Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

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“It is early fall, the cold is beginning to descend, and in three months everyone in this house will be dead.”

Victorian Psycho: A Novel by Virginia Feito

October 3, 2025 by bjornsnipe 2 Comments

It fascinates me, the fact that human have the capacity to mortally wound one another at will, but for the most part, choose not to. Winifred Notty arrives at Ensor House, the familial home of the Pounds family, fully prepared to play the perfect Victorian governess. She’ll tutor her charges, Drusilla and Andrew, tell them bedtime stories, teach them about the French Revolution, and only joke about eating children. But the longer Winifred spends within the estate’s dreary confines dealing with the dreary family, the […]

Filed Under: Comedy/Humor, Fiction, Horror Tagged With: dark comedy, gothic, horrible people being horrible, Insanity, Virginia Feito

bjornsnipe's CBR17 Review No:130 · Genres: Comedy/Humor, Fiction, Horror · Tags: dark comedy, gothic, horrible people being horrible, Insanity, Virginia Feito ·
Rating:
· 2 Comments

Not Enough Bite

Carmilla by Sheridan Le Fanu

June 23, 2025 by Tracy Leave a Comment

I wanted, probably even expected, to like this more than I did. I was so excited about a sapphic vampire story that predated Dracula but that isn’t really talked about—I certainly hadn’t heard of it until some time within the past year. The book is narrated by Laura, who lives with her father in an isolated castle. They take Carmilla in when she is injured in an accident just outside of their home, and the two young women become close. Meanwhile, other girls and women […]

Filed Under: Fiction Tagged With: gothic, sheridan le fanu

Tracy's CBR17 Review No:42 · Genres: Fiction · Tags: gothic, sheridan le fanu ·
Rating:
· 0 Comments

The Thin Line Between Fantasy and Reality

Mary and the Birth of Frankstein by Anne Eekhout

March 29, 2025 by Pooja Leave a Comment

The year is 1812, and fourteen-year-old Mary Goodwin is living in pastoral Dundee, where she may find love but may find danger as well. The year is 1816, and eighteen-year-old Mary Shelley is living in rainy Geneva, where she may conceive of something that is strange and fearful and all hers, if she will allow herself to do it. I have still not read Frankenstein. (I keep meaning to! There’s just so many books to read!) But I am familiar with its plot, and the […]

Filed Under: Fiction Tagged With: #fantasy, 19th century, Anne Eekhout, ARC, gothic, historical, horror, lgbt, NetGalley

Pooja's CBR17 Review No:19 · Genres: Fiction · Tags: #fantasy, 19th century, Anne Eekhout, ARC, gothic, historical, horror, lgbt, NetGalley ·
Rating:
· 0 Comments

“The problem with family is that they know where all the levers are that make you move. They’re usually the ones who installed the levers in the first place.”

A House with Good Bones by T. Kingfisher

October 25, 2024 by cheerbrarian Leave a Comment

I picked this book up for a  read along with a few friends and it’s a great one for the season: one part silly, one part spooky, one part WAIT WHAT?! The general consensus from the group was that we liked it, but maybe didn’t love it and that it was a bit of a slow build, some felt it was too slow, I was along for the ride. Someone who had read other Kingfisher novels was surprised at how differernt it was in tone, […]

Filed Under: Fantasy, Fiction, Horror, Mystery Tagged With: a house with good bones, gothic, paranormal, spooky, spooky season, t kingfisher

cheerbrarian's CBR16 Review No:38 · Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, Horror, Mystery · Tags: a house with good bones, gothic, paranormal, spooky, spooky season, t kingfisher ·
Rating:
· 0 Comments

“And there is nothing more dangerous than a creature who pretends to be one thing and is in truth another.”

Lady Macbeth by Ava Reid

October 2, 2024 by dreadpiratekel Leave a Comment

This is a retelling of Shakespeare’s Macbeth focused on Lady Macbeth. This version is split into five acts (just like the play!), with Lady Macbeth as a 17-year-old new bride of the title character. Something I found particularly interesting is that the author chose to reflect the various languages spoken in eleventh-century Scotland, so the characters have different versions of their names depending on the language used. In the book, the main character thinks of herself as Roscille, so for the sake of this review, […]

Filed Under: Fantasy, Fiction Tagged With: #fantasy, Ava Reid, Fiction Retellings, gothic, historical, Lady Macbeth

dreadpiratekel's CBR16 Review No:34 · Genres: Fantasy, Fiction · Tags: #fantasy, Ava Reid, Fiction Retellings, gothic, historical, Lady Macbeth ·
· 0 Comments

Even a Hot Topic clerk will smirk at these

Oh My Goth: Jokes for When You Feel Dead Inside by Andrew Shaffer

August 29, 2024 by BlackRaven Leave a Comment

Ah, the creator Andrew Shaffer! The person I love to hate and hate to love! Yet, he keeps (pounding fists on my desk) DRAGS ME BACK! Time and time again! I am thinking, “OH Master has given Dobby clothes!” But oh no! Dobby has been fooled and I am right back reading another mad capped work by them! Okay, seriously, I really did not realize how prolific Shaffer is. Oh My Goth: Jokes for When You Feel Dead Inside is a small collection (read online […]

Filed Under: Comedy/Humor, Fiction, Horror Tagged With: adult humor, Andrew Shaffer, gothic

BlackRaven's CBR16 Review No:411 · Genres: Comedy/Humor, Fiction, Horror · Tags: adult humor, Andrew Shaffer, gothic ·
Rating:
· 0 Comments
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