Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Middle-Grade Fantasy That Disappoints

The Goblin Wood by Hilari Bell

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I think if I’d read this when I was 10, I would have enjoyed it more. I felt that the characters suddenly changed their motivations so quickly near the end of this book that it was clear she was trying to wrap the book up and get them all out the door. I enjoyed the nuanced look the author was trying to take at right and wrong, and the issue with flattening complex issues, but the ending pages made it all fall apart for me. […]

A Kafna, a Kokwa, a Kadoh, and a Kokopah walk into a classroom and I don’t know what all this means

Magus of the Library vol 4 by Mitsu izumi

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I saw a cartoon a long time ago (XKCD I suspect) that suggested that the more made-up terminology a fantasy story had, the more suspicious of quality it might be. Magus of the Library (vol. 4) is a partial example behind why this might be so; what’s being set up is actually interesting and I like the world so far, but since it’s been a while since I’ve read volume 3, there are quite a few technical terms about the fantasy world that I don’t […]

Embers Burn Out

An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir

A Torch Against the Night by Sabaa Tahir

A Reaper at the Gates by Sabaa Tahir

A Sky Beyond the Storm by Sabaa Tahir

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This book series had so much potential. The Ember quartet is a fairly typical YA fantasy at its core. Interesting world building and a focus on a few ‘chosen’ characters that have to save that world with a touch of romance and a huge splattering of violence. The book series started out a little slow to me in the first one but by half way through I was invested. By the second book I was in love! And by the third book I was…bored. The […]

I have reservations

Demon Rising by Victoria Larque

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While scrolling twitter, I saw one of my mutuals interacting with an account raving about Victoria Larque’s Embers Duology, Demon Rising and Angel Falling. I had just seen the two books offered on NetGalley available to read now, so I went back and got them. Fane is a low level demon, an Ember. She sculpts and shapes stone with her hands. She is owned by a more powerful demon, who is pressuring her for sex. She wants to get away from him, but doesn’t see […]

A Masterpiece of Graphic Storytelling

Bone by Jeff Smith

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What can even be said about Bone that scholars and fans already haven’t said? It helped pave the way for the current middle-grade/YA graphic novel boom, it’s a beautiful masterpiece of long-form storytelling, it was completely self-published, it’s won every award….Bone is a testament to artistic effort and cartooning on the highest level. Personally I love it and have a long history with it. We had this same one-volume edition when I was younger and I reread it several times when I was in the most intense stage […]

“I keep to a strict diet of ill-advised enthusiasm and heartfelt regret.”

Ruin and Rising by Leigh Bardugo

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Before I started watching the Shadow and Bone Netflix series, I knew I wanted to read Leigh Bardugo’s books. They were on my radar when they came out but by then I was kind of burned out on YA fantasy (perish the thought!) Then over the summer, I started reading Sarah J. Maas’s fairy catnip situation (A Court of Thorns and Roses book series aka ACOTAR) which jumpstarted my dormant magical world-loving heart again. So I picked up the first Shadow and Bone book at the library and began plowing through […]



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