Uploaded July 2026 | Updated September 2026, 5 days ago
Lee Lai’s ‘Cannon’ is a reasonably engaging story told with incredible visual flair. Winner of the Stella Prize 2026. Shortlisted for the Carol Shields Prize 2026.
7/10
Goodreads: goodreads.com/user/show/61199102
Letterboxd: letterboxd.com/TheDiscoKing
Cannon: We arrive to wreckage―a restaurant smashed to rubble, with tables and chairs upended riotously. Under the swampy nighttime cover of a Montreal heat-wave, this is where we meet our protagonist, Cannon, dripping in little beads of regret sweat. She was supposed to be closing the restaurant for the night, but instead, well, she destroyed it. The mess feels a bit like a horror-scape―not unlike the horror films Cannon and her best friend, Trish, watch together. Cooking dinner and digging into deep cuts of Australian horror films on their scheduled weekly hangs has become the glue in their rote relationship. In high school, they were each other's lifeline―two queer second-generation Chinese nerds trapped in the suburbs. Now, on the uncool side of their twenties, the essentialness of one another feels harder to pin down. Yet, when our stoic and unbendingly well-behaved Cannon finds herself―very uncharacteristically―surrounded by smashed plates, it is Trish who shows up to pull her the hell outta there.
Thanks for watching, and remember: books are just an appreciating investment stock at this point.
#stellaprize #carolshields #australianbook #booktube #booktuber #bookreview
Lee Lai’s ‘Cannon’ is a reasonably engaging story told with incredible visual flair. Winner of the Stella Prize 2026. Shortlisted for the Carol Shields Prize 2026.
7/10
Goodreads: goodreads.com/user/show/61199102
Letterboxd: letterboxd.com/TheDiscoKing
Cannon: We arrive to wreckage―a restaurant smashed to rubble, with tables and chairs upended riotously. Under the swampy nighttime cover of a Montreal heat-wave, this is where we meet our protagonist, Cannon, dripping in little beads of regret sweat. She was supposed to be closing the restaurant for the night, but instead, well, she destroyed it. The mess feels a bit like a horror-scape―not unlike the horror films Cannon and her best friend, Trish, watch together. Cooking dinner and digging into deep cuts of Australian horror films on their scheduled weekly hangs has become the glue in their rote relationship. In high school, they were each other's lifeline―two queer second-generation Chinese nerds trapped in the suburbs. Now, on the uncool side of their twenties, the essentialness of one another feels harder to pin down. Yet, when our stoic and unbendingly well-behaved Cannon finds herself―very uncharacteristically―surrounded by smashed plates, it is Trish who shows up to pull her the hell outta there.
Thanks for watching, and remember: books are just an appreciating investment stock at this point.
#stellaprize #carolshields #australianbook #booktube #booktuber #bookreview
