Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

“There’s always a story. It’s all stories, really. The sun coming up every day is a story. Everything’s got a story in it. Change the story, change the world.”

A Hat Full of Sky (Discworld, #32; Tiffany Aching, #2) by Terry Pratchett

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Terry Pratchett was so good. With this review, I shall continue my biannual tradition of being unable to write coherently about a five-star Discworld book. This is the second Tiffany Aching book, which is set in the Discworld with his adult books, but this is technically middle grade, verging on YA. I say technically because any adult who wouldn’t enjoy this has a piece of coal for a heart and loops of iron chain for intestines. I really liked the first Tiffany Aching book, but […]

Do I like YA fantasy again???

This Vicious Grace (The Last Finestra, #1) by Emily Thiede

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Thanks to Macmillan Audio, Macmillan Young Readers, and NetGalley for the ARC. It hasn’t affected the content of my review. Well, this was an impulse request on NetGalley, and despite some complaints (mostly centered around this being a debut, I think), overall I did like this and I will be reading the sequel. The premise here is that our main character Alessa is a Chosen One, but she’s kinda sucky at it, and she’s lonely and miserable. She is the Finestra (Italian for “Window,” which […]

I love everything this book chooses to be. #CBRBINGO – Font

Iron Widow (Iron Widow, #1) by Xiran Jay Zhao

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“How do you take the fight out of half the population and render them willing slaves? You tell them they’re meant to do nothing but serve from the minute they’re born. You tell them they’re weak. You tell them they’re prey. You tell them over and over, until it’s the only truth they’re capable of living.” This book is a scream of rage into the night, and I’m so glad it got published. Even if you don’t normally read YA, I would urge you to […]

I hope you die, I hope we both die

The Cruel Prince by Holly Black

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This book surprised me. For about the first 100 pages or so, I was sure I wasn’t going to like it and may not even finish it. But eventually it pulled me in and I found myself pretty caught up in the story. The protagonist of The Cruel Prince is a teenager named Jude, a human who lives in Faerie with her human twin sister Taryn and their fairy half-sister, Vivi. They live with Vivi’s father, who is wrapped up in the various intrigues and violence of […]

Chainsaw <3

The Raven Boys (The Raven Cycle, #1) by Maggie Stiefvater

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If someone had told me ten years ago that this book featured an emotionally turbulent teenaged boy hand-raising a baby female raven whom he has inexplicably named after a deadly tree-felling instrument, I would have read it a hell of a lot sooner. As it is, though, I’m glad I haven’t been spoiled for anything in this series. I really enjoyed my time with this first book, also my first book by this author. I think I had been avoiding it because I didn’t want […]

Lyrical prose, historical setting, and a fairytale feel mesh well together

A Rush of Wings by Laura E. Weymouth

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A Rush of Wings is YA fantasy author Laura E. Weymouth’s most recent book (with a gorgeous cover in a different style than her other equally gorgeous covers). In many ways it resembles her second book, A Treason of Thorns in its historical setting (this time the Scottish highlands) more than her first, The Light Between Worlds, but there is some shared DNA with that one too, especially in its protagonist. While The Light Between Worlds offered a sort of justice for the Narnia character Susan Pevensie, […]



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