Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

I hope you die, I hope we both die

The Cruel Prince by Holly Black

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This book surprised me. For about the first 100 pages or so, I was sure I wasn’t going to like it and may not even finish it. But eventually it pulled me in and I found myself pretty caught up in the story. The protagonist of The Cruel Prince is a teenager named Jude, a human who lives in Faerie with her human twin sister Taryn and their fairy half-sister, Vivi. They live with Vivi’s father, who is wrapped up in the various intrigues and violence of […]

The Near Perfect Read Does Exist

Legends and Lattes by Travis Baldree

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I have not had the best of luck when authors whose work I enjoy recommend other stuff; I was definitely uncertain about Seanan McGuire’s recent recommendation since some of her tastes (inclination towards horror specifically) do not match my own. However, Legends and Lattes went on $1 sale for Kindle, and I figured, why not at least try it, it sounds like it might be ok. It was not ok; it was perfect (almost). Legends and Lattes takes a lot of very standard tropes but […]

Instead of being afraid, I could become something to fear.

The Cruel Prince by Holly Black

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I was in the mood for escape and The Folk of the Air series really delivered for me. It is a flawed series, and I’ll mention a bit of that as I look at the individual books, but I found it a delicious treat at the end of some pretty long days. The Cruel Prince, the first book in the series, introduces us to Jude, Taryn, Vivienne, Cardan, and other key players who feature throughout the trilogy. Jude, Taryn, and Vivi are children when we […]

Three stars, for now. It’s not the book it’s me??

Moon Witch, Spider King (The Dark Star Trilogy, #2) by Marlon James

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This book has been holding up my review queue since I finished it in late March. I was surprised at my reaction to it when I read it, and wasn’t sure what I wanted to say, because I wasn’t sure if I liked the book or not. And, if I didn’t like it, why not? I feel like nothing much has changed in James’s style in the last three years. I think it’s me, and that I just wasn’t in the mood at all to […]

A queer steampunk political intrigue fantasy epic…. with zombies

The Prince's Poisoned Vow by Hailey Turner

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I wasn’t exactly sure what I was expecting when I started this book, but it definitely wasn’t an queer steampunk political intrigue epic with zombies. It’s the first in a series, so there’s a lot of worldbuilding. Without revealing too much, the land of Maricol is poisoned, and it requires a lot of managing from keeping the poison from encroaching: the work of Wardens, like Soren, people who are tithed by each country and raised to withstand the poison. Why is the poison so bad? […]

If the formula works, might as well use it

Jujutsu Kaisen, vols. 0-12 by Gege Akutami

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I’ve been seeing comments about the anime for Jujustsu Kaisen is the best thing ever this year, so when I saw almost the first 12 books in the manga series at the library, I decided to try it out. As it turns out the whole thing is relatively formulaic (enough that missing volumes 3, 4, and 11 didn’t seem to matter a whole lot) but still has enough personality to be interesting. The basic gist is that Yuji Itadori who has just lost his grandfather […]



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