Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


Join the CBR18 Book Bingo Reading Challenge—Now Underway!   

Define What You Mean by Vermin

The Works of Vermin by Hiron Ennes

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No matter what else has been going on recently, it has at least been a banner year for reading. Forget the top three, I’m going to have so much fun (difficulty) trying to whittle everything down to a top ten list. In the parlance of some of my students, the last few months have given me some absolute bangers.  The Works of Vermin by Hiron Ennes is absolutely in that catagory. In some ways it feels like a throwback to the New Weird of the […]

Bodies and Christ

American Rapture by C.J. Leede

This is My Body by Lindsay King-Miller

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Being back in grad school, I just do not have the time to read like I used to. However, last week on a retreat, I knocked out two religious horror books I had been meaning to read for a while and since they were both thematically similar, I figured I’d dump the reviews here. American Rapture This is juuuuust clearing the 4-star threshold, mostly because I liked C.J. Leede’s writing, even if her plotting and pacing could frustrate. I also get easily annoyed with survival […]

“For the falling star and the rising ape to meet, the former must first be debased. No myth can remain terrifying when you’ve seen it broken and beaten, rendered as toothless as an old crone.”

The Salt Grows Heavy by Cassandra Khaw

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He was afraid one way or another of the voice that beats in your lungs. Your hurricane scream. You frightened him, how men fear things that can’t be quieted. I’m sorry this was just a novella, because I want more; this book was written like it’s just waiting for a Guillermo del Toro adaptation. (I will admit this opinion was heavily influenced by my having watched del Toro’s Frankenstein immediately after; still stand by it though.) The story is told in a lovely melange of […]

“Magic Is the First and Last Religion of the World. It Has the Power to Make Us Whole.”

Imajica by Clive Barker

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Damn, the effort I have gone to in my search for a book that fits the “I” square! I went through a bit of a horror-reading phase in my early twenties, and Clive Barker was one of the authors I had on rotation. But I never did pick up his fantasy doorstopper Imajica—I think I was just a little too intimidated. But in the age of e-readers, what’s to stop me? Imajica is certainly epic in scope; the story covers the Five Dominions that make […]

A Monster-Hunting Take on the KKK

Ring Shout by P. Djeli Clark

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I enjoyed this literally monstrous take on the KKK. In this novella, there are members of the Klan, who are normal humans, and then there are the Ku Kluxes, who look like normal humans unless you have a special ability to see that they are actual monsters, and a Klansman can become a Ku Klux. Maryse, Chef, and Sadie are a trio of monster hunters who go after the Ku Kluxes in 1920s Macon, Georgia. While Maryse is given “chosen one” status and narrates the […]

A doozy of a book!

You Weren't Meant to be Human by Andrew Joseph White

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You Weren’t Meant to be Human fulfills the “black” square on CBR17 Bingo I had Andrew Joseph White on my radar from his debut, but it wasn’t until Compound Fracture that I finally read one of his books. Even though most of his books haven’t exactly been for me, I have a special spot in my heart for Appalachia, and especially West Virigina because it will always be home. So when I saw AJW’s upcoming adult debut was set in WV, I knew I needed to […]



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