Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

When someone is that calm in a crisis, either they don’t know what’s happening, or you don’t.

The Hymn to Dionysus by Natasha Pulley

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Suffering doesn’t make people good or noble. A little bit gives them perspective. A lot turns them cruel, and too much – you get a murder or a marvel, and neither of those are really people any more. ― Natasha Pulley, The Hymn to Dionysus His duty was hurting him, and this is the medicine, and the only reason you think that’s unreasonable is that your duty has hurt you much more, there never was medicine for you, and you don’t see why other people […]

“Demi-human, seek knowledge and grow wise.”

The Wize Wize Beasts of the Wizarding Wizdoms by Nagabe

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First book of the year! This is a volume of short stories set in the same wizarding school for anthropomorphic animals (The Wizdom’s School of Wizarding). A long time ago, a wizard gave animals “the shape and intellect of a human,” creating demi-humans who now go to this wizarding school. The stories are all BL themed, although some of them just have a heavily flirty atmosphere or touch upon homoerotic themes instead of all of the characters ending up in romantic relationships. I enjoyed the […]

1960’s noir, an art heist, dark family secrets, vintage cars, and loads of sex

Tenebroso by thesehands

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Tenebroso by thesehands Ronan was a portent, an omen, a sign that Adam might be in real danger; Declan had sent the most dangerous person he knew to protect him. ― thesehands, Tenebroso As he lay in Adam’s arms, Ronan noted the differences between what he remembered and what he currently felt. Adam was not as bony as he used to be, no longer elongated with the awkward stretch of adolescence. He was warmer than Ronan’s memories, perhaps only because he was real and tangible […]

Deadpool Does D&D

How to Become the Dark Lord and Die Trying by Django Wexler

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Imagine if you took Deadpool, made him a her named Davi, made him the main playable character in a video game, and tossed into a D&D sort of world in which (true to video game), every time he dies, he goes back to the re-set position. And this happens hundreds of times as Davi keeps losing to the Dark Lord. But then, Deadpool/Davi decides that, instead of trying to save the world from the Dark Lord, why not just become said Lord instead? And let’s […]

“That look was the absolute truth. I know it the way you know things sometimes, bone-deep as loneliness, right in the living room of the heart.”

Juniper Harvey and the Vanishing Kingdom by Nina Varela

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As I mentioned in my review of The Carrefour Curse there are two tasks in the 2024 Read Harder Challenge that are specifically about middle grades books. Juniper Harvey and the Vanishing Kingdom is my selection for task 6: read a middle grade book with an LGBTQIA main character. Right off the bat, this is a good book, in fact Nina Varela can write better than most authors I’ve come across in the past year or more. I just wish Middle Grades was an audience […]

True to the Literary Source but not the Cover Vibe

Murder on the Christmas Express by Alexandra Benedict

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When I saw the cover of Murder on the Christmas Express, I had two thoughts: ooh, cozy, and Agatha Christie homage. One of those two impressions was correct. This is so very not a cozy mystery; rape and partner abuse, past and present, features prominently. The trauma is given some respectful attention, but it’s all over most of the book, making it distinctly not cozy. Similarly, the main investigator is also awaiting the imminent birth of her first grandchild, and that’s not going well medically […]



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