Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

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No One Can Hear You Squish

The Darkness Outside Us by Eliot Schrefer

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I found this audiobook from Booktok. The Darkness Outside Us is a Stonewall Book Award Nominee for children’s and young adult literature. Queer characters plus a space opera is how it was marketed to me. I did see a follow up video that there is horror (said in a dramatic voice). Ambrose wakes up on a space ship with no memory of launching. He is injured, and he quickly realizes that he is on the ship to rescue his sister, who was sent to explore […]

Welcome to bizzaro world

In Utero by Chris Gooch

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In Utero by Chris Gooch is totally screwy. But also amazing. If you like Jeff Lemire, Ram V., Spectators by Brian K. Vaughan, Junji Ito (with slightly less intensity), We Called Them Giants by Kieron Gillen (and others I can’t remember, but were amazed how mental and emotional they were) you might like this. It is a horror/thriller. While “tame” in some ways, is much more intense in others. Violence, death, blood and some other triggers. The idea is that 12 years ago an explosion […]

“Uncovered and propped on a pillow, the opening around her toes nests five half-starved, featherless birds with expensively pedicured beaks.”

An Evil Premise by T. Marie Vandelly

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This book tried to make Fetch happen. Fetch did not happen. January is a new record for my first one star book of the year. I made it to the end of October last year before I uno-dubbed my first book. I can’t believe I actually finished the book, but the premise (what drew me to it in the first place) was too intriguing, so I had to know how it ended. Honestly, what I found was worse than mid-book-me could have imagined. This book […]

Hateful child snatching witches just misunderstood victims of society

Wormwood by Layla Martinez

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Wormwood (or Caroma) by Layla Martinez, and translated from Spanish by Sophie Hughes and Annie McDermott, is the story of a bitter grandmother and her bitter granddaughter living together in a haunted house. I’m just now realizing they are nameless. It’s been a long time since I’ve read any Shirley Jackson, but this felt similar to her work. Because of this Jackson feeling, I assumed the house would be big. It’s not. Living in a small haunted house sucks. It was built to be haunted […]

Facing the Dark

The Deep Dark by Molly Knox Ostertag

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The Deep Dark by Molly Knox Ostertag A lot is going on in this book. It is not easy, not even smooth. Things go up and down and around. There is commentary on life, love, family, friends and self. But to talk about it means telling you the whole book, which you need to experience yourself. Ages at least 14 and up, very mature themes and several potential trigger situations. The flow of the book is quick, but sometimes that makes a mess. I had […]

Still Holds Up Over a Decade Later

The Passage by Justin Cronin

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I read these books as they came out but it’s been quite a while since I read the first one now, and I remember it leaving a huge impression so I have been wanting to do a re-read now that I can read the entire trilogy relatively close together (plus, does seem to go with my 2025 theme of dystopian/apocalyptic). I had forgotten that this novel and The Strain came out around the same time (The Strain actually has the earlier publication date) but both […]



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