Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

When demi-gods have a plan, the world should tremble

The Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins

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Carolyn has a plan to find out who killed Father, the god-like man who adopted her and eleven other children after a traumatic event occurred in their neighborhood. She must rely on her catalogue, languages, of Father’s expanse library and the skills of her siblings and their respective catalogues. She even must involve an American who is not a part of the Library, Father’s name for their home and expansive book-collection. What unravels is a mystery that involves everyone from local neighbors to the president. […]

Apologies to whoever sat next to me while I read this

The Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins

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The Library at Mount Char is a strange book. Sometimes it’s really interesting and suspenseful; other times, it’s horrific (as in horror literature, not general quality). The thing is, at least for me, is that the two don’t quite mesh together. The general story follows Caroline and Steve, who apparently has some kind of criminal past but now lives a quiet life as a plumber. He meets Caroline who seems a little off but who offers him an unusual amount of money to help her […]

Hated it the first time…kinda liked it the second…

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I share much the same initial sentiment of my fellow readers on this WTactualF did I just read. I was thrust into a world where the players affectionately sniff each other in greeting (as was polite) and kill small children for multiple reasons because you can’t have just one. Just as this tale was at times unsavory, yet at times really intriguing, I’m also of two minds about how I feel about it. To say the characters are unlikeable is an understatement. There’s our “librarians” […]

“Stay away from windows. And if you see people with tentacles, stay away. Don’t let them touch you.”

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Would you believe me if I told you that I just read the strangest, most disgusting, horrifically violent, semi-apocalyptic book of all time, and that it cracked me up and I loved it? Most of you cannonballers would, since you are the nutjobs that recommended this one! The Library at Mount Char isn’t easy to explain. But I’ll try. One summer day in the 1970s, disaster strikes at a neighborhood barbecue, orphaning 12 kids and leaving them to be raised by “Father,” an older man […]

I blame everybody on this website for my nightmare after I finished this book.

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My initial review of this book was just two words: “What” and “the”, arranged in a sentence with a leetle question mark after it, like so. What the? I still feel it’s an appropriate response to reading this book. If this wasn’t your response, at least subconsciously, I worry for your mental health. I really do. This book was super weird, and super gross. And funny. But also violent and horrible. It is many things at once, and they all combine to do things to […]

Its essence is a mathematical construct, a self-referencing tautology, consecrated in the plane of regret.

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A salute to the Cannonball Read and the Readers, for bringing this book into my brain. Holy crap, you guys. So good. Honestly, I had been expecting (and bracing myself for) something super duper effed up, based on the reviews that I had skimmed (to avoid spoilers). And yeah, it’s dark and horrifying and confusing and complex, but still really fricking readable. Here’s what I texted about 20 of my closest friends when I was halfway through and couldn’t stop reading last night: “It’s as […]



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