Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

“I could never afford to look past survival, especially not for anything as insanely expensive as happiness, and I don’t believe in it anyway.”

The Last Graduate (The Scholomance, #2) by Naomi Novik

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Yet another great book I’ve read this year that I really just do not want to write a review for, because it means having to find the words and think thoughts and all that stuff. I always have the most trouble with books I love and give five stars to. It’s always like, HOW DO I CONVEY THIS FEELING which morphs into I DON’T EVEN WANT TO TRY with some whining in there for good measure. I really liked the first book in this series […]

Baby Baby Baby

Rosemary's Baby by Ira Levin

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This was one where I read the book before seeing the movie, both of which I did over Halloween weekend (Happy Halloween to me!). I had read, and admired Ira Levin’s Boys from Brazil years ago. Part of my issue with those kinds of high concept stories is that writers get too lost in the concept itself and fail to tell the story. Levin does not suffer from that problem. I’ve probably waited too long to read this (Stepford Wives as well). The premise is well known to […]

Triple Cannonballing with Annie Wilkes. #CBRBINGO – Gateway

Misery by Stephen King

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There is some dated language and imagery in here that I don’t think King would use now (his modern books don’t ping anything for me) and that I don’t think I noticed last time, but overall this book is still great. This is the only Stephen King book (so far) that I’ve re-read. Eventually, once I finish up all his extant work (which could take me a while!) I will do a chronological re-read of all his books. That will be a project, for sure. […]

“Just because you know you should, doesn’t mean that you can, stop.”

Nothing But Blackened Teeth by Cassandra Khaw

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That cover is beautiful but terrifying, which is also an apt description of this novella. It’s a haunted house story with a uniquely Japanese setting, but also an exploration of mental health. “One girl each year. Two hundred and six bones times a thousand years. More than enough calcium to keep this house standing until the stars ate themselves clean, picked the sinew from their own shining bones. All for one girl as she waited and waited. Alone in the dirt and the dark.” Five […]

For the night is dark, and full of terrors

Through the Woods by Emily Carroll

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4.5 stars CBR13 Bingo: Shelfie In five creepy stories ranging from the historical to more recent times, writer and artist Emily Carroll gives us her take on proper spine-tingling fairy tales. Accompanied by her absolutely beautiful art, the tales are all the more chilling because of the illustrations. This absolutely qualifies as a graphic novel, or probably more accurately a graphic short story (or fairy tale) anthology. Some of the stories are short, some are longer, all managed to truly unnerve me, while also entertaining […]

Rosemary Reads Rosemary

Rosemary's Baby by Ira Levin

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Rosemary’s Baby is one of my favorite films. Once I read the book I realized that the film followed it pretty closely. In some scenes, word for word. So taking it to the ultimate meta I guess, I decided to listen to the film’s Rosemary, Mia Farrow, read the classic horror novel by Ira Levin. She did not disappoint. Her interpretation helped me see the story through Rosemary’s eyes. Farrow ably portrays the extremely naive Rosemary, who is starstruck by her ambitious actor husband Guy. […]



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