Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

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Anarchy in the UK

Once Was Willem by M.R. Carey

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CBR Bingo: ‘O’ I bought Once Was Willem by M.R. Carey a few months ago, essentially on a whim (I liked the title and the cover). I’d vaguely heard of the author (he wrote The Girl with All the Gifts, a book/movie that has been recommended to me before, but that I’ve never actually gotten around to reading/watching yet), but I was basically going in blind. I picked it up recently because it’s a short standalone novel, which I like to read to break up bigger […]

A great addition to its genre (but you’re better off not knowing what it is)

The Girl with All the Gifts by M. R. Carey

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This is a book best discovered blind, without knowing the plot or even genre. But if you already know, or don’t mind mild spoilers, read ahead. “That’s Pandora…she was a really amazing woman. All the gods had blessed her and given her gifts. that’s what her name means, the girl with all the gifts. So she was clever and brave and beautiful and funny, and everything else you’d want to be. But she just had the one tiny fault, which was that she was very, […]

Fewer gifts than expected

The Girl with all the Gifts by M.R. Carey

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The Girl with all the Gifts features Melanie, an obviously brilliant child, surviving the mysteriously strict and small world of her school and trying to discover who she is and how she fits in the world around her. The story unfolds to reveal other heroes and a larger world that these folks must survive together in a strange survival road trip. I hesitate to say much more, because although the surprises are not hard to see coming, the story is more valuable with them. I […]

Hits all the high notes, and yet…

The Girl With All The Gifts by M. R. Carey

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This novel is a modern-day retelling of the story of Pandora (as the literal translation of the title ‘The Girl With All The Gifts’). A plague of fungus has wiped out most of humanity, hijacking the bodies of the infected and using them to spread the downfall further. Yet through the hopelessness emerges a group of children who have retained their humanity and intelligence, despite the infection. It is hypothesised that they may hold hope for the cure. They live wild on the streets of […]

Not a good follow up

Fellside by M. R. Carey

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Jess Moulson is an addict. It used to be she was only hurting herself but during one of her highs she set fire to her flat and the resulting blaze killed a 10 year old boy. She’s sent to Fellside maximum security prison, riddled with guilt and hoping for an early death. But once there she starts to have visions of the little boy, and he tells her his death wasn’t as it seemed. Is this her own mind talking or is there something to […]

The gift that keeps on giving

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This was my “cannonballer says!” square for bingo and it’s kind of a twofer as maydays’ comment on alwaysanswersb’s review doubled down on my decision to buy the book.  And honestly, enough of you guys have recommended this one that I was leaning toward buying this before maydays let me know this was written by Mike Carey (I’m a huge comic book reader but keep my cannonball reviews to prose), but alwaysanswersb really made me interested. I’m spending a lot of words on the review, […]



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