Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

This is just the way the world is

Reprieve by James Han Mattson

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NPR called this book a “gory feast” and that’s one way to describe this novel – it’s packed with fascinating character development, as well as horrors real and imagined. I highly recommend this book – despite being about 400 pages I flew through it (partly my post-school-year euphoria reading rate, but also highly correlated with a great book). The author is clearly expressing a point of view, without sacrificing the quality of the story itself. The story centers on the Quigley House. a full-contact escape […]

I wanted to like this much more than I did

You Made a Fool of Death with Your Beauty by Akwaeke Emezi

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CW: fatal car crash in the past, past homophobia, physical altercation that could have veered towards physical abuse except that it was stopped before any character is hurt What a beautiful cover, I have to say. The UK version is very boring looking in comparison. I have been thinking about the review for this book for ages, and here goes: If this was a book about Feyi and Joy, it would have been an easy 4 star book. Their interaction alone is 5 star, excellent, […]

Didn’t even read past “austen murder mystery” in the blurb

The Murder of Mr. Wickham by Claudia Gray

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Claudia Gray, of Bloodline, here stretches her fandom writing chops to a different world long, long ago with many fervent fans: Austen! The premise is simple: all the characters you know and love from Austen’s greatest hits also know one another. A sort of Extended Austen Universe, so to speak. Everyone has showed up to Donwell Abbey, the house of Emma and George Knightley, for a garden party that quickly sours when there are two unwelcome guests: a torrential rainstorm and Mr. George Wickham. Everyone […]

I know I’m finicky about SA stories but still…

Kaikeyi by Vaishnavi Patel

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While I do think this book was major struggle city to get through for numerous plot-related issues, I’d like to give my standard disclaimer around books featuring South Asian protagonists or based on South Asian mythology: I am, unfortunately, a harder grader than I might be for stories based on other cultures. I don’t know what it is! I think it’s because I know these epic tales very well, and I can see the plot points that have always made me go ughhhmehhhhehhhhewww, and I […]

A fantastic magic system weighed down by an unnecessary narrative structure

The Bone Witch by Rin Chupeco

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Tea (pronounced “tee-uh”) is a young girl who, up until her older brother’s funeral, was largely unremarkable. But, in a moment of grief, she raised her brother from the dead. This marked her a bone witch, a witch who can work with dark magic to not only raise the dead but command daeva, monsters that roam the world wreaking havoc on innocent civilians. Upon demonstrating her abilities, she is located by an established and powerful bone witch named Lady Mykaela who takes her under her […]

‘“There is nothing to talk about” she said. “I’m just a freak that’s all.”’

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson

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After being convicted of libel, Mikael Blomkvist is hired to investigate the decades-old disappearance of Harriet Vanger, a teenage heiress, with the help of Lisbeth Salander. I read this book a long while ago, but very few things clung in my mind. Certainly not the length, or the amount of time that was devoted to the financial intrigue aspect. Also all the pedantic sandwich making and eating! First, the good. The mystery of Harriet Vanger is a fascinating one and hard to guess the truth […]



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