Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

…perhaps, vehicle for every kind of fear, she contained enough for all.

The Hauting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson

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Here is where I admit to relegating Shirley Jackson to a middle school English reading requirement.  I have hazy memories of reading The Lottery and thinking it was super creepy but not much more than that. I know, I know. Just wanted to start with a little honesty here. The only reason that I FINALLY grabbed a Jackson book from the library was that I fell completely in love with The Haunting of Hill House adaptation on Netflix. Not to make this a tv review, […]

Like a fantastical, queer Sherlock Holmes.

The Secret Casebook of Simon Feximal by K. J. Charles

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30 Books in 30 Days, Vol. 2 Book 9/30 In my defense, K.J. Charles has a long backlist, but I wish I would have read this particular one sooner. I feel like I say that with her all the time, but with how much I love Sherlock Holmes and mysteries and spooky shit, this one definitely should have been at the top of my TBR. I’m making my way through her entire backlist this year, because her next book isn’t coming until early 2023, so […]

“But a novel always ends, the lies come to the surface, and the deaths are explained. Maybe one of the bad characters gets away with something—that’s fashionable right now—but you are still left with a sense that things are balanced, that dark things come to light, and that the bad person will, at least, most likely be miserable.”

The Book of Cold Cases by Simone St. James

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This book lit my brain up like a Christmas tree. Nobody knows why certain books hit certain people like they do. That’s part of the magic of art, and of reading. But it worked for me in individual pieces, and it worked as a whole. During parts of it, I could practically hear my synapses yelling far off in the distance a gleeful “wheeeee”. So, here are all the individual components that got me: *The main character, Shea, reads mystery and crime fiction, and reads […]

The Book of Cold Cases

The Book of Cold Cases by Simone St. James

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I think the only book of Simone St. James I have really enjoyed has been The Sun Down Motel, and even that fell apart for me towards the end. I think the supernatural aspects of this book just actually didn’t work in this one one. The main character, Shea, was too self righteous for me and I got really tired of her by the end of the book. “The Book of Cold Cases” follows receptionist, Shea Collins. Shea is just going through the motions of […]

A great book that isn’t really for me.

Pet Sematary by Stephen King

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I’m fighting with my brain on this one because this is the first time in a while that I can appreciate a Stephen King book and it’s craft and storytelling, but not *love* the results. This is the kind of book that made me think for years that I didn’t like horror. I do like horror, as it turns out, and it’s a much more diverse genre than I previously thought. But this is the kind of book I’m never going to love, even though […]

“What else does a phoenix do when it’s done burning?”

Burn Down, Rise Up by Vincent Tirado

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I have a thing for strong heroines, so of course this cover caught my eye. And when I saw that it was sapphic horror, well, of course I had to read it! It’s a love letter to the Bronx and reminded me a bit of a YA version of Alyssa Cole’s When No One Is Watching. “It’s fine,” she said in a way that told me it was not. She sighed audibly. “So, I guess we’re sort of in the same boat?” “The ‘sudden absentee […]



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