Hi, Natalie! Thank you so much for agreeing to participate in our Quick Questions Interview series. To get things started, would you please tell us how you found Cannonball Read, how long you’ve been participating, and what your favorite part of it is?
I’ve been a lurker over on Pajiba for years (probably since around 2013 or so?), so I’ve known about CBR for quite some time, and occasionally read the reviews on it. I didn’t join the community and start writing my own reviews until 2024. My favourite part is probably all of the great recommendations I get to add to my own TBR. There’s a few people whose tastes I feel align with my own, so if a book gets a good review from one of them I’m more likely to pick it up.
You’ve shared that Lev Grossman’s The Magicians is one of your favorite books, even though you find its characters can sometimes be frustrating or even unlikable. Do you feel like this makes the book or the characters more relatable? Does it add to the story?
Oh, definitely. It’s part of the reason this book worked for me the way it did. Quentin (the main character) is a fantasy-obsessed nerd, he gets exactly what he wanted (magic is real! He gets to go to magic school!), and he’s still not satisfied. I read it when I was around 23, and a little lost on my path, and it was just very relatable and not at all like the usual selfless, “heroic” characters that are so prevalent in most other books.
Speaking of The Magicians, have you watched the TV show based on the book? If so, do you feel like it was a good representation?
Yes, I’ve watched the TV show as well! I liked it, but it’s definitely different from the book. Tonally, it’s a lot more fun, which I think works well in a TV format, and I think it actually hit its stride when it diverged more from the book plot. I see it as being another iteration of the time-loop plot (a thing the show alludes to itself on a couple of occasions).
Now let’s talk television. Buffy, the Vampire Slayer and Angel are two of your all-time favorite television shows. If you had to pick a single episode to show someone who has never seen either and make your case about why they need to watch it, which would you choose and why? (I’m taking “The Body” and “Once More With Feeling” out of the running because those are obvious choices.)
“Hush” seems like the obvious third choice, so I’ll go with something different! My first episode was “Doppelgangland,” and while I loved it, I had no idea what was going on. Maybe “Fear, Itself?” It’s a relatively self-contained episode, it’s funny (Anya in the bunny suit!), and I think it’s a good representation of the show as a whole. For Angel, I have to go with “Smile Time.” Puppet Angel (and everyone’s reaction to him) makes me laugh every time.
When I asked you about your favorite movie, you gave me three selections that are quite different: The Lord of the Rings Trilogy, Shaun of the Dead, and In Bruges. I challenge you to choose one of these movies and reimagine its cast using the Muppets, similar to The Muppet Christmas Carol. Which movie would you choose, and which human actor would you cast to play the main straight role alongside the Muppets?
Oh man, Muppet Lord of the Rings would be amazing. Kermit as Aragorn, Sam the Eagle as Elrond (he has the eyebrows for it!). I think the ‘human’ character should be Sam (though I’d also accept arguments for Frodo), and maybe Barry Keoghan?
Your next mission, should you choose to accept it, is to create a playlist featuring your favorite alternative music from the 90s. Feel free to be creative and include unexpected choices—what would be on your list?
I don’t know how unexpected these are, I feel like they might be the obvious choices, but here’s a few I’ve liked over the years:
- “Zombie” – The Cranberries
- “Losing My Religion” – R.E.M. (fun fact, this was the first concert I ever attended)
- “1979” – Smashing Pumpkins (I once saw a cute guy singing this at a street market and I became obsessed with the song for months afterwards).
- “Lake of Fire” – Nirvana
- “One Headlight” – The Wallflowers
- “Loser” – Beck
- “Just A Girl” – No Doubt (I never liked Gwen Stefani once she went solo, but I loved No Doubt)
- “A Long December” – Counting Crows
- “Black” – Pearl Jam
- “In the Meantime” – Space Hog
- “4am” – Our Lady Peace (Obligatory inclusion of a Canadian band)
You mentioned you’re writing a novel. That is so exciting! Do you feel comfortable sharing with us about it? For example, what it’s about, if you plan to self-publish, or whether you’re interested in a community of beta readers?
Absolutely! It’s a fantasy novel about a magical apothecary who poisons abusive husbands on the side (if you’re familiar with Aqua Tofana in 17th century Italy, that was a definite inspiration). She, along with a handful of other magic users, are ordered to the Citadel to investigate a “sleeping curse” that has affected most of the members of the city’s ruling council. It becomes apparent fairly quickly that they’ve actually been poisoned, and that the apothecary herself is the most likely culprit, so she needs to hide her own involvement while resolving the chaos. I’d love to publish eventually and I’ve been researching what I would need to do to find a literary agent, etc. I’m still fairly early in the editing process, but once I’ve gotten it into a more readable state, I’d love to find a community of beta readers for feedback.
When asked to share your Pajiba 10, you commented that you have a type and they are mostly tall and blond. Katee Sackhoff was included on your list. Have you watched the YouTube clip of her watching the Battlestar Galactica miniseries for the first time? If possible, it made me like her even more.
I hadn’t! Thanks for sharing it though, I’ve watched the first ten minutes or so and I’ll likely finish it at some point! (Is this her husband in the video along with her? He’s adorable!) Watching Battlestar Galatica at age 15 or so was probably my first girl crush and inspired many terrible haircuts (that looked far better on her than they did on me).
You’ve now reached the hard part of the interview: we’re going to play Kiss Marry Kill with The Magicians. Whom would you Kiss, Marry, and Kill? Why did you make those choices?
I’m going to do this with the TV show version of the characters rather than the book, because they’re slightly more stable human beings.
Kiss: Eliot and Margo. Yes, this is two people, and it’s cheating, but they’re both pretty, and are basically inseparable and it definitely wouldn’t be their first time sharing.
Marry: Probably Penny. Possibly cheating again, because which version? Either. Yes he has issues, but he’s usually a decent partner.
Kill: Quentin. Sorry Quentin. I love you, but you are not okay.
We’re almost at the end. Thank you for participating in Quick Questions! Is there a favorite review you’ve written that you’d like us to share?
Weirdly, it might be the first review of a “bad” book that I read, The Bane Witch by Ava Morgyn. It’s a lot more fun to rant about a book that I hated than it is to describe one that’s mediocre.
Now that you’ve learned all about NatalieH, head over and see what she’s been reading lately. Or meet other Cannonballers we’ve interviewed recently.
