Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Ghostbusting doesn’t so much make them feel good as is absolutely necessary to fix a foolish mistake they made

Ghost Squad by Claribel A. Ortega

by Leave a Comment

Lucely (pronounced Lu-sell-i, at least by the audio book narrator) Luna may be living alone with her father (her mother left them when Lucely was little) but due to an unusual family legacy, she’s able to see the presence of all the family’s departed members. Her father, who once had the gift, can only see them as fireflies but accepts that they’re there and cooks massive meals to provide for all the extended members who keep Lucely company. The family spirits are all tied to […]

If there’s a library in the title and on the cover, shouldn’t it be part of the story?

The Library of the Dead by T. L. Huchu

by Leave a Comment

Bingo 5: Cityscape The Library of the Dead features the city of Edinburgh on the cover, both above and below ground. It has a pretty interesting premise: 14 year-old Ropa is a ghostalker, meaning she is a licensed professional who takes messages back and forth between the dead and the living. She’s dropped out of school to work full time to support her family, her grandmother and little sister. She’s got rather rough past, but she does have a few friends. One of them introduces […]

Hauntingly awesome

Hardly Haunted by Jessie Sima

by Leave a Comment

cbr13bingo Self Care  Self Care to me is having fun. Halloween is fun (I mean CANDY????) and costumes (I have had more fun with costumes as an adult then I ever did as a kid, and I had some crazy fun costumes. Cinderella’s Fairy Godmother with her sign of qualifications anyone? Or years before, homemade paper mice in a cage (all connected) made by grandpa for the Cinderella costume?) Also, fun? Reading books. All types of books. Big ones, small ones, picture books, novels, poetry… […]

A weird book I had a lot of things to say about.

A Discovery of Witches (All Souls, #1) by Deborah Harkness

by 9 Comments

Oh wow I have so many things to say. The vast majority of the time when I go to write a review I have to sit there and think of things to say, when my instinct is just like, I had feelings okay and now you want me to put them into words? But the words are just wanting to flow for this one. So first, because context is important, three things about this book and also me: 1. It was free. A friend was […]

“We’re not in Ghost Busters! This is real life!”

Ghost Squad by Claribel A. Ortega

by Leave a Comment

I did not read Ghost Squad when I was young, as it did not yet exist! This is a 2020 release, and I feel that I would have liked it very much when I in third/fourth grade. There’s magic, monsters, hijinks, and plenty of cat-content that would have kept me giddy throughout. I worried at first that this tale might be “heavy” for a middle-grade reader; it starts with some genuine adult anxieties and perils. We open with the financial woes of Lucely’s father- the bank is […]

Mexican Gothic!

Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

by 2 Comments

I love gothic novels. I love gothic films. I love gothic stories, in general. And I loved this one. I’ve never read a gothic novel that takes place outside of Europe, unless they’re on the East Coast of the U.S. And to set one in Mexico was such a great choice. Though, the menacing family and house are purely English and very familiarly gloomy. Mexican Gothic follows Noemí Taboada as she travels from her exciting life as a beloved socialite in Mexico City to a […]



Help Our Mission

You can donate to CBR via:

  1. PayPal
  2. Venmo