cult – Page 4 – Cannonball Read 17

Fanning Out

Fan Club by Erin Mayer

January 6, 2022 by Jake Leave a Comment

This is a book that I enjoyed in stretches but mostly left me frustrated. I think I have a thing for millennial women writing social/patriarchal mystery/thrillers set in New York City. Tara Isabelle Burton. Andrea Baartz. I tend to like these books more than others do. It’s not my favorite genre but it’s one I apparently enjoy. This book can be slotted into it. It works as a deconstruction and examination of the cultish nature of fandom. The nameless protagonist* gets drawn into this clique […]

lovely, stinking, brutal, sunburned, magical, and filthy.

The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell

March 28, 2021 by andtheIToldYouSos Leave a Comment

Jacob de Zoet is a young man of meager means. He has hitched his hopes to the Dust East India Company- he’ll spend several trading seasons on Dejima- about as far away from home and his fiancée as he can physically be. What is Dejima? Why, I’m glad you asked! The year is 1799, and Japan is very strict in regards to foreign interference and influence. Following disasters interactions with the Spanish and Portuguese decades earlier, Japan is a closed empire. Dejima, a man-made island […]

When you’ve been told your whole life who and what to believe, who can you ultimately trust?

The Liar's Daughter by Megan Cooley Peterson

December 23, 2020 by Mobius_Walker Leave a Comment

Piper experiences life Before and After her life in The Community, a religious cult secluded somewhere in Northern California. Before, in The Community, Piper is happy. She has her brothers and sisters; she has a lake and a garden where all of their fresh vegetables are grown for the family. She has her Aunties, stern caregivers who take care of Piper and all of her younger siblings. Her Mother and Father do not live with Piper and her siblings but rather take care of everything […]

things that go “scoff” in the night

Bunny by Mona Awad

October 18, 2020 by andtheIToldYouSos Leave a Comment

This book was praised to high-heavens, thus giving me high hopes. It is all over “best of” lists, there are tons of snarky little quips in write-ups, and the paperback features pull-quotes from Margaret Atwood and Karen Russell. I was ready to be ruined by this book… but. …it fell flat, as so many pumped-up things often do. Samantha, an unreliable narrator if ever there was one, is a post-grad MFA fellow at Warren College, a told-but-not-shown sPoOoOoKy college somewhere in New England. There’s some […]

It’s all about the girls

April 28, 2017 by Gracey the Giant Leave a Comment

On the surface, The Girls, by Emma Cline, appears to be about a Manson-like figure in Northern California in the 1960s. The leader of a small, communal living group, Russell taught his small group of followers “to discover a path to truth, how to free their real selves from where it was coiled inside them.” The group consists mostly of women, and mostly of young women, who felt that being around Russell was “like a natural high… Like the sun or something. That big and […]

A long time ago, being crazy meant something. Now everybody is crazy.

April 12, 2017 by Lindzgrl 1 Comment

Okay—here’s the thing: This book won all sorts of awards and I think I put it on my audiobook list because I saw it recommended everywhere. But here’s what bothers me: It’s a fictional portrayal of a fictional girl who was a satellite member of a fictional Manson family, but it borrows almost every detail from the real Manson family so…why bother with the fictional names for everyone and everything? Just make it straight up historical fiction at that point. I don’t know, maybe this […]

Zirza on A Gothic Classic for a ReasonIt's one of those wish-you-could-read-it-again-for-the-first-time books. I loved it.
Emmalita on “It came to something when you found yourself hoping that the footsteps you heard were ghosts.”I loved the ending! I don’t think it’s been out long enough to talk about why though.
Dixie on Track Her Down by Melinda LeighI am just starting Track Her Down and I have read them all in order till now and thought I...
Roland of Gilead on How can you give us the gift of a crazy character named Rando Thoughtful and then just as suddenly take that gift away? We need to talk, Uncle Stevie.I came across this randomly years after it was written because I was searching "Random Thoughtful. But I have the...
Emmalita on “Only you, Em, would refer to heartbreak as a distraction. I think I would have a more sympathetic response if I asked to marry a bookcase.”Oh my goodness, Gallifrey was beautiful. I’m sure her mittens were gloriously murdery.

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