Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


Are You Afraid of the Dark?

Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark by Alvin Schwartz

by Leave a Comment

Double Bingo! (2nd Row Down, Third Across- in Red… Blood Red… Mwahahaha) OK, I loved these books in school, loooovvved them. I must have read all three 5 or six times each. So, for the Back to School Square I decided to give the first one a re-read when I found it in my local used book store. This book gets four stars because it is a really good collection of American folk lore, shoot, it gets one whole star from me just for the […]

Cult Fandom

Falling Angel by William Hjortsberg

by Leave a Comment

I knew going in this wouldn’t be a conventional mystery novel but I was still impressed at how well William Hjortsberg followed the traditional tenets of what constitute a hard boiled novel. For about 90% of the book, this reads like a decent PI tale. And though I found the cult aspects to be boring and the reveal to be predictable, I still enjoyed the writing. This is a book that wastes no space. There are 48 chapters and each one exists to move the […]

Buddy Read: Pretty Weak Offering of Old School YA Horror

Help Wanted by Richie Tankersley Cusick

by Leave a Comment

Well, this is another one I that I didn’t read when it first came out. I don’t think I would have liked it as a kid either. This book was too all over the place and that ending was a bit odd since I think that Cusick is leaning towards a love triangle or something. Once again this one is more adult than I was thinking of for the time it was written (1993). We have a character threatening to rape the main character a […]

The Movie Was Better

Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane

by Leave a Comment

So this book was okay, but the ending was a letdown especially since when you think about things in a logical way you realize that what was really going on was pretty dumb. The book drags a lot too. The movie managed to move things along quickly with a lot of great imagery. Lehane in this book though makes you go over and over things and you quickly get tired of the investigation. It’s not until the final reveal of things that the book gets […]

Deadly Halloween

Trick or Treat by Richie Tankersley Cusick

by Leave a Comment

Wow. Not too much to say except for the most part this was enjoyable. The book drags at times and the character development beyond a few people wasn’t really there, but this was a good representation of young adult horror books from the late 80s/90s. So “Trick or Treat” follows 16 year old Martha. Martha’s father has recently got married and is now moving him and Martha to move in with his new wife and his stepson in the town of Bedford. Martha hates the […]

East and west style and story blended together for one bada$$ read

Monstress Volume 1: Awaking by Marjorie M. Liu

by Leave a Comment

Do you like gut wrenching, WTF was that crazy ride reading? Do you like your science fiction and reality mixed? Or a mixing of a historic feel and magic at every turn? Then give Monstress Volume 1: Awaking by Marjorie M. Liu a try. I stole these pieces of reviews from Good Reads: This book is “Asian inspired/art deco/classic steampunk horror/high fantasy/talking cats’ graphic novel.”  “The art is dark and lovely.” And, “stellar manga nouveau artwork.” Sana Takeda is in the top ten of my […]



Help Our Mission

You can donate to CBR via:

  1. PayPal
  2. Venmo