Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


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(Es)sex and Pirates

Glitterland by Alexis Hall

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Ash Winters is one of those characters you find in a lot of books: the Failed Male Writer. Once a darling of England’s literary scene, Ash now writes pulpy yet wildly successful thrillers as he battles with crippling depression. Then he meets Darian, frequently described by Ash as a glitter pirate: a male model from Essex. There’s spray tan, nylon and the kind of clothing that pairs glitter with artfully crafted holes. Ash is a snob, so he looks down on Darian, but Darian is […]

I would have written myself into his skin if only I could, like a prisoner marking the walls of his cell, just to prove I was still alive and that I did not drift, untouching and untouched, through a universe of empty spaces and fading stars.

Glitterland by Alexis Hall

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Nobody puts me into someone else’s head quite the way Alexis Hall does. Sometimes that’s a problem for me, like when I had to bail on Rosalind Palmer because the narcissist relationship was too visceral for me. In Glitterland, being in Ash’s head meant I was still having that visceral experience and I could see the lights of the oncoming disaster train, but I also could see how he was going to move through and repair the damage he does. It engaged my compassion without […]

A depressive author and a sparkly model meet at a disco

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3.5 stars Ash Winters is a bipolar depressive who once wrote a very clinically acclaimed novel, but now makes a living writing mystery genre fiction, when he´s well enough to do anything at all, that is. He feels like a constant disappointment to his friends and family and cannot remember the last time he felt happy or even content. He´s dragged along to a stag party in Brighton against his better judgement and ends up going home with Darian, an Essex model with a spray […]



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