Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

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“fear is an anchor, but it’s also a bridge”

The Haunting of Room 904 by Erika T. Wurth

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Thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for the ARC. It hasn’t affected the contents of my review. I’m going to keep reading this author’s books as long as I like the premises, because she is improving as a writer as she goes. There are still things in here that ultimately meant I couldn’t bump this up to four stars (dear lord, the sex scene*) because this simply just isn’t as good as books that I have rated four stars in the past. But her ideas […]

If you want me to tell you what the scandal was, leave me a comment. CBRBINGO – Scandal

Kill Show by Daniel Sweren-Becker

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I think I will nearly always like a true crime adjacent book. Add in the faux oral history aspect of this one, and the fact that it’s about a family who choose to go on a reality TV show “to find their missing daughter” and my interest in this was pretty huge. It mostly delivered, but it was also a pretty straightforward thriller without much of interest to say about true crime or reality TV beyond that it’s gross, exploitative, and hurts people. It also […]

“What the stories never said: at the end of the day, if a man wants to kill you, he kills you. It’s not on you to convince him not to.”

The Quiet Tenant by Clémence Michallon

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This was a great literary suspense debut, with one pretty big flaw that it feels like the author just really misjudged, but she is clearly a talented lady and I will definitely be reading her next book. Firstly, I just want to complain a little that I can’t even manage to finish a novel in my own language let alone write and finish and PUBLISH a beautiful book in my SECOND*, and then have it be this good. So that’s just me being jealous and […]

Hi, it’s me, the worst book of the year.

Whalefall by Daniel Kraus

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I’m not mad just disappointed. Just kidding, I’m pretty mad. I’m going to say what many reviewers have said before me: This is not a book about a man who is swallowed by a whale and has to use science to get out alive. This is a book about a man (a teenager, actually, but more on that below) who has daddy issues real bad, and he happens to be swallowed by a whale also. The parts with the whale are few and far between—it […]

“Just when you think you’ve seen the worst human beings have to offer, you find out you’re wrong.”

Holly (Holly Gibney, #3) by Stephen King

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This was bit of a messy book that I ultimately enjoyed very much. King takes a lot of smaller pieces (racism, homophobia, cannibalism, the fear of aging, COVID, poetry and writing and the meaning of art) and smushes them together in this little book following Holly Gibney, a character some people love and some people (inexplicably) hate. I happen to love her. I thought this was a great showcase for Holly, even if it wasn’t perfect, and there were small moments I might have tweaked […]

“There’s an old rule of thumb in prisons. Actually, it’s more of a life lesson. Always know what you’re walking into. Dark corners can be danger points.”

Dark Corners (Rachel Krall, #2) by Megan Goldin

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This is probably a three, three and a half star read, objectively (if there even is such a thing). It’s a little rushed, a little flawed, a little incomplete-feeling. But it hit me at the exact right time and mindset, so I had a great time and I read it super fast. The second book to feature Goldin’s podcasting reporter, Rachel Krall, Dark Corners kicks off when she is summoned to Florida by the FBI to meet with Terence Bailey, who is 48 hours away from being […]



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