Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Mum’s the Bird

Malorie by Josh Malerman

by 2 Comments

Malorie is the sequel to Bird Box, which I had the pleasure of reading/reviewing in January 2020. Spoiler Alert: Bird Box ends with the discovery of a seemingly successful safe haven, a school for the blind, which is reached by Malorie and her two six-year old children after a harrowing trip down a river, blind. This book continues her plight, instead this time it’s a blind train rather than a blind boat. But I’m skipping ahead. In the opening pages of Malorie, we learn that […]

No more Riley Sager books *pour moi*.

Home Before Dark by Riley Sager

by Leave a Comment

I do not understand why people like this author so much. Is it the guaranteed twist at the end? The cliched story elements? The flavorless writing? The overblown dialogue? I’m sorry, everyone who loves this dude* (which is like 90% of Goodreads apparently), but his whole thing just does not work for me. Everything in this story has been done, and done better, in other books. For me, this book wasn’t scary or thrilling at all. I finished it because it’s the literary equivalent of […]

The Shadows by Alex North

The Shadows by Alex North

by Leave a Comment

I read this book a month and a half ago, and it seems like a lot has happened since then… I cannot remember all the things I thought while reading this book, but I gave it 4 stars, so I must have liked it. This books follows a man named Paul who has returned to his hometown to care for his ailing mother. Being back home brings back memories of his friendship with some local boys – James, Charlie, and Billy. The latter two are […]

Bodily Harm

A Certain Hunger by Chelsea G. Summers

by Leave a Comment

I meant to cobble this together along with some other books I’ve been reading the last few days into one review. But I couldn’t with this one. From the first few pages, I knew it would grab me. And it had the energy to carry to the end. I’m a gracious grader when it comes to reviews. I don’t mind that. A four star book for me is a good book. A three star one is a good book with nebulous flaws. I don’t give […]

All of Us as in 4 of 7 Villains

All of Us Villains by Amanda Food, Christine Lynn Herman

by Leave a Comment

I saw a blurb somewhere describing All of Us Villains as ‘the Hunger Games with magic’; that’s accurate, but I think this one is more. The premise is that recently a book has leaked a lot of information about a local secret to the press: once a generation, the seven leading families in Ilvernath select a champion to compete in a tournament to decide who gets to control the scant magical resources for the upcoming generation. Basically the only way to win is to kill […]

“It’s not unlike filtration, a move that blatant, deliberate. “

Sleep Donation by Karen Russell

by 4 Comments

In the near-future, we lucky Americans are eyeball-deep in a new terror: we can’t sleep. Every day, thousands more become unable to reach REM. They die after days of restlessness. The only thing that can help? Donations of sleep from “healthy” dreamers. Not unlike a blood drive, people like Trish Edgewater are cold-calling sleepers, begging them to give some of their life to the lifeless. Etiquette is a powerful programming, however, and easily exploitable. I sneeze. He sneezes back language at me, reflexive generosity: “Bless […]



Help Our Mission

You can donate to CBR via:

  1. PayPal
  2. Venmo