Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

“Some people are made to be lonely.”

Velvet Was the Night by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

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I love how reading books can transport you to anywhere – and I love learning about different points in history through a really great novel. I knew almost nothing about the government in Mexico in the 1970s – and I wouldn’t say I am not “educated” about it, but I did fall into some interesting Wikipedia holes as a result of this book. The premise is that a group called the Hawks (a real paramilitary group in Mexico) have functioned to make a student protest […]

I hope this one gets as much love as the prior one

The Daughter of Dr. Moreau by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

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Moreno-Garcia strikes again, with a quirky book that is a bit more in line with Mexican Gothic in ~vibe~ but all on its own in tenor and plot. Set against the backdrop of the original tale of Dr. Moreau, a H.G. Wells invention who took one look at Dr. Frankenstein and said “hold my drink,” Moreno-Garcia invents for Dr. Moreau a daughter and a hacienda and more of a backstory, setting the tale of eerie hybrid animal inventions in a world of capitalism and greed and all […]

Mexican Gothic

Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

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In one of my earlier reviews, I was disappointed in a book that I expected to be scary but it was decidedly not. Turns out, Mexican Gothic was almost exactly what I was looking for back then: not scary, absolutely not gory (thank goodness), but a hovering sense of dread throughout the entire novel. Put it in my veins! Noemí Taboada is young, glamourous, and carefree. She is a wealthy debutante who is exploring what she wants to do with her future. Her family receives […]

The world is a constant compromise, a greeting of the other and of yourself.

The Daughter of Doctor Moreau by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

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There is something about Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s writing that just speaks to me. I haven’t read enough of her books to make definitive statements about her writing, but in the works I have read, it feels like she writes with one middle finger raised. It speaks to me. I don’t delude myself, as a white American whose ancestors definitely fucked around in places they should not have been, I am part of the group she is raising that middle finger at, and I am fine with […]

These were 100% cover reads, but they (mostly) ended up being great!

The Tiger Came to the Mountains (The Trespass Collection, #1) by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Wildlife (The Trespass Collection, #2) by Jeff VanderMeer

The Backbone of the World (The Trespass Collection, #3) by Stephen Graham Jones

Stag (The Trespass Collection, #4) by Karen Russell

A Righteous Man (The Trespass Collection, #5) by Tochi Onyebuchi

Bloody Summer (The Trespass Collection, #6) by Carmen Maria Machado

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As mentioned in this post’s title, I saw these covers and immediately went OOOOH. Click click click. Free? Okay! Also, the idea of various genres of story that deal with nature and wildlife clashing with humans appeals to me. I did four of them by audio, and all four narrators were excellent (even for the one I two-starred), and two by Kindle. If you have Prime, they are free for you. Some of them really surprised me! “Wildlife,” by Jeff VanderMeer — 2 STARS This […]

As It Says on the Tin . . .

Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

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OK, let’s start off with Rebecca, but then go off on The Yellow Wallpaper and now cross it with Lovecraft/Eldritch horror (sans tentacles, fortunately).  Sound like fun? Yes, it was, and especially because of the heroine.  Very much mid-century modern, wealthy Mexican socialite Noemi Taboada has grown quite bored with her social scene.  A budding interest in anthropology aside, her life seems to be one party after another, one fatuous twit after another. So when her father receives a plea for help from her cousin […]



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