Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Bring It On + Monsters

Dying With Her Cheer Pants On (Stories of the Fighting Pumpkins) by Seanan McGuire

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First, let me tell you the hook for the short stories in this collection: High School cheerleaders (various squad combinations) fight monsters, aliens, and evil gods while also cheering for their school’s football team and participating in cheer competitions. Now let me try and explain the format/setup of this book as best I can by using some of the author’s own words. This quote is from the forward of the collection where Seanan McGuire writes about growing up in the 80s and loving sandbox novels; […]

Sometimes, darker is better

You Like It Darker by Stephen King

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Stephen King has collected his most recent dark thoughts into a series of short stories in You Like It Darker, with some genuine thrills in the mix (most of these being the longer of the short tales contained within). Though not every short story was a hit, I find King as reliable as ever in the short-story game. Of the collection, I’ll slice it up into Superb, Good, and Middling Superb Laurie – A story of a lonely man who welcomes a dog into his […]

When Life was bored, Death took a holiday

Death Strikes: The Emperor of Atlantis by Dave Maass, Patrick Lay, Ezra Rose and Richard Bruning

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Death Strikes: The Emperor of Atlantis by Dave Maass, Patrick Lay, Ezra Rose and  Richard Bruning, is a lofty graphic novel undertaking. Over the top. Beautiful and Ugly. It is not an allegory of the Holocaust, but its roots are there. This is a story of how the General Overall  takes with his War. It is fiction, and it is history. It is the past, present and future. Bored, flamboyant Life wants something to happen to stop their boredom. And Death gives it. They are […]

Gruesomely delightful

I Was a Teenage Slasher by Stephen Graham Jones

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This is an unusual take of the slasher genre that I found refreshing. Is that an appropriate word to use when talking about slashers? Probably not, but I’m not sure what would work better…it was gruesomely delightful. How’s that? I can’t say it’s the first of its kind – the story reminds me of Scream, or even, to a lesser extent, Cabin in the Woods, where there was a comical self-awareness of the genre embedded in the story. I was a Teenage Slasher is narrated […]

Shadow Histories of the United States

Ghostland: An American History in Haunted Places by Colin Dickey

The United States of Cryptids by J.W. Ocker

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Ghostland: An American History in Haunted Places by Colin Dickey – 3.25 stars For a country with a comparatively short written history, the United States has a great many ghosts, and the most compelling of those have their stories rooted deep in the places from which they’ve sprung up. This was a nice seasonal read which reminded me to look about me with a greater awareness of the many small histories that must cling to every bus station or convenience store I pass, even as […]

The Red Woman returns, you insect-humping wretches!

Red Sonja: Consumed by Gail Simone

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I really like Gail Simone’s run of Red Sonja comics. I was very intrigued to see what she would do in a longer format without pictures. Red Sonja:Consumed is very good. It takes a little time to bring the pieces together, but once it does, it flies. I definitely recommend it for appreciators of a barbarian adventure, women who take charge of their own destinies, and cranky horses. It starts with a queen and a jeweled asp. Sonja has stolen a prized piece of jewelry from […]



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