Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

The Prestige, but with teenagers and in the Pacific Northwest

Before We Disappear by Shaun David Hutchinson

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My entire frustration with this book is how nonsensical characters’ decisions are. The plot itself is an engaging one, for all that it mimics the beats of The Prestige (side note: basically the entire cast of that movie ended up being superheros or were already). There’s also a lovely, liberal dose of diversity of both race and sexual identity, and while the former has some period appropriate side eye the latter is barely looked at twice. But! A warm and fuzzy 1901 where Black and […]

Finally an HEA (sort of) for Rachel Morgan

The Undead Pool by Kim Harrison

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I’ve hit my half-Cannonball with one of my favorite books of the year. I had hoped for a proper 52 books cannonball, but alas, life happened. I’ve been reviewing The Hollows series by Kim Harrison nearly every Cannonball Read challenge. I was SO close to catching up with the original ending of the series. That is until Harrison restarted it last year with American Demon. I love how has the whole Inderland community in her stories: witches, demons, vampires, werewolves, fairies, elves, pixies, you name it. […]

Voyage of the Dawn Treader, whoops, I mean Muntjac.

The Magician King (The Magicians, #2) by Lev Grossman

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Now I’m remembering why this was only four stars. What was otherwise a clever play on Lewis’s Voyage of the Dawn Treader had the oomph taken out of its sails (heh) by a completely unnecessary SPOILERS rape scene at the end END SPOILERS. More on this in a bit. Quentin is still having his identity crisis all over the place in this one, but he’s much less obnoxious about it here than in the first book. The real centerpiece of this book is Julia, as we […]

In six weeks alone, Supercollider was responsible for 468 lifeyears lost.

Hench by Natalie Zina Walschots

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I loved Hench, LOVED IT! It’s funny, thoughtful, violent, compassionate and full of rage. Anna Truelove, pronounced troh-MED-lov, is trying to get a stable job working for a supervillain. The gig economy though, means mostly she temps and tries to stave off scurvy while she rises and grinds and waits for her invoices to get paid. As she’s starting to get a foothold in the Electric Eel’s organization, Supercolider and his sidekick, Accelerator, intervene in the Eel’s dastardly deeds and Anna ends up in the […]

Prospero is a dickhead.

The Tempest by William Shakespeare

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I‘m tempted to just let the title be my review, but if I want to count this review towards my total, it has to be at least 250 words. I haven’t read this play in ten years. I’ve never seen it performed. It’s never been my favorite, even though I’ve read it several times now. The best parts of it involve several of Shakespeare’s most classic lines: “Hell is empty and all the devils are here.” “We are such stuff as dreams are made on, […]

Here be spiders. (Cute ones! A little creepy sometimes, but cute. Do I like spiders now?)

Cackle by Rachel Harrison

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If you have been craving a feminist, witchy, creepy but somehow still cozy dark fantasy horror book, then here is a book for you! Our narrator is Annie, who just turned thirty, and fresh off a shitty break-up (her boyfriend of ten years decided he wasn’t into it anymore and just wanted to be friends, and then made her sleep on the futon) she decides to make a change, moving to the small upstate NY town of Rowan, which is cozy and beautiful and adorable. […]



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