Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


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A book I did not expect to hate.

Broken Monsters by Lauren Beukes

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I think I mostly hated this? Yeah. I did. And I don’t really know why. I liked but didn’t love The Shining Girls when I read it a couple of years ago. I assumed I would similarly like not love this. And it does sound creepy and intriguing. A boy turns up dead in Detroit, his top half attached to the dead body of a deer. There are multiple narrators, including a detective on the case, a teenager, a journalist, and a homeless man. But […]

Thrills and Chills

The Woman In The Window by A.J. Finn

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In the year since it’s been out, The Woman in the Window has been more noted for the drama of its author than the success of the book itself, thanks in large part to Ian Parker’s excellent New Yorker piece on Dan Mallory, aka “AJ Finn.” Reading it made me never want to pick up the book despite the breathless hype surrounding it. While i occasionally indulge in the Gillian Flynn thriller, I prefer more of a noir with this type of book, so I assumed this was of […]

Issues with Plotting and Ending

It's Always the Husband by Michele Campbell

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So I finished this last night and initially was all this is a really great book. Then I sat and thought about it and said, well except for some of the character development, and the plot holes that were not tied up, and then the ending. But other than that, it was great. I have to say that I liked the set-up of the book (three college friends) but think that it was hard to even see why the three women kept in touch. Nothing […]

Wow! What A Fantastic Thriller

Let Me Lie by Clare Mackintosh

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Since I had to get this back to the library this week, I moved this up and am wrapping up my “Watchers” read as well. I have to say that I could not put this book down last night! It was insanely good and the twists I didn’t see coming well expertly done. I also like how Mackintosh plays with POVs via some of the narrative choices she chose. I thought this worked from beginning to end and I have to go back and read […]

Maybe If I Had Started With Book #1

Anything for You by Saul Black

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Please note that I received this book via NetGalley. This did not affect my rating or review. Not much to say here, I could not get into this book. Other reviewers mentioned how crude it is, and honestly it is. I just couldn’t root for the main character, Valerie Hart. I don’t know if I would have felt differently if I had read book #1 (The Killing Lessons) and book #2 (LoveMurder). Valerie is obsessed with sex it seems and her ties to this case […]

Not at all what I was expecting. #CBRBingo – Birthday

Firestarter by Stephen King

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I’ve read a fair amount of Stephen King by this point, and this is one of the better ones. Aside from some dated language and ideas (fatphobia, gender essentialism, homophobic/racist language used mostly by bad guys), I liked this one almost as much as I like Misery. Good villains, simple but effective story. Just a really well done horror/suspense novel. The 1980s just ooze from every page. I actually wasn’t anticipating the intensity of this novel. It opens in the middle of things, and our […]



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