Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

A Darker, Grittier Approach to YA Fantasy

This Savage Song by Victoria Schwab

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VC/Victoria Schwab is a weird author for me.  Everyone else seems to rave about her.  Intellectually, I am intrigued by what she does and the stories and themes she explores.  She is very creative, as seen in this novel where monsters are the external manifestations or results of violence humans do to each other. And yet. And yet. Something about her writing fails to grip me.  I was discussing this novel with a friend halfway through and told him, I wasn’t sure if I would […]

Two Folk of the Air Stories

The Wicked King by Holly Black

The Lost Sisters by Holly Black

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My first introduction to Holly Black was The Coldest Girl in Cold Town, and I have definitely enjoyed all her novels I’ve read since then.  Considering how amazing her vampire novel was, I’m surprised she has stuck with faerie novels since then but they, too, are amazing. I loved the first novel in this trilogy, The Cruel Prince, and I can’t wait for November when the final novel comes out. About five months after placing Cardan on the throne, Jude is burning the candle at […]

Once Upon a Time, a Girl Lost Herself

Stepsister by Jennifer Donnelly

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I picked this up due to crystalclear’s review, and since I have a weakness for fairy tale retellings.  Stepsister takes place after the prince has chosen Ella, and taken her away from home to marry her.  Her stepmother and stepsisters are left behind in a village where they are now hated for their abuse of the country’s future queen. Donnelly decided to use the Grimm’s version of the fairy tale as her starting base so Tavi (Octavia), the older sister, and Izzy (Isabelle), the main […]

If you’re going to ban Harry Potter, at least come up with a better reason

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling

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Bingo 23 Banned Book The Harry Potter series has been challenged for many things including glorifying witchcraft, encouraging bad behavior like disobeying rules and lying, and for being un-Christian. This recent ban though is almost laughable, but it did make the international news (click for link): Reverend Dan Reehill, head St Edward Catholic School in Nashville, Tennessee, apparently decided that the spells presented in the series were real. He supposedly consulted the Vatican on this, and had the books removed from his school library so […]

A Lot of Story Packed into a Novella

Jy Yang by The Black Tides of Heaven

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I remember seeing quite a few positive reviews of the Tensorate Series on CBR so I jumped at the chance to download it when the first novella was the free book available from Tor’s monthly book club earlier this year. It wasn’t quite what I expected – the world building itself was fascinating, but I was surprised by the wide range of time this novella covered.  Since I knew it was a series, I think I expected this one to cover the twins growing up […]

Judgement for the Selkies

The Unkindest Tide by Seanan McGuire

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I was looking at reviews of the previous novel in this series, Night and Silence, and discovered that it had a rather mixed reception.  My own review was positive but I can also definitely see why people would have had issues with the previous novel.  I loved the further revelations about the wider world of Fae, the discovery of Amandine’s origins (ie the rest of her parentage), and other family line discoveries that Toby made – I don’t remember finding the mystery itself that exciting.  […]



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