Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

“We were teen girls. Look up the word “blasé” in Merriam-Webster’s and you’d find a picture of us, our eyes burning through your soul from the page.”

We Ride Upon Sticks by Quan Barry

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My Cannonball Read holiday gift exchange buddy got me this book (thank you!!!) and if they picked it because they have read it and liked it or just took a crack at my taste from my Goodreads, I’m pretty sure we would be good pals. I don’t remember (or know) who that was, so if you see this and it’s you, find me on the ‘gram at @cheerbrarian. It’s 1989 and the Danvers High Varsity field hockey team hasn’t historically been award winning, but this […]

“Maybe that was their magic. Having fun and enjoying one another’s company. Being lifted up even when you were being beaten down.”

We Ride Upon Sticks by Quan Barry

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This book was a complete joy to read. I must say that first, because it’s probably the most important part of this review – the book is great, please get a copy and read it, especially if you have or are or were or love a young woman. It’s a five star read for me. It’s 1989, and the Danvers Falcons are tired of being one of the worst field hockey teams in their league. Several of the seniors on this team want this year […]

a perfect blast of nostalgia from the paranormal past…until the last 30 pages blows it all up

We Ride Upon Sticks by Quan Barry

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A losing field hockey team is sweating themselves half to death. They are being pummeled by every other group on campus; a collection of high school teams from allover New England living the exciting existence of a pre-college summer program. They haul their broken bodies back to the dorms of the UNH campus, exhausted physically and spiritually. The goalie is DONE with this exhaustion. She wants, needs, and expects more for both herself and her beloved team. She, like many teen girls before and after, […]

Fire Burn and Cauldron Bubble

We Ride Upon Sticks by Quan Barry

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A Simple Favor is one of my favorite movies from the last few years. I love quirky crime comedies and the leads have great chemistry. But I also enjoyed how it depicted female relationships, especially in an unconventional manner. A Simple Pod, hosted by three journalists who also love the movie, unpacks this a little, talking about the queerness of the movie and the de-centering of men in its tale. We Ride Upon Sticks isn’t a crime story but it still hits a similar sweet spot for me. […]

Teenage girls are so powerful

We Ride Upon Sticks by Quan Barry

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In Quan Barry’s We Ride Upon Sticks, it’s 1989, and the middling Danvers High School Girls Varsity Field Hockey Team turns to witchcraft to help them make it to state finals (with the help of a possibly-haunted Emilio Estevez-covered notebook dubbed “Emilio” and the local lore of neighbouring Salem, Massachusetts). I just finished the book and I’m lying in bed awake with my heart feeling like it might burst out of my chest because – the absolutely nuclear power of teenage girls, man. Written in […]



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