Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Just look at this beautiful cover. And the book inside is just as lovely.

Felix Ever After by Kacen Callender

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This book was excellent. It fits comfortably in with other YA books in terms of subject matter and content, but it’s so well written it stands out from the pack and feels extremely original, like all things with specificity do. Callender’s protagonist Felix is a trans boy going to a summer art school in NY city, and basically living with his best friend in an apartment his best friend’s wealthy but neglecting parents provide for him. Felix’s mom left when he was little, which is […]

Blacking out BINGO with Liz Lighty and her crown. #CBRBingo – Violet

You Should See Me in a Crown by Leah Johnson

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I was drawn to this book by the positive reviews, yes, but first by the unbelievable cuteness that is this cover and title. (This impulse also kind of bit me in the butt, more on that later.) You Should See Me in a Crown follows Liz Lighty, high school senior, who lives in a town that is utterly obsessed by prom. It is a Big Deal. The Queen and King even get scholarships. So, when funding for Liz’s college falls through (and she doesn’t want […]

I loved this. #CBRBingo – Pandemic

Boyfriend Material by Alexis Hall

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I’ve been dreading writing this review because I loved the book so much. I really don’t think I’m going to say too much about the book or the characters, because I can’t. Well, I could, but I would just end up hating whatever I wrote because I love the book too much and I’m too close to it and words are never enough, I tell you. Basically, this is a British rom-com in book form. It is actually, legitimately funny. I loved both of the […]

That rare unicorn, a good middle book.

The Sugared Game (The Will Darling Adventures, #2) by K.J. Charles

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This book wasn’t as purely enjoyable for me as the first one, but it was really an excellent middle book that does what all middle books should do: It furthers the character arcs of the characters we care about so that they are not stagnant and wallowing, it pushes the main story arcs along further and things actually happen, and it provides its own enclosed story arc so that you are left satisfied by the presence of a beginning, middle, and ending within the book […]

Pretty young things solve supernatural murders in 1920s NYC (Complete bingo card!)

The Diviners by Libba Bray

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#CBR12 Bingo: The Roaring 20s (could easily be used for Violet as well)   17-year-old Evangeline “Evie” O’Neill can sense people’s secrets if she holds a personal object belonging to them and concentrates hard on it. She becomes decidedly unpopular in her home town when she gets drunk at a party and reveals that one of the town’s golden boys knocked up a hotel maid and paid her to have the problem “dealt with”. He accuses her of slander and threatens to sue her family. Evie […]

“Seriously, my friend’s daughter is constantly misgendered because she favours clothes with dinosaurs on. EVERYONE KNOWS ALL DINOSAURS WERE BOYS AND THAT’S WHY THEY’RE EXTINCT.”

The Gender Games by Juno Dawson

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Been sitting on this review for two months now, trying to land on a star rating, and how to articulate what I wanted to say. Ultimately, this is a good book that is part memoir and part feminist/social text about being transgender (with a focus on the UK), with some intersectional feminist ideas thrown in. It’s also written in a very colloquial, humorous style that is very much not the norm for these kinds of books. This is what threw me, because I couldn’t decide […]



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