Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Review #12: I miss the “lesbian necromancers explore a haunted gothic palace in space!”

The Unwanted Guest by Tamsyn Muir

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I have some concerns! Publisher’s short description: “Featuring Ianthe Tridentarius and Palamedes Sextus, this story was originally published in the trade paperback edition of Nona the Ninth.“ The Unwanted Guest by Tamsyn Muir is short story (#3.5), built around being a play, meant to flesh out two main characters in the Locked Tomb series. I guess it’s time for a small rant, but I’m becoming more and more suspicious that the upcoming fourth book, Alecto the Ninth (#4), while be nigh indecipherable. I was already […]

The Lover from the Forest

The Lover by Silvia Moreno Garcia

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I have been interested in reading Silvia Moreno Garcia for a few years. Her Amazon Original was an opportunity to dip my toes into her library. I can mark another passport stamp as she is from Mexico, and the story is set in a mysterious village. CBR15 Passport Challenge: Books from different countries (book 3 of 3) SPOILERS AHEAD! We meet Judith in “The Lover”. She lives in a small village and makes a wish to bring her lover to her. Soon, a hunter named Nathaniel […]

Zooni is a plucky, friendly pup

Zooni Tales: Keep It Up, Plucky Pup by Vikram Madan

Zooni Tales: A Friend Till the End by Vikram Madan

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I ended 2023 with two sequels read in the young adult category (a thriller/mystery/romance and a humorous/romance/fantasy graphic novel) and a young early reader that is part of a series but it sounds like you can read in any order. Each one showed a part of my personality.  And my very little kid came out when I read Zooni Tales: Keep It Up, Plucky Pup by Vikram Madan. And while I can take or leave Zooni, they have some interesting elements that could really make […]

An Interesting Queer Horror

The Woods All Black by Lee Mandelo

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One of my favorite elements of horror from queer voices (and other marginalized identities) is the examination of monstrosity and what makes for horror. I think Mandelo comes at it from an interesting angle in this novella, and I really did enjoy the final arc with Stevie. I also enjoyed Stevie and Les’ dynamic over the course of the story, seeing that call of like to like but also hesitancy given the locale. In many ways, though, I don’t overall know how I feel about […]

Neither snow, nor rain, nor heat, nor asteroids, or giants, messy planets, nor gloom of night stays this courier from the not-so-swift completion of their appointed rounds

The Postman from Space by Guillaume Perreault

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The Postman from Space written and illustrated by Guillaume Perreault is an odd book that is both really really good and also a, “What did I read?” read. There is a lot going on, even though it looks simple. I was just flying through the minimalist text, thinking things would either be a bit on the “normal and dull” side or outrageously humorous. I am not sure if kids will get some of the Easter eggs (there is an obvious nod to a classic prince […]

“There are no stupid questions, nor any forbidden ones, but there are some questions that have no answer.”

Questions I Am Asked About The Holocaust : Young Reader’s Edition by Hedi Fried

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Four main things stand out for me from reading Questions I Am Asked About The Holocaust : Young Reader’s Edition. The first, it took the author, Hedi Fried, a lifetime to heal and process her experiences; the second, history has repeated itself, and third, while I knew what genocide meant (there is also a glossary that gives a technical definition) it was broken down by etymology: genos: people and cide: murder, or People Murder. But perhaps the big takeaway from this translation by Alice E. Olsson […]



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