Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

A masterclass in the novella; body horror and racism collide.

Ring Shout by P. Djeli Clark

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We know that the people who join the Ku Klux Klan are monsters. Average people who act in monstrous, horrible ways. But what if some of the Klan members were actual monsters? Giant, hulking, dog-like beasts that want to consume and destroy Black people? Such is the premise of Ring Shout by P. Djeli Clark. Maryse, a Black woman, hunts these monsters in Prohibition America with the help of her magical sword infused with the anger, pain, and despair of Black men and women of […]

The most effective collection of short stories I have ever read

The Dangers of Smoking in Bed by Mariana Enriquez

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The Dangers of Smoking in Bed is a collection of short stories by Mariana Enriquez. The stories are a mix of magical realism and outright horror. An Argentine writer, many stories take place in Argentina but a fair few also take place in Barcelona, Spain. Enriquez embues each story with a richness of their environment that make each story feel real and possible, despite the more horrific, fantastical elements. Most collections of shorts stories that I have read in my life are mostly fine. They […]

WHAT DID I JUST READ

The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones

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THIS BOOK IS BONKERS. My husband had so much fun watching me read it, especially when a Part would come up that made me shout “Oh, no!” or give a start at something that had just unfolded. I texted my sister throughout with many exclamations or observations. I noted that this book reminded me a LOT of Jordan Peele’s movies or Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite. I’m not a usual fan of horror, but this book compelled me from beginning to end. I’m not going to say […]

The start of a new creepy series

Relic (Pendergast #1) by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child

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The idea of this book is just so fantastical.  There’s a beast killing people in the Museum of Natural History in NYC.  Like come on.  But it totally works (at least for me)!  I read this book because I love Douglas Preston.  He made me scared of bats in the wild and bleeding through my eyes (reasonable fears I think). This is apparently the debut novel for the Pendergast series.  I had no idea it existed, but I’m so glad I found it.  I have […]

Maybe I’m just too familiar with thrillers…

Home Before Dark by Riley Sager

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Even 25 years after her father published his “non-fiction” book about their time at Baneberry Hall, Maggie Holt still gets asked what it was like. Receptionists, deliverypeople, everyone wants to know. What was it like to have an imaginary friend named Mr. Shadow? Did she really see all those dead people? How scary was it on the night her family fled what was supposed to be their home? Well, Maggie was 5 at the time, so she doesn’t remember. And also, her dad made it […]

Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat?

The Seeds by Ann Nocenti

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The Seeds is WARPED!  I was reading it a few nights ago and texting to a friend about it. I told them at that point (a handful of pages in), we had destroyed Earth to the point where much of the population has left the technology side of the city and gone “back to basics.” Yet, this is no lovefest, happy back-to-nature world. Just lie the technology side is just horrible as any dystopian world could be, it is pig-eat-pig world out there. On the […]



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