Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Whyyyy haven’t more people read this???

The Good House by Tananarive Due

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This is my exact perfect kind of horror: Meaty, character-driven, fantastical yet chilling or creepy stories but without the bleak or nihilistic rush some people seem to get when all the characters end up dead—or worse—at the end of a book. No coincidence, methinks, that Tananarive Due namedrops two excellent Stephen King books in here*, because her writing style reminds me a lot of his. Both authors really know how to immerse you in a long story, and give you the payoff at the end […]

“‘I’m all right,’ I told her. This is a lie, when you’re twelve. And all the other years, too.”

Mapping the Interior by Stephen Graham Jones

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A lot happened in this short book; it feels much larger in my brain than 108 pages. It’s always a challenge to talk about novellas without giving too much away, but I feel like that’s not going to be the case here. Mapping the Interior is pretty dense with both happenings and themes, despite the deceptively readable prose. Junior has moved away from the Blackfeet Reservation with his mother and younger brother Dino, after his father’s death. His mother wanted to give the boys a fresh start. […]

Wouldst thou like to live deliciously?

Slewfoot: A Tale of Bewitchery by BROM

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Connecticut, 1666. An ancient spirit is awoken in the darkness of the wood, fed by blood and the prayers of the wild spirits name him Father and Slayer. They lure a clumsy farmer into a cave to feed him to the spirit, making young Abitha a widow. Abitha already doesn’t fit into the Puritan community with her outspoken ways and questioning of the rules. Having grown up in London, Abitha was sold by her drunken father and married off to a stranger, who thankfully turns […]

Be Witched

Cackle by Rachel Harrison

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Been a slow drip of reading to start the month. So slow that I keep forgetting I actually finished this book a week ago and have been putting off this review. I liked it when I finished it and seven days later, I find myself appreciating it even more. I’ve now read through Rachel Harrison’s whole catalog, save her short story collection. Not a big fan of reading short story collections but I may need to get to hers because she’s a fun writer and […]

Black and White and Technicolor

Kafka by Nishioka Kyoudai, David Yang

Goblin Mode Guide to Life: Embrace Your Feral Side and Thrive in Imperfection by Editors of Chartwell Books

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Kafka – 3.5 stars Nine of Franz Kafka’s surreal and unsettling short stories are adapted into manga form, including both well-known works and less prominent ones among the collection. Like the creators of this book, I didn’t really “get” The Metamorphosis when I first read it. Something about the detail of the killer apple made me snort with laughter – but then my impulse in uneasy situations is generally maniacal giggling so I’m not sure how much that says. Unlike the creators of this book, I am […]

The Cultish Homecoming

Black Sheep by Rachel Harrison

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There was a lot going on in the week following my purchase of this book, one I grabbed with great anticipation. So I saved it for the last few days to really savor the experience. Rachel Harrison’s The Return was a sneaky good read; I felt like I was on her storytelling wavelength and that helped overcome the many negative reviews that, I think, missed the point of her book. And now she’s writing a book about returning home to a religious cult? Hell yeah, let’s […]



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