Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

“It sounded like the first line of a poem: They never stop, these Stepford Wives, they something, something all their lives. Work like robots? Yes, that would fit. They work like robots all their lives.”

The Stepford Wives by Ira Levin

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Thanks to NetGalley and Blackstone Publishing for the audio ARC. It hasn’t affected the contents of my review. Another banger from Ira Levin. I didn’t love it quite as much as Rosemary’s Baby, but you can clearly tell that this dude could write, and was waaay ahead of his time. And the actual book is much more subtle and impressive than its pop culture residue would have you believe. (Don’t even get me started on the bastardization that is the 2004 film. Now that I’ve read […]

“A podcaster has decided to ruin my life, so I’m buying a chicken.”

Listen for the Lie by Amy Tintera

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Thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for the ARC. It hasn’t affected the contents of my review. Listen, when it does the thing it does thing, so I had to round up to five stars because it’s so rare that I truly love a thriller. So many of them sound exactly the same, and have the exact same premise, and don’t really do much interesting beyond trying to shock the hell out of you (which I find uninteresting as the basis for a book). This […]

Paradise Lost

Even Though I Knew the End by C.L. Polk

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Even Though I Knew the End is a gorgeous, intense, tight rope 3 1/2 hour listen. Set in a slightly alternate, puritanical 1930s or 40s Chicago, C.L. Polk weaves together magic, gritty noir, Heaven, Hell, love, and grief. It’s both spare and lush with just enough detail to give the world texture and context. Women are second class citizens and being queer is dangerous. Helen Brandt sold her soul ten years ago and her payment is about to come due. She has worked as a […]

Not the surefire hit I thought it would be.

Stay Awake by Megan Goldin

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Thanks to NetGalley and MacMillan Audio for the ARC. It hasn’t affected the content of my review. I’m as surprised as anyone that I didn’t really like this. It wasn’t a bad read, and there were parts I really liked, but a large part of this book just felt extremely frustrating to me, rather than the intriguing and unsettling the author was going for (I think). Stay Awake kicks off with our MC, Liv, waking up in a taxi with no memory of how she got there, and […]

“The colonizer writes the history, winning twice: A theft of land. A theft of witness.”

Before the Devil Breaks You by Libba Bray

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In this third installment of Bray’s fantastic Diviners series, Libba Bray finally pulls together many moving pieces and lays down the major themes of the series with gusto. If I could sum it up in one phrase, I’d call this book “Ghosts are scary, but not as scary as evangelism” Or “Ghosts are scary, but it’s your fault.” The Diviners are a diverse group of supernaturally talented young people in 1920s NYC (who aren’t officially called “The Diviners” but simply “diviners” at this point).  In […]



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