Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

A Magic School for Kids

The Incandescent by Emily Tesh

by Leave a Comment

CBR Square- School I read The Incandescent by Emily Tesh because she promoted it on Threads as a book with a magic school where the adults are allowed to be competent. And that doesn’t mean they don’t make mistakes, but when the students get themselves into trouble with their magic, they go to an adult who can help them and she does. So this is entirely told from the adult perspective, and one demon. I really liked it a lot. Dr. Walden is the Director of Magic […]

A Fantasy That Hits Close to Home

The Grimoire Grammar School Parent Teacher Association by Caitlin Rozakis

by 2 Comments

You may recognize Caitlin Rozakis as the author of Dreadful, which I had such a good time with last year. While this upcoming new release isn’t as overtly funny, it does still bring the humor and is relatively lighthearted, while being more emotionally resonant and grounded in reality. It’s told from the third person POV of Vivian, who moves with her husband Daniel and 5-year-old daughter Aria to a hidden magical town after Aria is turned by a werewolf. Prior to this, the family was “mundane” […]

Supernatural Education Lite

Posthumous Education by Drew Hayes

by Leave a Comment

I saw on the author’s social media somewhere that Drew Hayes’ Fred the Vampire Accountant series has one final volume due out after the one I had on my shelf, making Posthumous Education (Fred #8) the penultimate installation. It definitely shows; there is a lot of set up. Fred is called on a favor picked up about 5 volumes ago to a Fey queen, and all she wants him to do is take a temporary teaching job at the local parahuman institution of higher education, […]

Keeping some hope alive

Hooky, vols. 1-2 by Miriam Bonastre Tur

by Leave a Comment

One of the cardinal sins of any kind of story for me is to be misleading in terms of the general tone and approach it takes. For example, there’s this one anime series I watched years ago (I don’t even remember the title now) that was mostly a lighthearted cute series about the relationship between a boy and this mysterious robot girl he finds. Then suddenly, two episodes from the end it turned completely dystopic, dark, and tragic and pointless. I hated that and it […]

Stuff happens without much action and I am confused

The Golden Enclaves by Naomi Novik

by 1 Comment

BNGO review 23: Holiday Graduation is an event to celebrate. A holiday is the commemoration of a celebratory event that often includes celebrations. Thus, The Last Graduate and The Golden Enclaves qualify as holiday-themed stories. Confession: I haven’t totally finished The Last Graduate, but I had a chance to get The Golden Enclaves from the library; what my library does with new releases is they are available for shorter check out periods with no renewal option, and that deadline was approaching. Technically this is a […]

Dumb but Strong Gets Boring, or Enough with the Cream Puff Gags, or Why Harry Potter and Black Clover Don’t Mix

Mashle: Magic and Muscles, vols. 4-5 by Hajime Komoto

by Leave a Comment

Sometimes my curiosity gets the better of me and I pick up subsequent manga volumes from the library just to see if things get any better or interesting; sometimes this works out and sometimes not. With Mashle: Magic and Muscles, the first few volumes were essentially trope overload with a touch of the goof-ball. Volumes 4-5 don’t really get much better. Tropes include the clueless but good-hearted hero who has nothing but physical prowess to get by in a magic world, the girl he saves […]



Help Our Mission

You can donate to CBR via:

  1. PayPal
  2. Venmo