Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time
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“In my shoes, a walking sleep / And my youth I pray to keep”

Heatstroke (2020) by Hazel Barkworth

May 6, 2025 by drmllz Leave a Comment

Heatstroke (2020) is clever–cleverer than its cover, certainly cleverer than its title. I remember that the review blurbs on the covers of Gillian Flynn’s Sharp Objects (2006) and Megan Abbott’s Dare Me (2012) signposted how terrifying teenaged girls can be–and this is certainly a thing, the way teenage girls are inscribed with contradictions of power and anxiety, and Heatstroke does deal with that–but I remember thinking, well, it’s actually the mother that is fairly fucking monstrous in Sharp Objects, and parental figures are pretty absent […]

Filed Under: Fiction, Mystery Tagged With: cbr17, crime, debut novel, domestic noir, domestic thriller, drmllz, English author, Fiction, Hazel Barkworth, suburbia

drmllz's CBR17 Review No:4 · Genres: Fiction, Mystery · Tags: cbr17, crime, debut novel, domestic noir, domestic thriller, drmllz, English author, Fiction, Hazel Barkworth, suburbia ·
Rating:
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“Women seem wicked, when you’re unwanted”

Beware the Woman (2023) by Megan Abbott

April 8, 2025 by drmllz 1 Comment

I haven’t read very much at all this year; distressing work news  in an absolute shitshow of a job market in my field has affected my concentration somewhat. So have I bought a lot of books? Yes. Do I read them? I try? Between finally watching Succession (Waystar Royco is starting to seem like a utopian haven right now) and familiarising myself with the entire catalogue of Kendrick Lamar (upper management? THEY NOT LIKE US). But I did read Megan Abbott’s Beware the Woman (2023), […]

Filed Under: Featured, Fiction, Horror, Mystery Tagged With: cbr17, domestic noir, drmllz, Fiction, megan abbott, mystery

drmllz's CBR17 Review No:1 · Genres: Featured, Fiction, Horror, Mystery · Tags: cbr17, domestic noir, drmllz, Fiction, megan abbott, mystery ·
Rating:
· 1 Comment
Book cover next to avocado toast and coffee

“Rows of houses all bearing down on me / I can feel their blue hands touching me”

The Hours Before Dawn (1958) by Celia Fremlin

October 25, 2023 by drmllz Leave a Comment

In the autumn of 2011, I played Bella Manningham in an amateur dramatic production of Patrick Hamilton’s 1938 thriller Gas Light, which has given its name to the practice of deliberately undermining someone’s conception of their own sanity for selfish or sinister purposes. Bella is the wife who sees lights flicker, whose things won’t stay where she left them, who is increasingly convinced that she is disappearing deeper and deeper into her own mad mind.  “You mustn’t go on lying here in the dark, or […]

Filed Under: Mystery, Suspense Tagged With: 1950s, CBR15, cbr15bingo, Celia Fremlin, domestic noir, domestic suspense, drmllz, feminism, politics square

drmllz's CBR15 Review No:10 · Genres: Mystery, Suspense · Tags: 1950s, CBR15, cbr15bingo, Celia Fremlin, domestic noir, domestic suspense, drmllz, feminism, politics square ·
Rating:
· 0 Comments


Recent Comments

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