Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

“If an old story is enough to scare people away, then the whole world should scare them.”

After Dark with Roxie Clark by Brooke Lauren Davis

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CBR 15 Bingo – Adulthood: This YA book is a coming-of-age story for Roxie and Skylar, who must grapple with the difficult themes of guilt and closure before they can move past a massive tragedy. A year after Roxie’s sister’s boyfriend is found brutally murdered on the outskirts of town, an unexpected discovery sends Skylar on a frenetic search for the killer, heedless of who might get hurt in the process. This is a fitting read for spooky season – a family curse? A ghost […]

What if Carrie had supportive friends and family?

Hexed (2021) by Julia Tuffs

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Bingo square ‘Bodies, Bodies’: The main character has to deal with the uncontrollable nature of her own body and its possibly controllable impulses, and there’s also discussion of how men feel entitled to women’s bodies and reducing women to bodies. Hexed (2021) is a witchy YA book and a fun short-ish read. After being forced to move around a lot by her slightly flaky mother, Jessie Jones has just started at a new high school near her family’s roots on the Isle of Wight (a […]

“An hour, once it lodges in the queer element of the human spirit, may be stretched”

The Miseducation of Cameron Post (2012) by emily m. danforth

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CBR Bingo square “Queer Lives”: The Miseducation of Cameron Post is a queer YA novel, and was banned in a middle school in 2015 in Delaware for “inappropriate language.” I mean, fuck that. The novel was also criticised by the School Library Journal for its length and pacing, and my inclination is also to say fuck that, but I do understand that this is the kind of thing where YMMV. It did take a while to get into, but I was fully immersed when I did. […]

Definitely Not a Comic Book

Almost American Girl by Robin Ha

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When I read that my local High School had removed the graphic memoir Almost American Girl by Robin Ha from their summer reading list, I had to read it. The school board members called it a comic book. Well, I am sure glad this book hit my radar because it is excellent. I strongly feel that most high school kids would benefit from reading it. Let me start by saying I do not like reading graphic novels. My brain is not wired to enjoy reading […]

“Before I learned civility / I used to scream ferociously”

Sawkill Girls (2018) by Claire Legrand

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I find it hard to write or think about YA fiction without thinking about Taylor Swift sometimes–in this particular case, ‘Seven’ from Folklore (2020): “Please picture me in the weeds / Before I learned civility / I used to scream ferociously /Any time I wanted.” Sawkill Girls is a scream of a book beneath its veneer of preppy popularity politics and teenage drama and desire: a scream of fear and despair and fury, a loud barbaric yawp against vanishing and silencing, a howl against monsters and the different […]

Gay selkies for us all!

The Girl From the Sea by Molly Knox Ostertag

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Fifteen year old Morgan lives on a small Canadian island, where she spends her days hiding her true self from her three girlfriends. Home life isn’t much better, as her single mom and ornery brother also don’t seem to understand her. When Morgan meets a mysterious, beautiful tween named Keltie, her life becomes more interesting and more complicated. Morgan likes Keltie a lot, and Keltie unabashedly is affectionate to Morgan. But Keltie doesn’t understand Morgan’s need for secrecy. Add into the fact that Keltie is […]



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