Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

into the woods to see the troll, to meet the boy, to sell the girl, to trick the teens, to catch the murderer, to erase the memories, to exact revenge…

The Prince and the Troll by Rainbow Rowell

Hazel and Gray by Nic Stone

The Princess Game by Soman Chainani

The Cleaners by Ken Liu

The Wickeds by Gayle Forman

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Back at it again with another Amazon Original Series! My brain is totally fried with year-end nonsense, but this series has given me nice little breaks while going about my day-to-day chores and adventures. I didn’t need any convincing to give this collection a “go”; I love a good fairytale retell or folklore restructure- no one will ever come close to Angela Carter, but I certainly won’t leave them out in the cold! The Prince and the Troll 3/5 I know that YOU know this, but […]

“A witch without her spells is just a girl alone in the woods. And no one wants to be a girl alone in the woods…”

Ever Cursed by Cory Ann Haydu

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Five years ago, the princesses of Ever were placed under the Spell of Without by an impulsive young witch. Every year on their 13th birthday, the princesses will be cursed to go without one vital thing. The eldest Jane was cursed to be without food. Therefore, she hasn’t eaten or drank in five years. Nora is cursed not to love, Alice is cursed not to sleep, Grace is cursed not to remember. Now that the youngest princess, Eden, is turning 13, the witch will tell […]

The Role of Money in Fairy Tales, but with a sort of Feminist twist

Kakuriyo, vols. 1-2 by Waco Ioca, Midori Yuma, Laruha

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Bingo Review 16: Money! Basically, this is a fairy tale about an impossible debt, and how to pay it without having to get married to some random rich or important guy. Here’s the set up: Aoi Tsubaki is a Japanese college student who has recently lost the grandfather who raised her. The key thing they shared was an ability to see and interact with the spirit world. One day, Aoi stops to help a hungry ayakashi (catch-all term for folkloric monster-creature) and he drags her […]

The Gore Surprised Me, but It Shouldn’t Have

House of Salt and Sorrows by Erin A. Craig

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The original “Twelve Dancing Princesses” fairy tale is surprisingly un-gory. Silly me, I thought a modern retelling would be the same. Not so much! If you’re not familiar with the original fairy tale, it goes something like this: there are twelve sisters (princesses, natch) who, every night, sneak out of their castle and dance all night at an enchanted ball. Their dad, the king, wants to know where they go every night so he sends out the call that anyone who can figure out their […]

Love is powerful and wonderful and ridiculous

The Tale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo

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“Is it ridiculous for a very small, sickly, big-eared mouse to fall in love with a beautiful human princess named Pea? The answer is . . . yes. Of course it’s ridiculous. Love is ridiculous. But love is also wonderful. And powerful. And Despereaux’s love for the Princess Pea would prove, in time, to be all of these things: powerful, wonderful, and ridiculous.” With that sentence, this Newbery Medal winner won my heart. The Tale of Despereaux is a classic fairy tale with a knight […]

“If you spy a naked man among the pines, you must run as if the Devil were after you.”

The Bloody Chamber by Angela Carter

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Never have truer words been spoken! This collection of short stories crept around my periphery for some time, and I am both overjoyed to have finally given in to it and disappointed in myself for not biting earlier. I came across it originally on a list of fairy-tale retellings on Autostraddle, and when it popped up again in the employee recommendations section of one of my favorite booksellers (Crow Bookshop in Burlington, what’s up!) I knew that it was meant to be. Still, it sat […]



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