Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

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Magically Delightful

Sorcerer to the Crown by Zen Cho

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It took me a while to find my feet in this one, but once I did, it was a delightful romp through a fantastical Regency England. In Cho’s world, magic is in the air….or it would be if the Fairy Courts hadn’t plugged up the hole allowing their magic to trickle into England. But someone’s pissed off the Fairy Queen, and it becomes quite the kerfuffle for our titular Sorcerer Royal, Zacharias. On top of Fairy feelings, Zacharais is also fighting deep seated racism since […]

Fairy tale update with a Latinx spin

Blanca & Roja by Anna-Marie McLemore

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Technically it’s a misleading to say this is an update of a fairy tale. Really, this is a reimagining of several, woven together with a Latinx flair and a contemporary openness to LGBTQIA sensibilities. If that sounds like a lot to pack into 375 pages, you aren’t wrong, but I think it’s a decent effort. Blanca & Roja tells the story of the del Cisne sisters, one of whom is destined by a family curse to become a swan. Told from four perspectives, this book […]

Mirrors that don’t reflect reality

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I received Boy, Snow, Bird from an earlier CBR book exchange, but it had been collecting dust for a few years. I finally had a reason to pick it back up when my Mocha Girls Read book club selected it for a fairytale’s retold theme. Helen Oyeyemi’s novel is a VERY loose version of Snow White set in the 1950s. Boy Novak runs away to a small town to escape her abusive father. She meets a man named Arturo who isn’t quite a prince, but he […]

I came to this book both too early and too late

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Well, this book ages really, really poorly. Some spoilers below. It reads exactly like the time it was written (1989): “progressive” enough to include, at least superficially, a cast of characters including a same-sex couple and people of color in mixed-race relationships, as well as treatment of the AIDS epidemic and drug abuse that leans more sympathetic than condemning. However, it’s not exactly “woke” enough to avoid stumbling into some major Don’t Do That’s. Weetzie, pixie bohemian darling protagonist, is signified as being creative and […]

Life is Simple, Except When it Isn’t.

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This book is amazing. I love this book. I am so glad I stumbled across this looking for something to fill up my bingo card. Magical realism is one of my absolute favorite story telling devices when it is done well, and this is such a perfect example of what it can really do. This is the story of Jojo’s family. Jojo is a thirteen-year-old mixed race boy growing up in the current day South and straddling that realm in between boyhood and adulthood. He […]

Damned if you do…

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Damnificados is a story of survival, of diversity, of faith, and of the fantastical. We are introduced to the Damnificados (a population of misfits and vagabonds) as they fight a two-headed wolf and its pack to take residence in an abandoned skyscraper. This building was built with corruption and constructed upon a heap of garbage and has been unoccupied since the death of its “mayor.” The group is successful and lead by a reluctant leader, Nacho, and the Damnificados build a thriving and sustainable community within the tower […]



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