Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

a traditional fairy tale: nasty and unfair

Princess Floralinda and the Forty-Flight Tower by Tamsyn Muir

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A princess, a tower, a witch, a fairy- you know this story, right? If you are well-versed in the nasty beginnings of most beloved fairy tales, then probably yes. If you are familiar with the delightfully cracked work of Tamsyn Muir then also, yes. If you are coming in seeing a blonde princess in a tower and thinking Disney, then absolutely not! Princess Floralinda is your traditional princess: beautiful, naïve, and imprisoned in a tower. She was put up there by a witch; and while […]

Social and Political with Murder Mystery in Fantasy Historical Setting with a Hint of Romance

The King's Beast vol. 1 by Rei Toma

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This one is also something I decided on for Valentine’s Day, but I’m a little late in getting the review done; I saw a teaser chapter posted online and I figured why not? I did get the book a few days early and put it with the rest of the small Valentine’s stash I’d set up for myself. The King’s Beast is a manga series from a publisher that tends to focus a lot on drawn out romance type stories. The King’s Beast in spite […]

Would have loved just a smidge more witchcraft

The Year of the Witching by Alexis Henderson

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Immanuelle Moore knows she must never go into the Dark Woods. Lilith and her coven of witches dwell there, doing terrible things to any good Bethel citizen who wanders in. But her family’s prize ram just ran off, and they simply can’t afford to lose him. She emerges, ramless, with the journal of her dead, blasphemous mother and the sinking feeling that Bethel’s leader, the Prophet, is not as virtuous and strong as he says he is. When plagues descend upon the town and the […]

“…I hunt monsters. And I got a sword that sings.”

Ring Shout or Hunting Ku Kluxes in the End Times by P. Djeli Clark

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P. Djeli Clark continues to amaze me with his writing. In this short novel, he leaves behind the “steampunk” and adds plenty of horror to a story set in 1922 Macon, Georgia. As with his previously reviewed works, Clark creates a world where magic is real and plenty of strong women of color stand ready to wield it. Ring Shout or Hunting Ku Kluxes in the End Times focuses, unsurprisingly, on American racism and white supremacy. I think we all accept that Klansmen are monsters, […]

There’s a good story in here somewhere

The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater

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I’m in a long-running chat with a boatload of Maggie Stiefvater fans so after reading the Raven Boys series last year, I finally got around to Scorpio Races this year. I got it as an audiobook and while I appreciated the dual narrators (as I did for Emergency Contact) I just … I dunno. This one didn’t do it for me. This was another audiobook I cranked to 1.5x just to get through it. It’s not that it isn’t a compelling story. I have a soft spot for […]

Delightfully unsettling, Lovecraftian adventure

The Hollow Places by T. Kingfisher

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What a journey this book was… This year, I’m trying to branch out and read in different genres and modes, and this book is definitely something that I wouldn’t have picked up before.  The Hollow Places follows Kara (sometimes called Carrot) who moves in with her uncle to help him run his Museum of Wonders after her divorce. It’s a convenient arrangement for each of them as Kara avoids moving in with her mother – whom she loves, but wouldn’t love living with – and […]



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