Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

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Good evening, everyone. I'm Leslie Monster, and this is Nightline. (Learn more about this Cannonballer: narfna's Quick Questions interview.)

narfna's Reviews:

Let’s call this starter horror.

The Year of the Witching (Bethel, #1) by Alexis Henderson

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I liked this but it could have been better. I feel like with a more practiced writer, this story could have been F I R E, or whatever. As is, it’s just a pretty good story. For horror, it was tame. For adult, it skewed young. (It’s not YA, but according to the author, “has crossover appeal,” and I can see that.) For me, it felt much more atmospheric than a lot of YA. Or, at least, the stuff most YA fantasy authors are producing […]

“I could never afford to look past survival, especially not for anything as insanely expensive as happiness, and I don’t believe in it anyway.”

The Last Graduate (The Scholomance, #2) by Naomi Novik

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Yet another great book I’ve read this year that I really just do not want to write a review for, because it means having to find the words and think thoughts and all that stuff. I always have the most trouble with books I love and give five stars to. It’s always like, HOW DO I CONVEY THIS FEELING which morphs into I DON’T EVEN WANT TO TRY with some whining in there for good measure. I really liked the first book in this series […]

Blackout. The Whale has eaten me. I repeat the Whale has eaten me and I am now dead. #CBRBINGO – White Whale

Possession by A.S. Byatt

by 17 Comments

This review will not be long, for this book has defeated me, and in such a way that I don’t overly feel like enumerating what went wrong here. The short answer is most likely that I’m just not the right reader for this book (and this author, which is why I’ve deleted The Children’s Book from my TBR). I bought this ages ago, probably over a decade, and finally gave it a try about six years ago. I got 48 pages in before I said I’d […]

A sneaky, dark YA fantasy hiding inside the skin of a cliched, predictable YA fantasy.

Dark Rise (Dark Rise, #1) by C.S. Pacat

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This did NOT go where I thought it was going. What the flippin’ heck. This book lulled me into complacency, then ripped the rug out from under my feet and pushed me down the stairs, where I landed in a pool of razor sharp knives. I am bleeding out currently. And the thing is! I should have known better! I have read Captive Prince! I know she is tricksy. I should have known she wouldn’t write a cookie cutter YA fantasy book, even though during […]

“And so I was crushed,” Mimi said. “Because I thought I was such a good mother. I baked a cake and a pie every night. Or at least had Jell-O with whipped cream.” #CBRBINGO – Book Club

Hidden Valley Road by Robert Kolker

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This was an intense read, but very engaging. If you are interested in reading about mental health, and the history of mental health, this is a must-read. The author, Robert Kolker, was introduced to two sisters, Margaret and Lindsay (formerly Mary) Galvin, who wanted someone to document and tell the story of their family in an unbiased and informative way. The Galvins were a family of fourteen: twelve children (ten boys and two girls) and two parents, Mimi and Don. The oldest child, Donald, was […]

“There isn’t much time for a plan. This is more of a hunch with scaffolding.”

The Alloy of Law (Mistborn, #4; Wax and Wayne, #1) by Brandon Sanderson

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I basically just want to jump right into books two and three immediately but I will wait. Lowering this half a star this time around in acknowledgement that the next two take what’s good here and make it even better. I obviously hadn’t read those yet when I read this the first time! And I don’t want to subtract a whole star from this, because I just love this world and characters so much. In retrospect, I can’t imagine this series not going any further, […]



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