piper has obviously put a lot of herself into this book, but, unfortunately, she is perhaps revealing a little too much about herself. I would recommend she really reflect on the author she wants to be and how she presents herself through her work.

FINAL THOUGHTS
Despite my best hopes, this book is further proof that Piper needs more practice as an author, both in terms of skill and mindset. While she has made some progress with prose and technique, she is still ultimately holding herself back. However, this does offer a glimmer of hope that, with intentional and thoughtful development of her craft, she has the potential for more substantial improvement.

Side note: I’m bummed there were no actual dragons. This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.Show full reviewarc9 s1 comment Elle G. Reads1,685 895

The Deer and the Dragon by Piper CJ is book 1 in the No Other Gods series, and I think it’s a solid start to what I hope will continue to be an impressive paranormal romance/fantasy series. I can’t remember ever reading a book this and to be honest, had I known going into this one that it would be heavy on religious mythology I probably wouldn’t have read it. But I went in blind and despite some reservations I found that I really enjoyed it. The basic gist of the story is that the FMC has been seeing someone in her room and he turns out to be a demon prince from Hell. But that doesn’t stop her from falling in love with him. In fact, it’s what makes her needy to track him down when he ends up disappearing while putting herself into danger because there’s a war going on. It’s fast faced, has an interesting plot, and is easy to read in one sitting.


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