Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

“I feel like this isn’t about me”

Yellowface (2023) by R. F. Kuang

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I don’t really know what I can say about this book, which I think means it’s worked? I can say that it’s blistering, and brilliant; I can say that it fits the ‘Fiasco‘ square because it’s about someone who “reached for the stars and utterly failed…a disaster created by human actions” and in this case the disaster is a person who finds herself in a nightmare of her own making, but the disaster is also the publishing industry and the surrounding discourse, and also the […]

“That’s life. Short and stupid.”

The Dead Cat Tail Assassins by P. Djeli Clark

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Cbr16bingo Rage This short novel could fit several different bingo squares: tech, because P. Djeli Clark creates steampunk worlds with amazing machines and inventions; bananas, because all kinds of wild stuff happens in this story. But I have decided to go with Rage because much of what drives the action is rooted in the rage of an anonymous entity intent on murder and the rage of a goddess named Aeril, Matron of Assassins and big-time foodie. This is a bloody, action-packed and immensely entertaining story […]

“You have to be very strong to live close to God or a mountain, or you’ll turn a little mad.”

Black Narcissus: A Novel by Rumer Godden

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Cbr16bingo Dun dun This is my first foray into Rumer Godden’s works. Black Narcissus was published in 1939 and was turned into a movie in 1947. Apparently it was made into a 3-part miniseries on FX a few years back, too. I was aware that Godden’s work often touched on matters of religion and spirituality but I was not prepared for the suspense and foreboding that haunt the pages of this story. It reminded me a bit of Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca — an innocent […]

I hope we don’t wait 7 years for a Book 3

My Favorite Thing is Monsters Book 2 by Emil Ferris

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Cbr16bingo Pride (Emil Ferris is bisexual and several of her characters are LGBTQIA2S+) Book 2 of My Favorite Thing is Monsters (MFTIM) finally dropped this year, 7 years after Emil Ferris’ outstanding and much acclaimed debut graphic novel. As ever the art is stunning — colorful ballpoint pen on lined notebook paper with amazing detail and homages to horror comics on every page. MFTIM is 10-year-old Karen Reyes’ story of events from spring and summer of 1968 in Chicago. It’s the story of her family’s […]

A re-read that holds up

My Favorite Thing is Monsters Book 1 by Emil Ferris

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Cbr16bingo Dreams graphic novel features dream sequences, nightmarish horrors and main character’s dream is to become a monster (werewolf) I reviewed this graphic novel for CBR9 and loved it. The second volume has only just dropped this year and a re-read was needed as I’d forgotten most of the plot over 7 years. This is a story of monsters and horrors, but of course the scariest things are not supernatural but very real and human. Through gorgeous detailed art and skillful storytelling, Emil Ferris creates […]

There’s Something About Mary

Mary B: A Novel by Katherine J. Chen

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Cbr16bingo fanfic  As I have mentioned in previous reviews, I love Pride and Prejudice. It’s one of my favorite novels of all time. I have read and enjoyed several re-tellings of the novel, such as Jo Baker’s Longbourn, Curtis Sittenfeld’s Eligible, and Seth Grahame-Smith’s Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. I guess those are “fanfics,” but when I think of fanfic, I think of stories like All the Young Dudes, which use a famous novel as a jump off point to imagine life beyond the original […]



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