Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Big Red

The Burn by Kathleen Kent

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The Dime, Kathleen Kent’s first Betty Rhyzyk novel, went from being an interesting if conventional police procedural mystery to something else. If you appreciate the out of nowhere, somewhat bananas turn (as I did), you’d probably be moving on to the second book to see how she dealt with it. If not, you’d likely skip it. When I read the reviews for it, opinions were mixed and I get it. The twist was perhaps imperfectly handled and may have felt gimmicky. But I thought it made […]

Get me to the church (or whatever location the fae get married) on time

When Sorrows Come by Seanan McGuire

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CBR13 Bingo: Flora (there are a number of trees in the background and Toby appears to be holding a rose in her left hand. She also has a belt of roses on her dress) Spoiler warning! This is book 15 (!) in the ongoing October Daye series. So very much not the place to start. There will be spoilers for previous books in the series in this review, although I shall try to avoid any big ones for the contents of this current book. Rosemary […]

“Everyone had strengths. And weaknesses. The important thing was to recognize them. And not expect something from someone who didn’t have it to give.” (CBR Bingo #11)

All the Devils Are Here (Chief Inspector Gamache #16) by Louise Penny

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Through the first fifteen books in the Inspector Gamache series there is only one book I’ve rated five stars, A Trick of the Light. It’s a doozy of a book, and it dug deep into how characters cope with trauma, addiction, and stress, and any number of other forces that would separate us from our best selves. When I finished All the Devils Are Here, the 16th book in the series, I had my first impulse to rate one of these five stars since the […]

An extremely good book. Understatement. #CBRBINGO – Landscape

Razorblade Tears by S.A. Cosby

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😭😭😭😭😭 Above was my reaction upon finishing this book, which worked its dark magics upon me until my emotions did exactly what it wanted me to do at all times. More on this later. This book also has, I think, the best last line in a novel I’ve read all year. Maybe several years. This book is propulsive and hard to put down. I gave myself almost three days to read it and I read it in half a day. S.A. Cosby, of whom I […]

Horrorwood

What Remains of Me by Alison Gaylin

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Read as part of cbr13bingo: pandemic This is the second time I’ve tried Alison Gaylin’s work and for the life of me, I don’t know why I can’t connect with it. The first book I couldn’t even finish because I found myself not caring about the lead. This one was a chore, even if I enjoyed parts of it. Again, even with the multiple POVs, I couldn’t bring myself to muster energy for the lead. I have mixed feelings about Gillian Flynn but there’s a […]

“We don’t live in a series of plot points. We should be thankful for that. We should realize how lucky we are.” #CBRBINGO – Home

How Lucky by Will Leitch

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I was a bit nervous for this one! We’ve got a middle-aged white guy writing from the POV of a protagonist with a pretty specific disability (SMA, a degenerative disease*) that he doesn’t share, and I wasn’t familiar with Leitch as a writer, but this was the only BOTM the month it came out that interested me, so I took a chance, and I’m glad I did! I thought the whole thing was very sensitively done, and I thought Daniel ended up being a great […]



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