Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


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I found this Persian-inspired fantasy intriguing.

This Woven Kingdom (This Woven Kingdom, #1) by Tahereh Mafi

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I always try to go into books with an open mind and wanting to like them; it’s not fun for me to read books I don’t like. But even so, I haven’t had great luck with YA fantasy in the past so I mostly stopped reading it. For some reason, as a genre it’s particularly vulnerable to publishing trends and the resulting books often end up feeling the same as all the other books to me, even when having seemingly original sounding premises. Also, I’m […]

Sequel to Furthermore

Whichwood by Tahereh Mafi

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Whichwood by Tahereh Mafi is the sequel to a fantasy book Furthermore, which I reviewed earlier. To recap,  Furthermore is a fantasy book for ages 9-12. Set in a magical place called Ferenwood, Furthermore follows 12-year-old Alice Alexis Queensmeadow a girl deprived of love, care, and color. It is Ferenwood tradition for all 12-year-olds to “surrender” their magical talent. Based on their magical talent, they will be assigned a task. Whichwood does involve Alice and Oliver, the main characters from Furthermore, but the main character […]

Fantasy Book With Much Unexpectedness

Furthermore by Tahereh Mafi

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Furthermore by Tahereh Mafi is a fantasy book for ages 9-12. Set in a magical place called Ferenwood, this book follows 12-year-old Alice Alexis Queensmeadow a girl deprived of many things. In Ferenwood, everything relies on color, because color means magic. But Alice is severely lacking in color. Her skin and hair are both white. Other than her clothes, the only color on her body is the pale pink of her cheeks and the slight honey of her eyes. It is Ferenwood tradition for all […]

A magical adventure to find Father and self acceptance

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Alice was an odd girl, even for Ferenwood, where the sun occasionally rained and the colors were brighter than usual and magic was as common as a frowning parent. In a world saturated in color, where magic is common place and everyone has a special magical talent, Alice Alexis Queensmeadow stands out as peculiar, for lacking both color and magic.  Skin and hair the white of milk, the only color she possesses is a golden honey hue to her eyes.  At twelve years old, Alice […]

A Tale of Death, Magic, and Friendship with an Extremely Chatty Narrator

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This YA novel was one of my Jolabokaflod books and I found it quite charming, even though I definitely felt like I was coming into the middle of a larger story.  That’s because I was. Whichwood is a companion novel to Furthermore, which I haven’t read (but now want to). The bookseller at the Book Cellar (ha!) told my sister when she bought it that you didn’t need to read them in order, and I think she was right.  This novel’s main character, Laylee, is […]

Shut up, Juliette

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Shatter Me is a silly, overblown book that reads like the literary journal the kids in your 1990’s middle school published out of the public library and distributed in front of a local Hot Topic. I’m not going into a lot of plot detail here, because if you’ve read any dystopian YA novel in the past five years, you’ve read this one. I’m also going to be mildly spoiling the book, so, you know, beware. Juliette has been locked up in a solitary psych ward […]



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