Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

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a novella I wish were a novel, but then again when don’t I

The Black God's Drums by P. Djèlí Clark

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This is quite a short novella and therefore there’s quite a bit of rushing to get to the plot that there is. But if the worst that I have to complain about is some deus ex machina nuns, I think we’re overall pretty fine. Did not realize that there was more fiction in this vein by Clark, I’ve read some of his pretty awesome punk sci-fi (?). There are too many authors to keep track of everyone’s new work– the tech people should stop trying […]

KKK Demon Hunters

Ring Shout by P. Djeli Clark

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Ring Shout is set in 1915 Georgia, where Maryse Boudreaux and her friends Chef and Sadie work as bootleggers by day, and demon hunters by night. But unlike their K-pop counterparts, this trio of demon hunters is after Ku Kluxes: terrifying, pointy-headed monsters that fill the ranks of the KKK alongside regular (also monstrous) Klansmen. Ku Kluxes feed on hate, and in Jim Crow-era Georgia, there is plenty of that to go around.  But with Chef’s explosives expertise, Sadie’s sharpshooting abilities, and Maryse’s magical sword, […]

A Well-Realized World in a Small Package

The Black God's Drums by P. Djeli Clark

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I’m starting to really love P. Djèlí Clark’s writing. This is the second book I’ve read by him, and I liked it even more than Ring Shout, which is surprising because it’s rare for me to give a novella more than 4 stars (4.25 for this one). Often I find that characters don’t end up getting fleshed out enough for me, and while I would have loved more of The Black God’s Drums, Clark did a remarkable job considering the limited space he was working with. […]

Home-Grown Monsters

Ring Shout by P. Djeli Clark

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Who says all the fantasies with sword- wielding heroes and heroines have to be in Middle-earth, Westeros, or even our dreams of Africa past—what the Harlem Renaissance poet Countee Cullen reminisced as “copper sun or scarlet sea”?…Fantasy stories often feature characters in medieval settings taking on monsters. I figured a young Black woman in 1920s Georgia could be that character too. Even gave her her own sword. The monsters she has to fight are plucked right out of our own history—perhaps made more terrifying because […]

Djinn. Ghuls. Sorcerers. Never had to worry about this in my grandfather’s day.

A Dead Djinn in Cairo by P. Djèlí Clark

The Haunting of Tram Car 015 by P. Djèlí Clark

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A Dead Djinn in Cairo CBR 17 Bingo: Border This refers to the border between the earthly plane and what lies beyond. *cracks knuckles* Here we go. I’ve been procrastinating on writing book reviews because it’s always more appealing to just start a new book than to sit down and summarize the book I either devoured or endured. With the ones I devoured, I doubt whether or not I can be objective since I was so into it when I was reading and still felt […]

A Monster-Hunting Take on the KKK

Ring Shout by P. Djeli Clark

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I enjoyed this literally monstrous take on the KKK. In this novella, there are members of the Klan, who are normal humans, and then there are the Ku Kluxes, who look like normal humans unless you have a special ability to see that they are actual monsters, and a Klansman can become a Ku Klux. Maryse, Chef, and Sadie are a trio of monster hunters who go after the Ku Kluxes in 1920s Macon, Georgia. While Maryse is given “chosen one” status and narrates the […]



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