Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

The novel doesn’t quite live up to the magic of the setting

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

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CBR 17 BINGO: “N” (for Night) Double BINGO! Across: B, I, N, G, O, Down: Black, TBR, N, Family, Citizen The Night Circus is a much beloved novel that, on paper, seems like it has everything that should appeal to me: a Victorian timeframe, a magical setting, an air of mystery, an understated romance. I admired the author’s creativity, particularly in the way she weaves fantastical elements into the circus; yet, I felt a bit let down by the fact that I wasn’t eager to […]

Tomie

Tomie by Junji Ito

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Tomie is one of what I’d consider Junji Ito’s three big stories: Tomie, Gyo, and Uzumaki. Tomie is the longest, and probably has the most variety. It concerns the title character, Tomie, a malevolent and supernatural young woman of incredible beauty that drives men insane, eventually to the point that they cut her to pieces. That last part is inevitable, every incarnation of Tomie eventually dies a horrible death, but it doesn’t really matter because she always comes back. What’s more, if she’s cut into pieces, each piece will […]

New England Gothic Horror

A Wild and Hungry Place by EE Ottoman

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I am not a brave soul when it comes to horror, so it is a recommendation in itself that I finished EE Ottoman’s A Wild and Hungry Place. Did I read this with my hands over my eyes at times? Yes I did. Did I actually enjoy the creepy tension? Surprisingly, yes. It is gorgeous and genuinely scary. There is a curse, poisonings, stabbings, cannibalism, ghosts, lycanthropy, and something that should have been left slumbering undisturbed. Cricket is newly widowed and invites herself to live with […]

A Contemporary Canadian Gothic(ish)

The Glowing Life of Leeann Wu by Mindy Hung

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Initially, I read The Glowing Life of Leeann Wu back in May (?), but as is wont to happen in 2025, my brain erased all memory of everything I had read. So I started again a few months later and it was like revisiting a friend I hadn’t seen in forever. At first I was a bit anxious because I had positive feelings, but no memory. Then I got to a line that almost made me shoot coffee out my nose because it is a […]

So easy even Humans can get them

Physics for Cats by Tom Gauld

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Do you know anything about physics? Well, if you are a more serious provider of this particular knowledge, you might not want to read Physics for Cats by Tom Gauld because there is not a lot of seriousness going on. Then again, maybe you need a bit of humor to get you through the bumps, bruises and teenage robots of your chosen field. The point of things is that there is humor in anything. Including physics. Including the crazy world we live in. Including pretty […]

A Bit of Illogical Fun

The Inheritance Games by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

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Bingo: “I” Seventeen year old Avery is on the ropes. Her mother has died, her father is nowhere around, and she’s living with her beloved sister until her sister’s abusive boyfriend moves in. Refusing to live with him, Avery moves into her car. What she doesn’t know is her life is about to change drastically. Jennifer Lynn Barnes’s The Inheritance Games is a YA novel. Her heroine Avery is visited by a member of the fabulously wealthy Hawthorne family, and told she must be present […]



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