Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

A Small Southern Town with a Large Helping of Sex, Murder and Violence. Fun!

My Darkest Prayer by S.A. Cosby

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After a summer of serious reads it was fun to sit down and enjoy a good noir mystery, this one taking place in a small town in Virginia. It checks all the noir boxes: a woman with a checkered present, shady accomplices, dive bars, crime bosses and church ladies. Nathan returned to Virginia after a couple of tours in Afghanistan and Iraq, he also used to work for the sheriff’s office. He now works for his cousin who is a mortician, Nathan transports the bodies. […]

“All authority is fiction.”

The Deep Sky by Yume Kitasei

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Thanks to NetGalley and MacMillan Audio for the ARC. It hasn’t affected the contents of my review. This was an enjoyable mystery/sci-fi/thriller set in space. It doesn’t do anything new to the genre (really of either mystery or sci-fi) but it is a good example of both kinds of stories, and it has likable characters you want to root for. It’s also pretty queer! Only people who have uteruses are allowed on the mission to colonize another planet, because space/fuel limitations mean not that many […]

Disney Songs, Supernatural Problems, Romance, and Death

Masters of Death by Olivie Blake

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Bingo 19: Queer Lives I’m not sure where I saw the blurb for Masters of Death but it was pretty catchy; it also did not hint at the queerness within, but that’s ok. I have to say, I found this pretty enjoyable. There are about 8 main characters, some more main than others, and half of the book revolves around them finding or re-finding their special person. Everyone is ‘inter-species’ to some extent, and one of the more important couples is  same sex; the member […]

São Paulo and the Gates

Paradise City by Joe Thomas

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Read as part of CBR15Bingo: South America. The story takes place (and is largely a commentary on) the city of São Paulo, Brazil, which is located in South America.  There’s a specific kind of fevered, conspiracy-addled, crime fiction that only works in the right hands. Told in a postmodern, often repetitious style that many find grating (including, often, me). And the endings are often ambiguous, incomplete, or complete in a way that you cannot possibly accept or understand. You have to be willing to go […]

Those Still Living…

Tokyo Redux by David Peace

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Read as part of CBR15Bingo: getaway. I’m swapping this one out for “violence (banned).” Though this book is plenty violent. Plus, I really want an excuse to write about this book and make it count for CBR15Bingo.  I don’t know what to say really. This trilogy wrecked me. And to think, I wouldn’t have picked it up if not for journalist Max Read’s suggestion. I read the last three books of David Peace’s Red Riding Quartet last year and you can look at the tag […]

“If an old story is enough to scare people away, then the whole world should scare them.”

After Dark with Roxie Clark by Brooke Lauren Davis

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CBR 15 Bingo – Adulthood: This YA book is a coming-of-age story for Roxie and Skylar, who must grapple with the difficult themes of guilt and closure before they can move past a massive tragedy. A year after Roxie’s sister’s boyfriend is found brutally murdered on the outskirts of town, an unexpected discovery sends Skylar on a frenetic search for the killer, heedless of who might get hurt in the process. This is a fitting read for spooky season – a family curse? A ghost […]



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