Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


London is drowning and I live by the river

Lies Sleeping (Rivers of London #7) by Peter Aaronovitch

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When pressed, I’ll tell people I don’t like fantasy. This claim is usually followed by a list of exceptions. I like Neil Gaiman. I like Harry Potter. I also like the Rivers of London-series by Ben Aaronovitch. The rest of the genre is, as they say, not my cup of tea. No offense to you fantasy lovers, but it just doesn’t do much for me. The suspension of disbelief required is, apparently, too big a leap. One of the reasons I do like these books, […]

Jane sees dead people

My Plain Jane by Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton, & Jodi Meadows

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I completely ADORED My Lady Jane a few years ago. It was so refreshing and funny and unique, with such a great audio narrator. I had high hopes for this next book in the series and HALLELUJAH it delivered. It’s not quite as shockingly quirky as My Lady Jane (nobody’s fiance regularly turns into a horse for one), but what it lacked in quirk, it made up in literary references and jokes. Most of the Bronte family gets roped into the narrative here and it’s […]

I hope this isn’t how I’ll be going on.

Zombie by Joyce Carol Oates

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I’ve been seeing the phrase “start as you mean to go on” flying around a lot as we collectively, tentatively tiptoe into 2019. 2018 was an utter disaster for me, and although 2019 is better so far – touch would, knock on wood, hug wood – I’m afraid of jinxing myself. I can’t say that I’m glad I read Zombie, and I very much hope it’s not how the year continues in terms of reading or anything else. I want to add the qualifier, “It’s not a bad book,” […]

Who Published This Book Half-Finished?

Every Heart a Doorway (Wayward Children) by Seanan McGuire

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Coming off the heels of the stupendous Dread Nation, I was pumped for this YA novel. The setup: children travel through magical portals to alternate worlds, only to become distraught upon their return to their tedious old lives. (Postmodern Wonderland or Narnia!) Though this book won all the awards—Hugo, Alex, Locus Nebula—it utterly failed to enchant me. I suppose my heart is a closed door. Or maybe an inky void. Nancy (the sixth most interesting character, maybe) lands at Eleanor West’s Home for Wayward Children […]

“There are new monsters now”

Universal Harvester by John Darnielle

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This novel sneaks up on you. You’re lulled into comfort with descriptions of old video rental places, suburban living rooms, and the polite peace of the Midwest before being startled awake by sudden glances of violence and fear. These shocks originate from movies. Movies within movies. Were they intended for you to see? Why are they here? Who spliced an almost still image of heavy breathing and a woman with a bag over her head into She’s All That? Uncertainty creeps around every corner- breeding fear, […]

Cheating Death Never Ends Well

Vicious by VE Schwab

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 I have a cute model, so here you go. 🙂 I got this from Ale as part of the Cannonball read book exchange. I read it only in the daytime, because I am wimpy. Vicious tells the story of two college boys Victor and Eli who start experimenting with cheating death to become EOs, people with extraordinary abilities. There are a lot of interesting ideas in here about good and evil and souls. Eli gets his abilities and becomes a vigilante, killing other people who […]



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