Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

“For I fear that the day when aliens reveal themselves to us fully will also become the first day of the end of life on Earth as we know it!”

UFO Mushroom Invasion by Shirakawa Marina

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This is the second book in Ryan Holmberg’s imprint of classic SF/horror manga from the 1970s/80s. I will say I enjoyed Her Frankenstein better but I thought UFO Mushroom Invasion was also interesting and had some striking moments that made me glad I read this. I do understand that smaller print books tend to be more expensive because they have smaller print runs and tighter economics to work out, but $19.95 is a tough price point for me here considering that most manga is ranging […]

I Was a Teenage Slasher (or when the book title is so great you need to make it the title of the review)

I Was a Teenage Slasher by Stephen Graham Jones

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Set at the very end of the 80’s (1989) in Lamesa, West Texas, this book is exactly what the title says it is.  It’s about a slasher (think Ghostface from Scream, or Michael Myers from Halloween and so on) who also happens to be a teenager.  The story is told by Tolly, the slasher of the title, as he explains what happened over a few weeks in 1989.  Tolly didn’t wake up one morning and choose violence, or well he did, but it was only […]

“…and in the old days they did things for a reason. And if you don’t understand why—well, you might end up opening a few doors better left closed. “

Wylding Hall by Elizabeth Hand

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A story about Windhollow Faire a fictional British folk band, who in the 1970’s England,  rented an ancient and super creepy country house so they could lock themselves down and record an album.  And oh, the text lets us know what an album Wylding Hall (named naturally after the home they were recording in) was, it was the one that made the band capital F famous.  But it came at quite the cost, as the groups lead singer vanishes into the house and is just […]

Isolated Island Horror

Hemlock Island by Kelley Armstrong

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A standalone horror novel from Kelley Armstrong, Hemlock Island is the story of Laney Kilpatrick who is renting out her (amazingly described) second home.  She’s doing this begrudgingly, she got the house in her divorce but the cost of maintaining her isolated island home, plus maintaining the apartment she shares with her niece, well it’s share your space with strangers, or not have the house on Hemlock Island at all.  However, some of the people renting out the island home have left some … remnants […]

Thanksgiving 2024 Leftovers

Remembrance Day by Henry Porter

Dead Lions by Mick Herron

Zero Days by Ruth Ware

Whisper Down the Lane by Clay McLeod Chapman

Killing Castro by Lawrence Block

Deadly Beloved by Max Allan Collins

Spy Hook by Len Deighton

London Rules by Mick Herron

Real Tigers by Mick Herron

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Happy Thanksgiving to all who celebrate. Remembrance Day**** An interesting take on the English-vs-Irish spy novel and while the author telegraphs too many things, he knows how to keep a story moving. Barely clears the 4-star threshold but if I invest time to read something almost 500 pages long, it has to be at least “good” and this was. Dead Lions, Real Tigers, and London Rules**** I had originally meant to do a big long post on my love/grr relationship with Mick Herron’s Slough House […]

Shadow Histories of the United States

Ghostland: An American History in Haunted Places by Colin Dickey

The United States of Cryptids by J.W. Ocker

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Ghostland: An American History in Haunted Places by Colin Dickey – 3.25 stars For a country with a comparatively short written history, the United States has a great many ghosts, and the most compelling of those have their stories rooted deep in the places from which they’ve sprung up. This was a nice seasonal read which reminded me to look about me with a greater awareness of the many small histories that must cling to every bus station or convenience store I pass, even as […]



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