Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

About Tracy

CBR 9
CBR10 participant
CBR11 participant
CBR12 participant
CBR13 participant
CBR14 Participant
CBR15 Participant
CBR16 Participant
CBR17 Participant
CBR17 Comments
CBR17 Levels

40-something psychologist living with a husband, toddler, and 2 cats.

Tracy's Reviews:

A Monster-Hunting Take on the KKK

Ring Shout by P. Djeli Clark

by Leave a Comment

I enjoyed this literally monstrous take on the KKK. In this novella, there are members of the Klan, who are normal humans, and then there are the Ku Kluxes, who look like normal humans unless you have a special ability to see that they are actual monsters, and a Klansman can become a Ku Klux. Maryse, Chef, and Sadie are a trio of monster hunters who go after the Ku Kluxes in 1920s Macon, Georgia. While Maryse is given “chosen one” status and narrates the […]

Such Compelling Characters

Ship of Destiny by Robin Hobb

by Leave a Comment

cbr17bingo: favorite (completes my first BINGO) I don’t think Robin Hobb can fully turn me into a wholehearted lover of multiple POV storytelling, but if anyone can, it will be her. I got frustrated each time the POV shifted because I wasn’t ready to be done with the one I was currently reading, and each time I was very quickly sucked into the new one. While I still had favorite and less preferred character POVs, each was still compelling in their own way. Robin Hobb writes […]

The Mother Sure Is a Piece of Work

To Clutch a Razor by Veronica Roth

by Leave a Comment

cbr17bingo: family This sequel picks up not long after the first one ends. Dymitr decides to return to Poland with Ala to accomplish a task in exchange for something he needs. While there, this task unexpectedly intersects with a mission Niko is on. Where this book really shines is character development. While I acknowledged that there was limited room for character exploration in the first novella, it was still something I hoped we would get more of in this book, and we did. I now […]

Bleak but Creative

A Short Stay in Hell by Steven L. Peck

by Leave a Comment

cbr17bingo: borrow – borrowed from my library Well, this was depressing—but also kind of fascinating. Our narrator Soren, a devout Mormon, dies and ends up in Hell, where he learns that there is a true religion (yes, one that is currently practiced on earth), and it’s not Mormonism. Hell is real, but there are different versions of it, and Soren is sent to one inspired by Jorge Luis Borges’s story “The Library of Babel” (which I recall reading and enjoying in college). In this library is […]

When You Stare into the Void, the Void Stares Back

Voidwalker by S. A. MacLean

by Leave a Comment

cbr17bingo – border: there are territorial disputes I think this is my first monster romance, so that was interesting. This is a romantasy set in a world divided into countless Planes within the Void. While anyone can—with help— traverse the Season-Locked Planes in which the book is set, Voidwalkers like main character Fi are able to do so independently. The book is focused primarily on the Winter Plane, which is ruled by monsters known as daeyari, who rely on human sacrifices. Antal is the lenient […]

Funny and Well-Written, but Left Me Wanting

The Usual Desire to Kill by Camilla Barnes

by Leave a Comment

cbr17bingo – red This is an interesting book to review because it accomplished what it set out to do, and accomplished it very well; I’m just not sure I liked what it set out to do. It provides a snapshot of a family over the course of about 10 months. While much of it is from the first person perspective of daughter Miranda, who visits her parents monthly, there are sections that are brief scenes as though from a play, a couple of third person […]



Help Our Mission

You can donate to CBR via:

  1. PayPal
  2. Venmo