Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


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The Drama!

The Favorites by Layne Fargo

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Iykyk- this novel brings to life Caity Weaver’s infamous and amazing 2018 tweet about the Canadians ice ‘skating’ to Moulin Rouge, just switch it up with Americans and seven different covers of Wicked Game. Katarina Shaw has always been determined to become an Olympic ice dancer. With her childhood sweetheart Heath Rocha as her partner, it looks as if their championship dreams are destined to come true. But the road to gold never does run smooth and their partnership seems to come to a messy […]

Wuthering Heights Meets the Olympics

The Favorites by Layne Fargo

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One my fellow book club members selected The Favorites for our March read because the Olympics have just concluded and the latest film adaptation of Wuthering Heights has been out for awhile, The Favorites being a modern adaptation of Wuthering but Heathcliff and Cathy are Heath and Katarina, an ice dancing pair hoping to make it to the top of the Olympic podium. Katarina and her family take Heath in just as Katarina is beginning her journey to skating. Starting as a singles skater, Katarina […]

A timely book for the upcoming Olympics

The Favorites by Layne Fargo

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I saw The Favorites (2025) by Layne Fargo on some year-end, best-of lists and decided it was worth a try. It is a story loosely based on Wuthering Heights, written in the style of Daisy Jones & The Six, and based on the the competitive sport of ice dancing. Pairs figure skating was one of my favorite Olympic sports to watch back in the day, so I figured a book about ice dancing could be interesting. Katarina Shaw was obsessed with ice dancing ever since she was a kid, […]

The Cutting Edge and Daisy Jones with edge

The Favorites by Layne Fargo

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Bingo: Play (for the sports angle since ice dancing, though everyone is very serious about it) (Bingo #6, 2nd row complete) This novel came on my radar last year on one of those anticipated novels of 2025 because of the description, and I checked out the author’s They Never Learn as a result while waiting for this one – I liked that one quite a bit but didn’t love it. Finally picked this one up – if you love The Cutting Edge, Daisy Jones and […]

Careening over the cliff, crashing into the ocean, and exploding on impact.

The Favorites by Layne Fargo

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They didn’t simply want us to be lovers. They wanted us to be so in love, we’d burn the whole world down to be together. ― Layne fargo, The Favorites I have a backlog of reviews to write, but it took a truly bonkers story to yank me out of my holding pattern, tear open my window, and scream into the void. The Favorites is that story. This book has everything. Buckets of blood? Check. Violently gory injuries with ice skates? Check. Skating partners who […]

Wuthering, Wuthering, Wuthering Heights….

The Favorites by Layne Fargo

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Layne Fargo with The Favorites is trying to do what Barbara Kingsolver did with Demon Copperhead: take a literary classic and update it for a 21st-century audience. Some readers dislike Demon Copperhead for what they see as its forays into trauma porn and its sadistic treatment of the main character. For the record, I love DC. But no matter what you think of Kingsolver’s novel, it’s a work of genius compared to The Favorites. Admittedly, the scope is a bit different. While Demon Copperhead uses Dickens’ David Copperfield as a framework to explore the […]



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