Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Gloriously weird

Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

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Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland are just as weird as I remembered.  It was also a lot of fun. I had a good memory of the basic story going in: Alice chases a talking white rabbit who is holding a pocket watch and then falls down a rabbit hole; she eats and drinks things that are suspiciously labelled and make her grow larger or smaller; and she meets a cast of weird characters (Cheshire Cat, the Red Queen, a talking caterpillar, a mad hatter). All of […]

The Heroines We Wanted in Childhood

Cheshire Crossing by Andy Weir & Sarah Anderson

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I’m not usually into graphic novels, but my friend showed up to our weekly DnD game with “Cheshire Crossing,” and was like, ‘you have to read this!’ Being that it was free (hello, #no money bingo square), I did, and was not disappointed. Now, I still haven’t read the Martin, so I didn’t realize who Andy Weir was, but I love Sarah Anderson’s art, and from the start, the cover and all the comics of this graphic novel are gorgeous. Weir’s writer’s note on the first […]

Taking a “Dark Take” on a Children’s Classic to the Extreme

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Bingo Square (Round 2): And So It Begins I am not sure why I keep trying adaptations of Alice in Wonderland.  I didn’t have enough of a connection to the original story or movie as a child to get all the references.  It was the one Disney movie that scared the hell out of me as a child, and which I refused to re-watch (or my parents never showed again, not wanting to deal with the aftermath).  I was less than enthralled with Splintered (though I […]

“She must start believing in impossible things, for impossible things kept appearing before her eyes.”

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This is not the Wonderland you know.  This place is darker.  Not much Wonder at all, in fact. It is full of dirt and blood and death.  And insanity.  Henry does a very good job of letting you know that all is not right in Alice’s mind.     The characters from the childhood tale are all here, but they are twisted.  Alice begins in a hospital in the Old City.  Unlike the New City, where everything is bright and clean and wonderful, the Old […]

“Oh, well. Marmalade has to make its own way in life, like the rest of us, she thought.”

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This is all terribly confusing. It started out confusing and never really resolved. The Alice in the title is referring to Alice in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.  We basically alternate between Ada, Alice’s friend, and Lydia, Alice’s sister. Ada has slipped her governess, Miss Armstrong, and has continued unescorted to bring a jar of marmalade to her friend Alice’s family. Ada has stumbled into Wonderland and goes on a search for her friend. Wonderland is as it always was, confusing yet sometimes profound. Our Lydia […]

Gangs of Wonderland

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First time Cannonballer (LOL, “baller”), long time Pajiban. I decided to take the plunge and do a half Cannonball this year. So, first review is Alice. And I’m going to trigger warning the hell out of this because it’s difficult to even review it without touching on some nasty stuff. Have you ever finished a book and gone full Kurtz? Have you ever wished you could read a story about Discworld’s Ankh-Morpork, but without all that annoying wit, sharply observed satire and compelling characterisation? Have you ever wanted to read a […]



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