Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Horror Month 2023: #5

Such Sharp Teeth by Rachel Harrison

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I don’t know that I’m ever going to be an out-and-out horror fan but I’m beginning to settle into the kind of horror I like and it’s similar to the kind of mystery/crime I like: give me characters, give them purpose. Why am I investing my time reading about this person, whether they’re doing something I find interesting (solving a murder) or not (turning into a werewolf)? If it ain’t got that purpose, it can’t hold my attention. Rachel Harrison does these kinds of character/theme-focused […]

Horror Month 2023: #4

My Best Friend's Exorcism by Grady Hendrix

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The other Grady Hendrix book was the one I really wanted to like. The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires had its moments and its subtext was a clever metaphorical look at societal exploitation. But I couldn’t connect with the characters the way Hendrix wanted  me to and I felt like he got too caught up in the concept to execute well. That’s not the case here. While both are 4-star reads in their own ways, this felt like a more realized book. Because while the […]

Horror Month 2023: #3

Last Days by Adam Nevill

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This is a book that shouldn’t have worked for me. There’s little characterization and what is there made the MC come off as an insufferable prig. The book follows a formula of the film crew going to one location, talking to someone attached to the cult, being spooked out by the house on location…and then moving on and doing the same thing over-and-over. The scares themselves are of that jumpscare variety that’s never been my kind of horror. And it takes 531 pages to get […]

Horror Month 2023: #2

Holly by Stephen King

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I suppose I should address the conversation around the book before the book itself. There’s been a lot of grousing from center/center-right/right wing King fans about how political this book is. That all the villains are painted as MAGA doofuses. These comments usually have some variety of “King was never political until now!” To which I say…have you ever read Stephen King? His early books are steeped in 70s paranoia. He wrote a book about a man trying to assassinate a presidential candidate, the latter […]

“There are two kinds of people in this world: those who live with shame, and those who die from it.”

Lone Women by Victor LaValle

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CBR Bingo – Violence Tis the season to be a little spooked! Full scaredy cat disclosure: I am not a huge horror fan, completely eschewing the genre in both film and television, but I can get down with some scary books. Maybe it’s because my imagination isn’t as vivid as images on the screen, so sometimes I like to live on the literary edge. Many of my friends are big into having the bejeebus scared out of them, so good for a recommendation, which is […]

Horror Month 2023: #1

Dark Hollow by John Connolly

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For October 2023, I’m going to read as many horror- and/or Halloween-themed books as I can. It’s my own personal reading challenge to clear some stuff off my shelf and engage with other stuff on my TBR list. A few years ago, there was the framework of a tweet that made the rounds saying Men will literally do X instead of go to therapy. “X” could be watching football or training for UFC or any other such thing. The roots of it were legit: men are conditioned […]



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