Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time
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Join the CBR18 Book Bingo Reading Challenge—Now Underway!   

Losing Tom Hart’s heart

Rosalie Lightning: A Graphic Memoir by Tom Hart

December 10, 2025 by BlackRaven Leave a Comment

Rosalie Lightning: A Graphic Memoir by Tom Hart is an interesting look at grief. The author’s self-centered approach (meaning he is the center of the grief, how things around him come into his circle of emotions and trying to live) is both relatable and unique to his own experiences. Anyone who has lost a child (regardless of the age) can find parts of themselves. Seeing how weeks to a few months after the death of his almost two-year-old daughter came to shape him is touching […]

Filed Under: Biography/Memoir, Graphic Novels/Comic Books, Health, History, Non-Fiction, Poetry, Young Adult Tagged With: Cartoonists, Children, Death, family, fathers, grief, Tom Hart

BlackRaven's CBR17 Review No:549 · Genres: Biography/Memoir, Graphic Novels/Comic Books, Health, History, Non-Fiction, Poetry, Young Adult · Tags: Cartoonists, Children, Death, family, fathers, grief, Tom Hart ·
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“When someone is murdered next door, it changes everything”

The Murder Next Door: A Graphic Memoir by Hugh D'Andrade

December 2, 2025 by BlackRaven Leave a Comment

The Murder Next Door: A Graphic Memoir by Hugh D’Andrade was given a rating of five because it is an interesting story. However, it is actually more of a 4.5 as there were a few places I was not “feeling it.”  With that said, the focus of a murder that happened 40 years prior, but is still affecting our narrator, is powerful, interesting and oddly relatable. The ending felt a bit rushed to me, but overall a darn (only didn’t say darn) good read.  Of […]

Filed Under: Graphic Novels/Comic Books, Health, History, Mystery, Non-Fiction, Suspense, Young Adult Tagged With: crime, family, grief, Hugh D'Andrade, trauma

BlackRaven's CBR17 Review No:541 · Genres: Graphic Novels/Comic Books, Health, History, Mystery, Non-Fiction, Suspense, Young Adult · Tags: crime, family, grief, Hugh D'Andrade, trauma ·
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The book I didn’t think I’d like, read anyway, and was delightfully surprised by the results

The Travelling Cat Chronicles by Hiro Arikawa

December 2, 2025 by BlackRaven Leave a Comment

The publisher description of “With simple yet descriptive prose, this novel gives voice to Nana the cat and his owner Satoru as they take to the road on a journey…” is the perfect way to describe The Travelling Cat Chronicles by Hiro Arikawa (translated by Philip Gabriel). And I thought that before I was even halfway through. I am now (as I start this review) a little over halfway through and it is still perfect. The emotion of the story is soft, but intense as […]

Filed Under: Fantasy, Fiction, Poetry Tagged With: animals, family, friendship, grief, Hiro Arikawa, Japan, literary, metaphysical, Philip Gabriel

BlackRaven's CBR17 Review No:531 · Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, Poetry · Tags: animals, family, friendship, grief, Hiro Arikawa, Japan, literary, metaphysical, Philip Gabriel ·
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I found a new place to dwell

Heartbreak Hotel by Micol Arianna Beltramini

November 19, 2025 by BlackRaven Leave a Comment

Several books on my recent HBR (Have Been Read) list have had similar feelings and/or themes. And yet, each one is its own unique read. Heartbreak Hotel by Micol Arianna Beltramini and illustrator Agnese Innocente falls into this “alike but not alike” category. This coming of age story is similar to the stories The History of Everything: A Graphic Novel by Victoria Evans, Raging Clouds by Yudori, and The Flip Side by Jason Walz. Yet, it is also its own work and has its own […]

Filed Under: Comedy/Humor, Fantasy, Fiction, Graphic Novels/Comic Books, Health, Mystery, Romance, Speculative Fiction, Young Adult Tagged With: Agnese Innocente, Death, emotions, friendship, grief, LGBTQ, Micol Arianna Beltramini, Social Themes

BlackRaven's CBR17 Review No:506 · Genres: Comedy/Humor, Fantasy, Fiction, Graphic Novels/Comic Books, Health, Mystery, Romance, Speculative Fiction, Young Adult · Tags: Agnese Innocente, Death, emotions, friendship, grief, LGBTQ, Micol Arianna Beltramini, Social Themes ·
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Topsy turvy and then some

The Flip Side: A Graphic Novel by Jason Walz

November 11, 2025 by BlackRaven Leave a Comment

The Flip Side: A Graphic Novel is an unusual book that has all the feelings, but not the ones you might think of at first. They are the ones that we can share simultaneously, but at the same time, each of us have our own way of dealing with them. The first is grief and the second fear. Jason Walz shows us this through the eyes of two main characters. One, a boy who lost his best friend to (assuming) cancer (or other similar illness), […]

Filed Under: Fantasy, Fiction, Graphic Novels/Comic Books, Health, Horror, Mystery, Science Fiction, Speculative Fiction, Young Adult Tagged With: Death, Depression, family social themes, friendship, grief, Jason Walz, paranormal

BlackRaven's CBR17 Review No:495 · Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, Graphic Novels/Comic Books, Health, Horror, Mystery, Science Fiction, Speculative Fiction, Young Adult · Tags: Death, Depression, family social themes, friendship, grief, Jason Walz, paranormal ·
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“Oona was still learning, everytime she leaped no matter the year someone important would be absent from life.”

Oona Out of Order by Margarita Montimore

October 11, 2025 by Malin Leave a Comment

Buzzword Title Challenge 25: Alliteration Buzzword Cover Challenge 25: Eyes CBR17 Bingo: O (A book title that starts with O) Official plot summary (because I read this back in July): Just because life may be out of order, doesn’t mean it’s broken. It’s New Year’s Eve 1982, and Oona Lockhart has her whole life before her. At the stroke of midnight, she will turn nineteen, and the year ahead promises to be one of consequence. Should she go to London to study economics, or remain […]

Filed Under: Fiction Tagged With: buzzwords cover, buzzwords title, cbr17, cbr17bingo, contemporary fiction, family, grief, magical realism, Malin, margarita montimore, Margerita Montimore

Malin's CBR17 Review No:59 · Genres: Fiction · Tags: buzzwords cover, buzzwords title, cbr17, cbr17bingo, contemporary fiction, family, grief, magical realism, Malin, margarita montimore, Margerita Montimore ·
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