Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Slash in the pan

The Last Final Girl by Stephen Graham Jones

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This was so stupid. Okay, I suppose that is not a very fulsome review… but I’m so cranky that I read this crap. It was my first foray in the offerings of a Kindle Unlimited subscription and… yeesh. So the book is written like a pseudo film script, kind of. It’s a slasher story that is allegedly a love-letter to teen slashers and super self-aware. It was likened to Cabin in the Woods (which is the only reason I read it). It is not like […]

Even New Houses Can Be Haunted

The House Next Door by Anne Rivers Siddons

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This is the only horror novel Anne Rivers Siddons ever wrote, and the only book of hers I’ve ever read, so I feel like we were on some sort of haunted parallel footing here. This is a very well done haunted house story written in a lyrical style, but with a lot of brutal, horrible scenes. The contrast between the nice, aesthetic portions of the book and the growing realization that a nasty little scene is right around the next page makes for a tension-filled […]

Revelator: Sometimes God is One of Us

Revelator: A Novel by Daryl Gregory

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To risk starting out on an annoyingly pretentious foot, Daryl Gregory is an author I liked before he was cool. I’d been enjoying his work before he broke out into the front tables of bookstores with Spoonbenders, and I feel an affection for his writing and the interesting things he does within the horror/fantasy field. I find him to be a writer like Robert Charles Wilson, a sure-footed storyteller whose name on the cover of a genre novel guarantees an interesting and fast moving read. […]

the december rush

The Rules of Magic by Alice Hoffman

The Haunting of Gillespie House by Darcy Coates

Your Fathers, Where Are They? And Your Prophets, Do They Live Forever? by Dave Eggers

Not a Happy Family by Shari Lapena

Near the Bone by Christina Henry

How to Take Smart Notes by Sonke Ahrens

The Lightness by Emily Temple

The Very Nice Box by Eve Gleichman, Laura Blackett

The Other Black Girl by Zakiya Dalila Harris

A Children's Bible by Lydia Millet

Come Tumbling Down by Seanan McGuire

Practical Magic by Alice Hoffman

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Franny, Jet, and Vincent Owens take special joy in disobeying their mother’s rules. They wear red shoes and black clothes. They read books about magic. They fall in love. It’s the Lower East Side in the 60s. Who can blame them? I didn’t realize this was a prequel. I just picked it up at an airport bookstore when I had 3 hours to kill and a low phone battery. I’m grateful this is the only book that called out to me. I’m always drawn to […]

I’d Rather Juggle Chainsaws

The Final Girl Support Group by Grady Hendrix

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The Final Girl Support Group by Grady Hendrix is an unsatisfying book with a surprisingly decent ending. I picked it up as Good Reads listed it as readers’ favorite horror novel of 2021. I don’t read a ton of horror, though I am a Stephen King devotee. But this book did not work for me. The Final Girl is a trope that refers to a final girl survivor who squares off with the killer at the end of a horror film. Think Jamie Lee Curtis […]

Here be spiders. (Cute ones! A little creepy sometimes, but cute. Do I like spiders now?)

Cackle by Rachel Harrison

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If you have been craving a feminist, witchy, creepy but somehow still cozy dark fantasy horror book, then here is a book for you! Our narrator is Annie, who just turned thirty, and fresh off a shitty break-up (her boyfriend of ten years decided he wasn’t into it anymore and just wanted to be friends, and then made her sleep on the futon) she decides to make a change, moving to the small upstate NY town of Rowan, which is cozy and beautiful and adorable. […]



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