Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Featured Review Archive

These reviews, which were promoted in CBR social media, on our homepage, and in Pajiba Love, appear below by review publication date, not by date featured.

 

A Journey of Survival and Self-Discovery With A Complex Character

The Jasad Heir by Sara Hashem

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This is not a hero’s story. Author Sara Hashem says in a video that Sylvia is going to be a divisive character because she makes terrible choices, but I’m not sure I agree with that. She makes human choices. She makes selfish choices informed by her trauma. Her choices aren’t that of a hero but that of someone trying to survive. No, I didn’t always like her choices and how at times they convey a lack of empathy or connection to others, but I also […]

Freaky, Funny, and Frustrating (In a Good Way)

Parasol Against the Axe by Helen Oyeyemi

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Every time I think that I may have Helen Oyeyemi figured out she hits me with another blast of wild magic. She often deals in the inner workings of fairy tales, but this time she has taken on a fairy tale of a city: Prague. We’ve all heard of the (super played out trope) of “New York City IS a character!”, but Prague is in charge here. Prague may be driving the theoretical bus, but Thea, Hero, and a cast of bizarre folks including a […]

Napoleonic Europe Weren’t No Fairy Tale

The Wild Girl by Kate Forsyth

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The Wild Girl is a fictionalized narrative of the life-long relationship between Dortchen Wild and the Brothers Grimm.  Kate Forsyth has pieced together her version of events from the actual documents of the Grimms and the Wilds, filling in the blanks with inspiration from the Brothers Grimm collection of fairy tales.  We know that the Wilds and the Grimms were neighbors, that Dortchen was the source for many of the Grimm’s most famous fairy tales, and that she and Wilhelm married, but unconventionally late in their […]

Fun & Delightful Black Sapphic Romance

A Little Kissing Between Friends by Chencia C. Higgins

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I feel like I’ve been waiting for this book forever, so as soon as I got approved for an arc I had to immediately jump in. And I am so glad I did! I’ve loved Chencia’s books since I read Wolves of West Texas, and seeing her story-telling grow and develop is just amazing. A Little Kissing Between Friends is such a delight of a book and had me laughing constantly. The friendship between Jucee and Cyn is so wonderful, and I also love how […]

A Smudge on the Page of History

Better The Blood by Michael Bennett

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Sometimes you start reading a book and you know you’re in good hands.  That’s how I felt as I dove into Michael Bennett’s novel, Better the Blood.  Set in present-day Auckland, the story explores how past colonial trauma echoes on into future generations (a topic that seems timely in so many ways right now). Detective Senior Hana Westerman is on her way into a courtroom when someone sends an anonymous video to her phone.  It isn’t until later in the day (after the judge hands […]

The Book that Helped Influence a Movement

Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 by Cho Nam-Joo

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Best for: Anyone interested in a straightforward exploration of a woman’s life under patriarchy. In this case, the patriarchy women experience in Korea. In a nutshell: Kim Jiyoung’s story, from birth through motherhood, and all the times her being a girl / woman has been held against her. Worth quoting: “It felt more like harassment or violence than pranks, and there was nothing she could do about it.” “It wasn’t that she didn’t have time – she didn’t have room in her head for other […]



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