Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


“Desire was not passion and passion was not love.”

The Beautiful Ones by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

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I have been slow to jump on the Silvia Moreno-Garcia bandwagon, mostly because I read one of her earlier books and it wasn’t for me. Then everyone lost their minds over Mexican Gothic. And I did nothing! But I’m glad I eventually gave her another shot, because this book shows me that I can like what she does, though it still didn’t perfectly gel with my tastes. SM-G is a genre hopping author, and with The Beautiful Ones, she takes on a fantastical version of […]

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 […]

Not velvet, more like scratchy polyester

Velvet Was the Night by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

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  Having really enjoyed Moreno-Garcia’s novel, Mexican Gothic, I ordered Velvet Was the Night excitedly, hopeful for another arresting story that was gripping from the start. Unfortunately, that was not what I got from this book. It took me much longer to get into it, and I may have set myself up for disappointment since I was holding it up to Mexican Gothic. It took me several days to finish this book, which isn’t the case with a book I am actively enjoying, I can […]

“Some people are made to be lonely.”

Velvet Was the Night by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

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I love how reading books can transport you to anywhere – and I love learning about different points in history through a really great novel. I knew almost nothing about the government in Mexico in the 1970s – and I wouldn’t say I am not “educated” about it, but I did fall into some interesting Wikipedia holes as a result of this book. The premise is that a group called the Hawks (a real paramilitary group in Mexico) have functioned to make a student protest […]

I hope this one gets as much love as the prior one

The Daughter of Dr. Moreau by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

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Moreno-Garcia strikes again, with a quirky book that is a bit more in line with Mexican Gothic in ~vibe~ but all on its own in tenor and plot. Set against the backdrop of the original tale of Dr. Moreau, a H.G. Wells invention who took one look at Dr. Frankenstein and said “hold my drink,” Moreno-Garcia invents for Dr. Moreau a daughter and a hacienda and more of a backstory, setting the tale of eerie hybrid animal inventions in a world of capitalism and greed and all […]

Mexican Gothic

Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

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In one of my earlier reviews, I was disappointed in a book that I expected to be scary but it was decidedly not. Turns out, Mexican Gothic was almost exactly what I was looking for back then: not scary, absolutely not gory (thank goodness), but a hovering sense of dread throughout the entire novel. Put it in my veins! Noemí Taboada is young, glamourous, and carefree. She is a wealthy debutante who is exploring what she wants to do with her future. Her family receives […]



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