Duma Key by Stephen King (CBR-V #46)

Cannonball Read V: Book #46/52
Published: 2008
Pages: 700

Genre: Horror/Fantasy

Another brick of a Stephen King book. Some are completely worth wading through 1000 pages (The Stand, Under the Dome...shut up, I liked that one) and some aren't (Insomnia, The Tommyknockers). Duma Key was pretty middle of the road. Good enough to actually finish (can't say the same for those last two I mentioned up there), but not crazy good. 

Edgar decides to move to Florida after he has a bad accident at work and his wife leaves him. He made a pretty good fortune on his business, so he settles down for a nice early retirement on Duma Key. Edgar is lonely and he's still dealing with the divorce and recovering from his accident (he lost an arm and had a pretty bad head injury). He hires a young college-age kid to run his errands for him and he befriends an old lady and her caretaker down the beach. Edgar also finds out that he has a knack for painting. Then, of course, weird stuff starts happening that has to do with some traumatic stuff that happened on the island in the past. 

I liked that there were very few characters in this book. King is amazing at character development, but sometimes it seems like you need a concordance to keep up with everyone. With so few characters, you really got to know each of them. I also really liked the location. Usually King's stories are set in Maine, but I connected a little more with Florida since I lived there for a few years (and I've never been to Maine). 


I debated between 3 and 4 stars for this book (it's probably more like 3.5), but the ending got a little bogged down and stretched out at times. This probably could have been a 500 pages book vs. a 700 page book.

Cinder by Marissa Meyer (CBR-V #43)

Cannonball Read V: Book #43/52
Published: 2012
Pages: 390

Genre: Young Adult/Fantasy

Cinder is a cyborg - part human, part robot. She lives with her evil step-mother and two stepsisters (this is a re-imagined Cinderella after all) in New Beijing which is on the verge of a war with the Lunar people (who live on the moon). Cinder is a mechanic and she meets the prince when he asks her to fix one of his old robots. They strike up a friendship as Cinder tries both to hide and figure out who she really is. 

This story really could have went either way, but I thought it was actually pretty good. It was interesting and never got boring. The romance was never too sappy and I felt like Cinder was a strong female character on her own (i.e. didn't need a man to define her character). I also liked that she had other relationships that were focused on, such as with her dying step-sister (the nice one of the two) and her friendship with the house robot.

However, I did think the idea of setting it in China was interesting, but it probably could have been integrated into the plot a little more. I also thought the beginning was unclear on what exactly Cinder was. I spent the first several chapters thinking she was a full on robot with no human blood at all. I'm not sure if that was intentional in order to reveal her backstory as to how she became part robot or not, but it was sort of confusing at first.

There is a second book in this series that focuses on Little Red Riding Hood, but I believe that Cinder is also a character in it. So hopefully they continue her story since it didn't have a definite ending here. 

A Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin (CBR-V #20)

Cannonball Read V: Book #20/52
Published: 1996
Pages: 864
Genre: Fantasy

I was really far ahead in my books for this year, so I decided to finally tackle A Game of Thrones since I wouldn't feel so rushed to finish such a monster novel.  I'm one of those people who actually loves super long books - Stephen King's The Stand is a favorite and I'm one of the few people on earth who actually loved Under the Dome (both are over 1000 pages). My favorite book ever is House of Leaves, which is over 700 pages. I love getting to know characters that intimately - the way only a book that long can do.

So, back to A Game of Thrones. I've never seen the TV show, so I went into it completely blind as to characters, plotlines, etc. I think most people know the general plot by now due to the popularity of the TV show, but here is a condensed version: It's a fantasy novel that takes place in a land that has summers and winters that can last for years. There is a lot of incest and sex and blood. There are also approximately 400 people's names you have to learn.

I wanted to like this book so much. It's got some really great parts and some amazing characters (I found myself wishing there were more Daenerys and Arya in the book). However, there were SO MANY characters and plot lines that it was really hard to get sucked into the story. As soon as I'd start getting interested in someone, we'd switch to a new character and hundreds of pages would pass before we might come back to the other one. By then, I didn't really care anymore. 

I think if this book was condensed to just a few characters, I would love it. I still might try and read the next book in the series just to see how a few of my favorite characters turn out. It isn't a bad book by any means - it's just OVERWHELMING at times. I felt like I needed to make charts and notes while reading just to figure everything out. 

The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly (CBR-III #49)

Cannonball Read III: Book #49/52
Published: 2006
Pages: 352 (189,449 total pages so far)
Genre: Fantasy


I actually read this book back in July, but was going over my list of books for Cannonball Read and realized that I never reviewed this one! This review might be short and/or vague since it's been six months or so since I actually read it.


The Book of Lost Things is sort an adult fairy tale. I love fantasy books and movies, so I found it to be pretty interesting. Twelve-year-old David is having a hard time with his father remarrying after the death of his mother, so he turns to books. The books whisper to him and eventually lead him to a secret passageway into a fantasy land complete with princes and kings and big bad wolves.


This was definitely more of a dark fairy tale -- not really for kids. If you prefer Grimm's version over the Disney version of fairy tales, you'd probably enjoy this book. Plus, if you were ever that kid who used books as an escape, David will really resonate with you and take you back to a time when books really came alive.