Cannonball Read 15

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

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“If You’re Not Happy, Maybe Ask Yourself If It’s Worth It”

Sacred Heart by Liz Suburbia

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Spoilers below: I’ve reread this book a few times over the seven years since it came out (I actually think I read her other work before this was published, so I was familiar with her style beforehand). It’s the kind of book where you enjoy it and it raises more questions than it answers. The ending reveals a little of what’s been going on, but way more is left up to your imagination. In the hands of another author, this might grate or feel cheap, […]

“But it’s too late:” YA Nihilism and Queer Tragedy

As You Wish by Chelsea Sedoti

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This book was surface level readable, but morally it’s made me more and more mad the longer I think about it. It’s the kind of YA book where you read it in an intense sitting but are also irritated that the author isn’t trying to do more with the material. There is a lot jammed in here — a town where everyone gets a wish on their eighteenth birthday, football angst, romantic angst, dealing with your little sister being hit by a car and blaming […]

This girl needs some serious therapy…

Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell

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We picked this book to be our February Teen Book Club pick, stealing our Cannonball book club format for a Facebook discussion.  We picked it without anyone having read it ahead of time, which may not have been a completely great decision, but oh well! The first thing that struck me was “Wow, there’s a lot of foul language in this!”  I mean, it’s nothing that kids today haven’t heard constantly, but it’s still a little surprising coming right out of the gate.  And it’s […]

Poetic feels

The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo

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The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo is a coming of age story written in poetic verse. Xiomara Batista attends Catholic high school and forced by her mom to attend catechism classes. Her mom has a very strict idea of what her daughter should be. Boys are definitely off limits. Thus, she pours all her teenage angst into her prized notebook. Also lots of feelings about her classmate named Aman. It’s only when she joins the poetry club does she begin to find her voice. Unfortunately, she […]

The World Seemed to Burn

Firebug by Lish McBride

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Lish McBride’s debut novel, Hold Me Closer, Necromancer, is as funny and twisted as the title implies. Firebug (Henry Holt, 2014) is set in the same fictional universe, populated by a hidden society of supernatural beings like vampires and werewolves, but features a brand-new cast of characters. McBride writes like Joss Whedon on amphetamines, peppering every page with quips and puns, so if you like your teen angst with a heaping side of snark, you’ll probably enjoy Firebug. What’s it about? Ava Halloway is a […]



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