Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

“Blue was perfectly aware that it was possible to have a friendship that wasn’t all-encompassing, that wasn’t blinding, deafening, maddening, quickening. It was just that now that she’d had this kind, she didn’t want the other.”

Blue Lily, Lily Blue (The Raven Boys, #3) by Maggie Stiefvater

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I’m mad at myself because I really liked this one but it’s been since early September that I read it so I kind of forget the specifics of why. I think the next time I read this series I will just read them all back to back and then tab all my favorite bits. Most of which will be about Ronan. Does this make me basic? I don’t care. Basic things are awesome. That’s why they are basic. Also, just the way this series is […]

Well-written but not for me.

I'm the Girl by Courtney Summers

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Thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for the ARC. It hasn’t affected the content of my review. I don’t think Courtney Summers is for me. I’ve tried three of her books now. This is an extremely well-written and timely young adult thriller that is supposedly about the death of a young girl found on the side of the road, but it’s really about how the world is built to use up pretty young women and undermine their self-worth, and what that looks like. The main […]

“Sometimes it seems like writing is the only way I keep from hurting.”

The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo

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CBR14 Bingo: Verse (the whole book is written as poems) Xiomara and her brother Xavier (who Xiomara mostly refers to as Twin) are miracle babies, born late in life to their parents, who never believed they would have children. Growing up in Harlem, New York, they’re nevertheless part of the Dominican culture of their immigrant parents. Their mother is deeply religious and was possibly going to be a nun before she met their dad, whose wandering eye meant he got around plenty before marrying. While […]

“My boy was a montage”

The Summer I Turned Pretty (2009) by Jenny Han

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This is for the Adapt/Camel cbr14bingo square; the book and its sequels have been adapted into a series on Amazon Prime, and narrator Isabel ‘Belly’ Conklin has to adapt to her changing body and growing up and the things and people she’s taken for granted changing around her. “My boy was a montage / A slow-motion, love potion/ jumping off things in the ocean / I broke his heart cause he was nice”, sings Taylor Swift on ‘Midnight Rain’, the sixth track of her new album. […]

Young love and demon hunting

Mooncakes by Suzanne Walker and Wendy Xu

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CBR14 Bingo: Cozy (this is a super-sweet YA comic. While there are some dark themes, the main vibe here is absolutely cozy.) Nova Huang (she/her) is an orphaned young witch, although she sees the ghosts of her parents during each major holiday, and sometimes just when they feel she might need advice or a good talking to. She lives with her two grandmothers, who sell books of both the mundane and magical varieties. Tam (they/them) on the other hand, seems to have been on their […]

Don’t mess with an angry gingerbread cookie!

A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking by T. Kingfisher

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I really adored A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking by T. Kingfisher. This charming young adult fantasy novel was so much fun to read. A shout out to the YA librarian who mentioned how much she had loved this book. Mona is a 14 year old baker who has some limited magic capabilities. She can do things like make gingerbread cookies dance. One day, she finds a dead girl in the bakery and it turns out all magickers in her town are being targeted and […]



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