Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

A Tale of Two Realms

A Far Better Thing by H.G. Parry

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I have never actually read A Tale of Two Cities beyond the famous opening paragraph and yet I was very much interested in a retelling with Fae. I’ve read a few novels this year that were either retellings or inspired by other classic texts but they were looser, taking those bones and putting them in a modern setting or otherwise being more homage than retelling. From what I can tell, this one takes the approach of following one of the supporting characters of the original […]

Hell is Academia

Katabasis by R.F. Kuang

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I read this one rather close to the release date so am a little fuzzy on details – but I had a book club on it this weekend which has helped me clarify my thoughts. While I still liked this novel, my immediate reaction was also that this was my least favorite Kuang novel, especially after Babel and Yellowface. Even with that, there are so many interesting thoughts and ideas being explored that it’s worth the read, and has quite a few tongue-in-cheek moments (like […]

Monstrous witches haunt rural Mexico and a New England college town

The Bewitching by Silvia Moreno-Garcie

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There’s an odd paradox for Indigenous people and the word “witch.” On the one hand, our medicine people, healers, doctors, priests, and midwives were often vilified with words like “witch doctor” and accused of alignment with various Christian devils, demons, and satans. It’s easy to see a sort of kinship with women who were villified with these words and with pagans from other continents who today sometimes have embraced the term of witch. On the other hand, our traditional tales tell stories of dangerous beings, […]

When the parts are better than the whole

Alchemy of Secrets by Stephanie Garber

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I never got around to reading Caraval or Once Upon a Broken Heart – YA fantasy is such a saturated market that sometimes, popular novels just hit the point of, “meh, I’ll pass” for me. With the name, I was getting Carnivalé and The Night Circus knock off vibes so I just was never interested. This is Garber’s first adult novel and the December choice for one of my book clubs. I figured this might be a good time to check out the author with […]

Murder, Politics and a Pantheon of Gods

The Raven Scholar by Antonia Hodgson

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Damn! This was so good. I had already picked this novel up because I have been seeing it everywhere and then Malin and narfna both gave it glowing recommendations so I bumped it up on the list. I don’t remember what review or description I had read earlier this summer but between the recommendations and me thinking I knew what it was about, I went in without reading the description again, and while technically, I wasn’t totally wrong about what the novel was about, I […]

Limping to a finish …

Tender Cruelty by Katee Robert

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This was far from my favorite of the series but also not at the bottom. Still, the series has run out of steam and it’s time to wrap this up so it’s good that this one is second to last. To be honest, when I look back at the series, I am not sure any of the ones that have come after the third book (Helen, Achilles and Patroclus) have had me nearly as invested in the romantic leads as the early novels. This one […]



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