Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

“You rescue me. I rescue you. That’s how this works.”

Hell Bent by Leigh Bardugo

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This is the second book in the Alex Stern series. This review will contain some spoilers for the first book in the series, Ninth House because I’m not sure how to review it without referencing things that happened in the last book. So if you’re new to this series, start there. Darlington is still missing, “in Spain” to those not in the know, and in Hell, possibly dead to those initiated in the secrets of Lethe House. Galaxy “Alex” Stern doesn’t have a lot of […]

Maiden, Mother, and Crone of the Corn

Harvest Home by Thomas Tryon

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CW: Incest, rape, sexual assault, violence against women, suicide I found Thomas Tryon’s Harvest Home after digging around Reddit for books similar to Ari Aster’s artful horror movie Midsommar and bought a used copy online. The jacket artwork is cool. I’ll venture back for rereads, absolutely. It’s a folk horror novel written during the production of The Wicker Man in 1972, although neither the author nor director were aware of one another at the time. Neopaganism was having a moment in the 1960s. Times and […]

I liked this weird little gremlin book.

The Pallbearers Club by Paul Tremblay

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To be clear, the book isn’t about gremlins, I’m just calling it a gremlin book because it’s weird and small and has claws but is also kind of harmless and laughable in the right light. Also also, gremlin is a fun word to use. This book is impossible to *really* talk about without spoilers, so I’m going to have a pretty big spoiler section and a smaller non-spoiler section in this review. I will try to keep the spoiler section relatively spoiler-free in the sense […]

“She checked underneath the sink but didn’t see anything that might destroy an evil puppet.”

How to Sell a Haunted House by Grady Hendrix

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It’s been a couple of weeks now since I read this, and it’s only gotten better in my memory. I was originally hemming and hawing about whether or not my initial inclination to give this five stars was the right thing to do, but no, I was right. This book deserves five stars. I’ll get into specifics in the next paragraph, but for now if you want to go in cold on this one but still have an idea of what you’re in for, the […]

“Reality is thin but not always dark:” A Very Enjoyable and Thought Provoking Collection from King

Just After Sunset by Stephen King

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I was struck late last year with the overwhelming urge to read some Stephen King short stories, and so here is the result. I hadn’t read this collection for a few years so was able to re-read these with a sense of meeting old friends who I slightly remembered. This collection has a high overall level of stories, and I was struck by the strength of his writing and the way he worded things throughout, often very beautifully and strikingly. I will say that having […]

“… sometimes a woman has to be a bitch to survive, but bein’ a bitch is hard work….”

Dolores Claiborne: A Novel by Stephen King

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This was another holiday book exchange gift from Black Raven — a book I requested thanks to the recommendations of other Cannonballers [EDIT: Narfna!! I think it was you again! It’s like I’m your literary stalker.]. I don’t generally read in the horror category (although I did review King’s Carrie a few years ago and thought it was great). While there are some horror-y elements to Dolores Claiborne, I think “psychological thriller” is a better description and it is indeed a thrilling story. I was […]



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