Cannonball Read 15

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

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Formulaic, but somehow still original

The House Across the Lake by Riley Sager

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If you haven’t tired of The Girl on the Train, or Gone Girl, or The Woman in the Window (which, to be fair, I haven’t read), and even Ghost 19, then this is your book! Female narrator? check. Possibly unreliable? Check check. Voyeurism? Triple check. Timeframe shifts from chapter to chapter? checkity check check check. Twists and turns? Hopefully you’ll think so like I did – but I’m not one to try too hard to figure things out. I’m just along for the ride. This […]

Getting in the last of my 2022 Reviews!

Girls Made of Snow and Glass by Melissa Bashardous

The House Across the Lake by Riley Sager

The Daughter of Doctor Moreau by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

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Girls Made of Snow and Glass (3 stars)-Not bad, but I started to get bored halfway through the book. Liked both characters points of views (Mina and Lynet), but I started wanting the story to go faster. I liked the idea of these two characters really wanting the other to be more (Lynet wanting Mina to be her mother and Mina wanting to be Lynet’s mother) and them being pulled apart by terrible men. But, after you keep reading, the book falls apart. I think […]

Don’t move into this murderous building

Lock Every Door by Riley Sager

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In the words of June Diane Raphael, I do love a thriller. I found this book at my local thrift store after seeing posted on Book of the Month Club’s Instagram a few months ago. Decided to pick it up and give it a read. I’ll be up front here and say it was fine. Same predictable beats as other books of the genre. Same troubled, single, female protagonist with a dead family, this one comes without a drinking problem though (I’m looking at you, […]

Oh my god. If they say “movie in my mind” one more time, I’m gonna lose it!

Survive the Night by Riley Sager

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Uuuuugggggghhhhhh. I have really got to take a break from thrillers for a while. This book sat on my TBR for about a year before I finally checked the audio version out from the library. The premise seems strong: Charlie, our heroine, needs to get away. Her college roommate and best friend, Maddie, was murdered, and Charlie is not doing well. This being the early 90s, Charlie finds a ride on her college ride board from Josh, though right away there seems to be something […]

No more Riley Sager books *pour moi*.

Home Before Dark by Riley Sager

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I do not understand why people like this author so much. Is it the guaranteed twist at the end? The cliched story elements? The flavorless writing? The overblown dialogue? I’m sorry, everyone who loves this dude* (which is like 90% of Goodreads apparently), but his whole thing just does not work for me. Everything in this story has been done, and done better, in other books. For me, this book wasn’t scary or thrilling at all. I finished it because it’s the literary equivalent of […]

The House, It’s Haunted

Home Before Dark by Riley Sager

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I did not intend to follow one Riley Sager book with another, but since what I was reading wasn’t working for me, and since my rental of this one was due to expire soon, I decided to give it a go. This one is weird. In some ways, it’s better than what Sager has written but in others, it’s probably my least favorite. It’s a haunted house tale and he gets the atmosphere of a haunted house down pat. I’m not a horror guy; I […]



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