Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

“Three words, large enough to tip the world. I remember you.”

Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by Victora Schwab

by 1 Comment

In five-ish words: Memory, Magical, Love, Connection, Cursed This is a classic example of if the positive reviews are piling up about a book from many people who you trust their book taste, go ahead and read it already! I don’t know why I was hesitant to read it, I think in my mind I conflated it with the movie “Age of Adeline” which seemed drab to me but this book was much more than I bargained for and not at all what I expected. […]

In which I mostly fuss about things that I wanted to be better

Bridge of Souls by Victoria Schwab

by Leave a Comment

Given the premise of the Cassidy Blake series (girl with ghost hunter parents can see and gets into trouble with real ghosts), it should be no surprise that the next city to be the setting of an adventure would be New Orleans, LA, USA. Bridge of Souls is on the one hand, better than its immediate predecessor, but on the other, still has some of the same problems. I should say that I do in fact realize this is middle grade fiction, and thus it […]

Steel Prince conclusion

Shades of Magic: The Steel Prince vol. 3 - The Rebel Army by V.E. Schwab (author), Andrea Olimpieri (artist)

by Leave a Comment

“The Steel Prince” graphic novels can be read standalone without having read the “The Shades of Magic” novels but I’m not certain how well that works as the graphic novels don’t spend time on the magic system, and magic is a vitally important part of this world setting.  Though mileage may vary, my friend was introduced to Schwab through the individual comic issues of this series and enjoyed it without prior knowledge. The Rebel Army is the final volume in V.E. Schwab’s, “The Steel Prince” […]

Devastatingly beautiful. I cried, not because it was necessarily sad but due to the amount of emotion.

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab

by 7 Comments

V.E. (Victoria) Schwab was introduced to me by my favorite bookstore, Mysterious Galaxy and it was love at first read.  By pre-ordering the The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, I was able to get a personalized book plate and used my birthday present book embosser to further claim the book.  Those actions decrease the re-sale value of a book but this is one I won’t be giving up! The simplest explanation of the plot is it is a Faustian deal between Adeline LaRue and a god-like, […]

I might be getting too old for this kind of thing

Tunnel of Bones by Victoria Schwab

by Leave a Comment

Cassidy Blake is still following her parents around while they film their show “The Inspecters” (that pun will never stop irritating me), and this time they are in Paris visiting some of the most haunted areas of the city. Cassidy and her ghost buddy Jacob naturally attract the attention of a spirit which causes trouble until figure out how to stop it. Hilarity ensues. I like the premise in that it is real historical ghost history being used for this novel, as it was for […]

A Darker, Grittier Approach to YA Fantasy

This Savage Song by Victoria Schwab

by Leave a Comment

VC/Victoria Schwab is a weird author for me.  Everyone else seems to rave about her.  Intellectually, I am intrigued by what she does and the stories and themes she explores.  She is very creative, as seen in this novel where monsters are the external manifestations or results of violence humans do to each other. And yet. And yet. Something about her writing fails to grip me.  I was discussing this novel with a friend halfway through and told him, I wasn’t sure if I would […]



Help Our Mission

You can donate to CBR via:

  1. PayPal
  2. Venmo