Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

The Sixth Day is for Music

Sofi and the Bone Song by Adrienne Tooley

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Sofi has been training all her life to replace her father as Musik, but when beautiful, untrained Lara wins the role instead, she suspects  there may be illegal magic involved. A long while ago I read about the Polgár sisters, a trio of Hungarian chess prodigies who were very carefully reared by their father to eat, sleep, and breath chess. I found myself simultaneously fascinated and horrified at this single-minded cultivation of genius, because it sounded like a terrible thing to do to children, robbing […]

Baby’s First Fantasy Court Intrigue

Castles in Their Bones by Laura Sebastian

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Daphne understands, suddenly, exactly what she is – not a girl, not a princess, not a spy or a saboteur. She is a poison, brewed and distilled and fermented over sixteen years, crafted by her mother to bring ruination to whomever she touches. Beatriz, Daphne, and Sophronia have been raised since birth to wed into the royal families of their neighboring countries – and then sow discord to bring them under their mother’s control. But the triplets find that when their loyalties are tested, it […]

Finally Done and Good Riddance

Ruin and Rising by Leigh Bardugo

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The final twist was stupid, the villain defeat was stupid and anti-climactic, the temporary (mostly) bad things that were done to certain heroes I’ve seen elsewhere in more interesting ways/effects, so very little actually seems to happen, and a lot of the backstory isn’t even all that interesting, although it does explain a lot about certain characters. No one even gets to do anything interestingly heroic here; the personal/self-sacrificial stuff in the final confrontation isn’t even that sympathetic. The prologues and epilogues don’t even add […]

Meh in the Middle

Siege and Storm by Leigh Bardugo

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Siege and Storm is better than Shadow and Bone for one reason: Nikolai Lantsov and Sturmhond. There is a lot less of Alina and the Darkling, although both do appear, and that’s not a bad thing. That part of the story shouldn’t really be the focus anyways, given how much Alina keeps focusing on one objective, first learn how to Grisha, then get away from Darkling while trying to find the sea snake/ice dragon and then fire-bird (and that quest is barely even mentioned)/maybe become […]

“We are the ones who ensure history exists to be written.”

One for All by Lillie Lainoff

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Have you ever heard the saying (not the Groucho Marx version, but the earnest one) about becoming a member of a club you don’t want to be a member of? It might just be pretty common in the circles I’ve run in, because I’ve mostly heard people talk about it in relation to loss – How you never want to become &/or welcome a new member to the parents of kids who’ve died club, or the widows’ club. Definitely clubs you do not want to […]

How a victim is made a villain

Grown by Tiffany D. Jackson

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Three years ago, I reviewed Tiffany D. Jackson’s YA novel Monday’s Not Coming. It’s one of those novels that stays with you long after you’ve read it due to the tragic subject matter and Jackson’s excellent writing. Grown, published in 2020, is another powerful YA novel that tackles disturbing subject matter taken from today’s headlines. This time, Jackson writes a story inspired by R. Kelly and the abuse of young Black girls at the hands of a powerful and famous man. This is not an […]



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