Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Gothic Vibes in a Waterlogged Setting

A Study in Drowning by Ava Reid

by Leave a Comment

To start with, this is one of the most accurate and well-chosen titles I have seen for a book. It’s relevant on multiple levels, from the literal to the psychological to, we eventually find out, the medical. This stood out to me more than book titles typically do. Our psychologically drowning main character is Effy Sayre, the only female architecture student at a university that wouldn’t accept her to the literature college, which was where she wanted to be, because “women dumb” basically. This reflects […]

May the gods favor you this night, dead thing!

The Dead Cat Tail Assassins by P. Djèlí Clark

by 3 Comments

If you haven’t read P. Djèlí Clark yet, you are denying yourself some of the finest fantasy writing currently available. As he proved in one of my all time favorite novellas, A Dead Djinn in Cairo, he can build a whole world with just a few details. In The Dead Cat Tail Assassins, he has left au earth and has built a whole new world in the port city of Tal Abisi. I don’t feel like I should tell you much about the plot. The […]

You were only waiting for this moment to arise

The Black Bird Oracle by Deborah Harkness

by Leave a Comment

Deborah Harkness has come up with new challenges for Diana Bishop and Matthew Clairmont in The Black Bird Oracle, Book Five in her best-selling All Souls series. Fans of the first four installments will absolutely enjoy this one, but it is definitely an installment and not a stand alone in a series. New readers need to be encouraged to go back and start with the first installment, A Discovery of Witches, because there is a LOT of world building that you’re kind of expected to already know. The […]

A Magical Zoo Adventure

The Phoenix Keeper by S. A. MacLean

by Leave a Comment

This was a charming cozy romantasy with great diversity and mental health representation. It takes place primarily in a zoo of magical creatures, and it was a pleasure to see MacLean’s creativity as she described these animals. Main character Aila is the phoenix keeper at the zoo and has been trying for years to reboot a breeding program for the endangered Silimalo phoenix. When a neighboring zoo loses their phoenix hatchlings and their mother to poachers, Aila’s zoo is given the opportunity to try a […]

James looked like a consumptive heroine from a painting, the kind that dies beautifully.

Dark Heir (Dark Rise book 2) by C.S. Pacat

by 7 Comments

CBR16 Bingo: Dun Dun “What a pity you have two saviours and they’re both useless.” ― C.S. Pacat, Dark Heir They called him the king’s blade in the shadows, though none knew the deeds that he was tasked to perform, or guessed that while many of the king’s victories were celebrated in the sun, they were won in the dark. ― C.S. Pacat, Dark Heir There was something impossible about his beauty. He suited the sunset, as if he was part of the light that […]

Vampires in Old Mexico (AKA Texas). What’s Not to Love?

Vampires of El Norte by Isabel Canas

by Leave a Comment

cbr16bingo horses Mexican gothic has, to my surprise, become a new favorite genre for me.  It’s a different flavor from the British gothic that I grew up on, more of a sense of connection between the living and the not-so-much living, that seems to be a part of the Dia de los Muertos Mexican mentality.  So it’s always a treat to get a new sort of being, such as the vampires in this book.  So yes, they want to drink blood for nourishment (not unheard […]



Help Our Mission

You can donate to CBR via:

  1. PayPal
  2. Venmo