queer – Cannonball Read 17

“I’ll watch and I’ll wait. I’m seventeen, and I have a thousand brilliantly hued hazardous sunrises to spare.”

Fable for the End of the World by Ava Reid

September 20, 2025 by Pooja Leave a Comment

CBR17 Bingo: Purple – Behold, the cover. In a world consumed by debt, Inesa’s mother’s compulsive spending causes her to be selected for the Gauntlet, in which she will almost certainly be killed on live TV to wipe out what her family owes. But when Inesa and the girl assigned to kill her, Melinoe, are forced to rely on each other in the wilderness, the line between predator and prey gets blurred. This is a YA dystopian romance which is in many ways a homage […]

Sapphic golem fantasy debut

The Maiden and Her Monster by Maddie Martinez

September 9, 2025 by LB Leave a Comment

The Maiden and Her Monster fulfills the “diaspora” square for CBR17 Bingo. As soon as I learned of The Maiden and Her Monster, I knew I needed to read it. I love explorations of Jewish experiences and especially love different ways the golem story can be reimagined. Set in a Medieval Prague inspired setting, The Maiden and Her Monster follows Malka as she ventures into a cursed forest that has been killing the girls of her village so she can free her imma from the Church’s idea […]

Who has the right to history?

The Memory Hunters by Mia Tsai

September 1, 2025 by LB Leave a Comment

The Memory Hunters fulfills the “red” square for CBR17 Bingo. I really enjoyed Mia Tsai’s Bitter Medicine, and was very excited to try The Memory Hunters, which is a completely new world and setting. It is set in a type of near future where climate change has resulted in much of the coast as we know it being devastated and swallowed by the ocean and storms, and fungi being used as a way to collect and remember history. It opens when Kiana Strade, a memory […]

Soft adorable romance!

Last First Kiss by Julian Winters

August 2, 2025 by LB Leave a Comment

Last First Kiss fulfills the “work” square on CBR17 bingo. I got to read Julian Winters’ adult debut, I Think They Love You, earlier this year and absolutely adored it so when I saw he had another adult romance coming out, I couldn’t wait, especially when I realized it follows Jordan and Jamie, Denz’s cousin and best friend respectively, who were glimpsed as a possibility by the end of I Think They Might Love You. All that to say I needed to read this book […]

Personhood in Sci-Fi

Volatile Memory by Seth Haddon

July 26, 2025 by LB Leave a Comment

Volatile Memory fulfills the “purple” square on CBR17 bingo. Generally speaking, I don’t consider myself a sci-fi reader, but Volatile Memory kept coming across my feeds because it’s sapphic and I finally gave into the promo, and I’m glad I did because this ended up being a really interesting story. I’d put it in the same conversations as books like Automatic Noodle and The Stars Too Fondly for the ways it explores transness and gender through presentation as well as whether memories make a person […]

And the Rose Goes Oh No

Here For the Wrong Reasons by Annabel Paulsen and Lydia Wang

July 19, 2025 by Jake Leave a Comment

Read as part of CBR17 Bingo: review. I read this based on the review here. My journey into sapphic romance continues with this fun little number. Also, before I begin, the women who co-wrote this apparently fell in love each other while writing it, which is the most adorable thing ever. And in the last romance I read, the writers were a wife-wife team. So maybe I have a thing? Or maybe it’s just coincidence. Either way, I don’t follow The Bachelor or shows like […]

Zirza on A Gothic Classic for a ReasonIt's one of those wish-you-could-read-it-again-for-the-first-time books. I loved it.
Emmalita on “It came to something when you found yourself hoping that the footsteps you heard were ghosts.”I loved the ending! I don’t think it’s been out long enough to talk about why though.
Dixie on Track Her Down by Melinda LeighI am just starting Track Her Down and I have read them all in order till now and thought I...
Roland of Gilead on How can you give us the gift of a crazy character named Rando Thoughtful and then just as suddenly take that gift away? We need to talk, Uncle Stevie.I came across this randomly years after it was written because I was searching "Random Thoughtful. But I have the...
Emmalita on “Only you, Em, would refer to heartbreak as a distraction. I think I would have a more sympathetic response if I asked to marry a bookcase.”Oh my goodness, Gallifrey was beautiful. I’m sure her mittens were gloriously murdery.

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