Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

About dreadpiratekel

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Fantasy and horror genre loving Canadian, who is also a library enthusiast, and roommates with a fuzzy freeloader (aka my dog).

dreadpiratekel's Reviews:

Isolated Island Horror

Hemlock Island by Kelley Armstrong

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A standalone horror novel from Kelley Armstrong, Hemlock Island is the story of Laney Kilpatrick who is renting out her (amazingly described) second home.  She’s doing this begrudgingly, she got the house in her divorce but the cost of maintaining her isolated island home, plus maintaining the apartment she shares with her niece, well it’s share your space with strangers, or not have the house on Hemlock Island at all.  However, some of the people renting out the island home have left some … remnants […]

Bring It On + Monsters

Dying With Her Cheer Pants On (Stories of the Fighting Pumpkins) by Seanan McGuire

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First, let me tell you the hook for the short stories in this collection: High School cheerleaders (various squad combinations) fight monsters, aliens, and evil gods while also cheering for their school’s football team and participating in cheer competitions. Now let me try and explain the format/setup of this book as best I can by using some of the author’s own words. This quote is from the forward of the collection where Seanan McGuire writes about growing up in the 80s and loving sandbox novels; […]

Heads will roll

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving

Hollow by Shannon Watters, Branden Boyer-White, Berenice Nelle

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I picked up the graphic novel Hollow because the author was coming to a local convention and I wanted to do my homework so to speak!   But then since this graphic novel is a take on the Headless Horseman of Sleepy Hollow fame, I decided to read the original short story about the Headless Horseman first. The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, Washington Irving I am familiar with the outline of the Sleepy Hollow story thanks to Disney, the Tim Burton movie, and the Fox […]

It’s Brutal Out Here (Or “Saw for rich people”)

Guillotine by Delilah S. Dawson

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This book contains a list of trigger warnings at the start, and the author notes that she experienced childhood sexual assault, domestic violence, stalking and rape.  And that she writes through the lens of survivors’ rage.  And yes.  This book is full of rage, I really can not stress enough that this is an angry book.   Dez Lane is not rich.  She has dreams and wants to make her mark in the fashion world but her lack of capital is hindering her. She just needs […]

A lot is going on in this book

Only the Guilty Survive by Kate Robards

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Trigger Warnings: Mass suicide and Bad Times in a cult are massive plot points in this book, and are mentioned in this review.  A cult living on the outskirts of a town in Michigan commits mass suicide, while the cult leader vanishes.  The only survivor is Claire, who discovered the other members of ‘The Flock’ after they killed themselves.  This wasn’t the first death associated with the group.  A few weeks earlier Laurel Tai who was a) a member of the cult and b) also […]

“Just thinking of all the ways this can go horribly wrong.”

10 Things That Never Happened by Alexis Hall

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Sam Becker manages a bed and bath department store and has some wacky employees reporting to him.  While the employees keep making Sam’s retail life interesting in various ways, he likes his job.  He however does not like his boss, Jonathan (“His Royal Dickishness”).  The feeling is mutual, as Jonathan is out to make money and Sam’s store is not making their targets.  So Sam gets called down to headquarters (in London) to be given an ultimatum – fire some of the staff and get […]



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