Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


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Learning About Ogbanje

Freshwater by Akwaeke Emezi

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It felt strange to read this, knowing how heavily autobiographical it was. I felt like I was learning a lot about someone who’s a stranger but doesn’t fully feel like a stranger because I’ve read up on Emezi. It’s almost voyeuristic in a way, as I was left wondering what parts were fiction. I would call this a literary spiritual novel. The book follows Ada and the spirits (ogbanje) that inhabited her from birth. Most of the POVs are from the ogbanjes’ perspectives, sometimes from […]

Trans Rights Readathon Books

The Deep & Dark Blue by Niki Smith

Pet by Akwaeke Emezi

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The Deep & Dark Blue This is a middle grade graphic novel with a lovely trans-affirming message. Hawke and Grayson are twin grandchildren of the head of a noble house. After a coup that kills the grandfather and the presumptive heir, the twins run to the Communion of Blue, a group of women spinners and weavers who help spin the world. They disguise themselves as girls—Hanna and Grayce—and take the role of initiates. While Hawke chafes under these new restrictions, Grayce begins to accept that […]

You Made a Fool of Death with Your Beauty

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

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CBR Bingo – hot. This book is rather steamy, and you will be inundated with descriptions of the incredible hotness of nearly every character. This book is about grief, and owning your own body and will and exercising those in a way that truly embraces life. But it is ALSO a book about incredibly beautiful, talented people with lots of money lusting after one another in locations so beautiful they belong on the cover of Architectural Digest magazine. It’s a romance novel with some taboo […]

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, […]

Notes to Self

Dear Senthuran: A Black Spirit Memoir by Akwaeke Emezi

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I devoured Freshwater in 2020 – it was one of the most original stories I have ever read. As a work of auto-fiction, it drew heavily from Emezi’s life experiences and their own ontology. While it hit the beats of many books written about humans, especially human females as they encounter the world, Freshwater was entirely different because Emezi is neither human nor female. They are an embodied minor deity, born to human surrogates. They understand writing to be their work, and their devotion to […]

The Importance of Shielding the Vulnerable

Pet by Akwaeke

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Pet by Akwaeke Emezi My rating: 5 of 5 stars Jam lives with her parents Bitter and Aloe in the city of Lucille. Lucille is special because there was a revolution. In this revolution the monsters that used race, gender, orientation, etc. as means of oppression have been replaced with a system of justice. The “angels” of the revolution have created a utopia where Jam and her best friend, Redemption live without fear. Or so they thought. While at first it seems the story is […]



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