Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

About stegolily

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Stego Lily is a mom, educator, and sci-fi/fantasy enthusiast. When she isn't reading, she enjoys playing the piano, gardening, and chasing after her two chaos gremlins.

stegolily's Reviews:

“What is a river but an open throat; what is water but a voice?”

The River Has Roots by Amal El-Mohtar

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“The River Liss runs north to south, and its waters brim with grammar.” What an absolutely musical opening sentence. I had to stop and reread it several times just to let it sink in. Amal El-Mohtar’s writing hugs the line between poetry and prose, and results in a truly delicious reading experience. This novella, based on the English ballad “The Bonny Swans,” tells the story of two sisters, Esther and Ysabel. Their family tends the willow trees that grow along the magical river Liss, and […]

“You do not need to be afraid. You do not have to be good…You are the scariest thing in the woods.”

Lady Tremaine by Rachel Hochhauser

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I picked this book up after seeing it on a “Most Anticipated Books of 2026” list, but I was skeptical. It’s a retelling of Cinderella but from the perspective of the stepmother. I thought it was part of the Disney Villains YA series and was confused as to why it was getting picked up for celebrity book clubs.  But apparently, despite the protagonist sharing a name with the stepmother in the Disney version, this book is, as far as I can tell, unaffiliated with Disney […]

KKK Demon Hunters

Ring Shout by P. Djeli Clark

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Ring Shout is set in 1915 Georgia, where Maryse Boudreaux and her friends Chef and Sadie work as bootleggers by day, and demon hunters by night. But unlike their K-pop counterparts, this trio of demon hunters is after Ku Kluxes: terrifying, pointy-headed monsters that fill the ranks of the KKK alongside regular (also monstrous) Klansmen. Ku Kluxes feed on hate, and in Jim Crow-era Georgia, there is plenty of that to go around.  But with Chef’s explosives expertise, Sadie’s sharpshooting abilities, and Maryse’s magical sword, […]

“He who learns must suffer.”

Ordinary Grace by William Kent Krueger

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Ordinary Grace is a coming-of-age-novel about a thirteen year-old boy named Frank living in a small town in Minnesota in 1961. It covers the events of a summer marked by tragedy, in the form of accidents, suicide, and (possibly) murder. Frank’s father is the local minister, so he gets a front row seat to all of the heartbreak and pain in the community. Throughout the book, Frank comes face-to-face with the realities of life and death, and that terrible understanding that maybe the adults in his […]

“Back then, when I was a young woman, there were still witches.”

The Bewitching by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

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Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s work has been hit-or-miss for me in the past. I liked Gods of Jade and Shadow, loved Mexican Gothic, but didn’t much care for The Daughter of Doctor Moreau. I’m happy to report though, that I very much enjoyed The Bewitching. This is a gothic horror novel, following three young women across three different timelines. The main storyline follows Minerva, a graduate student in the 1990s, who is writing a graduate thesis about obscure horror novelist Beatrice Tremblay. The second timeline follows Minerva’s great-grandmother Alba as a young […]

Mid-April Review roundup

The Mighty Red by Louise Erdrich

Automatic Noodle by Annalee Newitz

There Is No Antimemetics Division by qntm

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It’s time for another mega-post reviewing a bunch of books that have nothing in common with each other! Lousie Erdrich’s The Mighty Red was so achingly beautiful that when I finished it, I got genuinely worried that I would never find a book this good again. Set in the Red River Valley of North Dakota, it follows two farming families during the 2008 financial crisis. There’s a local tragedy, a love triangle, and a scandalous crime, but the centerpiece of the book is Erdrich’s prose. She […]



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