Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

A family can be two sisters, one of those sister’s descendants, two other sisters, a magic whale, a sentient island, an omnipotent museum, and academic papers

Mad Sisters of Esi by Tashan Mehta

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I almost reread Mad Sisters of Esi by Tashan Mehta two or three times during my first and only read. Every 20ish pages, I thought what I just read revealed that I was reading something totally different from what I thought. So I started again. Eventually I gave that up. Mostly. It stars two sets of estranged sisters – Myung and Laleh (autonyms based on how fun they are to say), and Wisa and Magali. It is a dense, rich world. As far as I […]

Late to the Party and Leaving Early

A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas

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For some unknown reason I suddenly started seeing a lot of junky AI images, reels, and posts about the ACOTAR series, likely something to do with the recent announcement of two more books to the series. I have never read this series. I figured I pick up the first one to see. Verdict: I can see how-why the series might get addictive, but I also am not planning to continue with it. A Court of Thorns and Roses is basic fantasy, and romance, with some […]

The Stone Sky: “Different choices have always been possible.”

The Stone Sky by N.K. Jemisin

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The Stone Sky is the third and last installment in the Broken Earth Trilogy. This book is split between Essun and Nassun in the current day and Hoa in the past, which gives us context for how we got to where we are. We know that Essun and Nassun are on a collision course of sorts – they have the same general goal in mind, but with vastly different outcomes. Regardless, this Season and the Seasons in general cannot continue if humans are to survive. […]

“Hell is a campus.”

Katabasis by R. F. Kuang

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What do you do when your graduate advisor dies, but you still need a letter of recommendation? Apparently, you travel to Hell to retrieve his soul and his recommendation along with it. Rivals Alice Law and Peter Murdoch are Cambridge graduate students studying Magick. When a spell gone awry kills their advisor, Professor Grimes, they decide they have no choice but to journey to the underworld to save their academic careers. What follows reads like an homage to Dante’s Inferno, if Dante had been a […]

Slow burn chills

The Haunted Blizzard by Aviaq Johnston and Athena Gubbe

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The Haunted Blizzard by Aviaq Johnston and Athena Gubbe (illustrator) is a bizarre story set in an equally bizarre blizzard. Some tension, a big reveal, and questions left unanswered. The beautifully dark images tell more of the story than the minimal text. Perhaps for the more mature audiences. Let me start over. The Haunted Blizzard by Aviaq Johnston and the illustrator Athena Gubbe is a  bizarre story. It is set in a blizzard. The students are sent home due to the storm starting. A group […]

Modern meets old-world

Folk Remedy: Book 1 by Jem Yoshioka

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The graphic novel Folk Remedy: Book 1 by Jem Yoshioka is a fun, solid read that is a good book to start your graphic novel reading, expand your fantasy reading with or if you are just looking for an adventure-filled, funny tale. I was not WOWed, but I was never bored. The characters are not fully established, as some background information is missing, but they are also not one dimensional. We know they have a background (just not exactly what) and have hopes and personality […]



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