Thank you to NetGalley and Henry Holt and Co for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Oh I so thought I would love this one but it was just absolutely not for me. I was madly in love with Glorious Exploits by Ferdia Lennon, and this looked like it would be similar in an American history setting. In many ways it was TOO similar (satire, war being highlighted through the use of soldiers playing thespian) made all the worse by the fact that it didn’t live up to Lennon’s work, making it feel like a subpar spinoff. I love a good witty dark humor but the prose here felt overwrought. The plot was incredibly hard to follow as the author tried so many quirky turns of phrase that any attempt to skim made you miss giant plot points. I love it once or twice, smacking you with a major point in a short pithy easy to miss manner, but that should be used to highlight the action and not used every other page.

Jamaican American Dennard Dayle’s How to Dodge a Cannonball will keep readers laughing at its dark humor or scratching their heads in wonderment with its irreverent Civil War account and look at the meaning of freedom.

The story opens with 7-year-old white Anders perched in the window of a one-room black schoolhouse in an Illinois black community. Doing what he can to learn in a community offering no other school. Anders and the teacher engage in a verbal exchange as she pretends to ignore him while teaching her class but indirectly trying to teach him a lesson about racial inequality. Before long, his mother arrives, slinging pan lids and pans in his direction and ordering him away for a painful lesson in his own family history—a family whose dreams are never fulfilled.

At 15, Anders enlists in the Union Army under McClellan where Anders serves as a flag twirler, a military position that leads to several important later scenes. Within pages, Anders has fled to the Confederacy, participated in the disastrous Pickett’s Charge during the Battle of Gettysburg, and managed to survive again by stealing a dead black Union soldier’s unform. Landing among a ragtag black Union company, most of whose members have just died in battle, Anders poses as an octoroon, explaining his light complexion while desperately hoping to find food.

Surrounded by racist white officers and black troops who play their own potentially dangerous racist game called Ofay, Anders gradually finds his home among the black soldiers such as Thomas, a giant of a former slave; Joaquin, rumored to be a violent Haitian revolutionary; Petey, a teenage bugler; and Gleason, a speculative dramatist, who plans to change the county’s future with his plays, using his fellow soldiers as actors. Together, during a scavenging raid, this small group captures a capitalist Northern arms dealer deemed traitor for doing anything for a profit and who, as a prisoner, plays his own devious role throughout the book.

With military life taking the black troops from Gettysburg to New York City’s Draft Riots and the American West where they are to participate in Native American genocide, Anders and his new friends face danger after danger, struggling to advance their standing and find freedom. Filled with surprises and strange events ranging from a reversal of minstrelsy’s blackface and efforts to replace President Lincoln with a monarchy, the main plot is occasionally interrupted by inserted letters, news stories, and lists that, while interruptions of sorts, each play a role in the story.

If you like your historical fiction straightforward and traditional, How to Dodge a Cannonball may not be for you. If you can appreciate irreverent, biting social commentary targeting forms of government, economic exploitation, war, and racism, open a copy soon. This book’s uniqueness nearly made me stop reading early on. I am delighted that I persisted!

Thanks to NetGalley and Henry Holt & Company for an advance reader egalley of this recommended new novel.

There's a lot going on in this satiric tale of Anders, a white teenage flag twirler who joins a black unit during the Civil War, He goes on adventures far beyond the war itself, so much so that this felt overstuffed with paths out from the center. It's an interesting conceit that I found exhausting but kept reading because there are sparks that are just so funny. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. Over to those who enjoy the genre.

Sadly, I finished this book, unsure if I enjoyed it. I love a good dark comedy, and there were moments of great satire and humor. Often, I was left confused because the story was hard to follow.

Thank you NetGalley and Henry Holt and Co.

(This is where my husband sadly shakes his head at me.) This book missed me. Me, not a majority of the world and definitely not my husband. Just me. I enjoy satire and I enjoy history. but somehow sometimes the combination doesn't work for me and that was the case here. I felt like I was reading the thoughts of a drunken Mel Brooks as he wild pitched his next great blockbuster. Which, in all fairness, my husband would love and I would go in to the other room to read. On an objective basis, I can see the attraction of the story. Poor Anders is trying to improve himself and help those around him. His character was great! Always thinking he is going to find something better on the other side, literally, he switches allegiances during the Civil War twice. But when the plot goes west, it lost me. Was this an event in history that I never learned about? Or was it some fever dream whipped topping to the odd sundae that was this book? This book wasn't for me, but if you are a Mel Brooks fan, this might be the literary gem you are looking for!

Unfortunately this was not for me. I enjoy humor and satire generally, but this one just didn't work for me. I really struggled to get into it.

This book was a complete surprise in a great way. I am a fan of John Scalzi and this book was very much along that same vein.

How to Dodge a Cannonball – A Razor-Sharp Civil War Satire (4.75/5)

Thank you to NetGalley and Henry Holt & Co. for the eARC of this absolutely unhinged gem of a novel. How to Dodge a Cannonball drops you into the chaos of the Civil War and then asks you to hold on and figure it out as you go.

From the very first scene, I had no illusions that this book would play by the rules of traditional historical fiction. Instead, it takes the American mythos, lights it on fire, and parades the ashes through absurd landscapes full of theater kids with muskets and arms dealers with a moral compass set to “profit.”

📚 Why It Worked for Me:
🔄 Swiftian Energy – At its core, this book reads like an epic satire in the tradition of Jonathan Swift. One minute you’re laughing at its brazen ridiculousness, the next you’re questioning the structure of our country and how history has been constructed... and who has the power to construct it.
🧠 Intentional Discomfort – The language, at times, is jarring. But it’s the kind of discomfort that makes you pause and think. It’s clear the author is wielding discomfort as a tool, not a gimmick, and those who bounce off the book may have mistaken provocation for purposelessness.
🎭 A Wild, Unapologetic Ride – From Gettysburg to the Nevada desert, this book is packed with full-blown nonsense, sharp commentary, and surprisingly moving character moments, especially as Anders, our racially fluid, flag-twirler (yes, really), stumbles toward understanding the humanity of those around him.

💬 Final Take:
This novel is not here to comfort. It’s here to disorient, provoke, and make you laugh just enough before landing a sucker punch of existential reflection. I found myself thinking deeply about who tells our national stories, and who gets to be the hero. Readers looking for a tidy, morally centered war novel may be disappointed.

dark comedy which is heavy on the comedy aspects. parts go from sane and logical to completely peculiar and unexpected. 4 stars. tysm for the arc.

I usually really enjoy historical fiction. This story was hard to follow and while it started out as a funny story, it became a slog to read. It seemed like there was no forward movement in the plot and it was just Anders being not too smart and surviving battle after battle. It just wasn't for me.

“How to Dodge a Cannonball” is by Dennard Dayle. I will give Mr. Dayle points for originality - huge props for that. However, this was not a book I enjoyed reading. There are awkward time jumps and the overall story is just odd (a reviewed used the word “bonkers” and I have to admit, that’s a great word to describe this book). This book had potential, but between the historical claims (unsupported) and so much satire that it became cumbersome, this wasn’t a book I enjoyed reading. A generous two stars because I do think if one likes satire, you’ll greatly enjoy this book.

A farcical tragicomedy about a young white teenager who joins both sides during the Civil War and ends up in an all black regiment.

What I Didn’t Like:
-Some of the attempts at humor don’t land and come off as ridiculous, at best, or offensive, at worst.
-A lot of the jumps can be confusing. Sometimes the format is different or the voice changes and it takes a second to figure out what is going on.
-If we’re going for historical semi-accuracy, or at least historically plausible, having weird concepts thrown in with no basis in history is problematic and frustrating. I spent a lot of time backtracking trying to figure out what in the world the author was talking about.

What I Did Like:
+Originality. This story is a historical fiction set in the civil war, but it is unlike anything else in this genre. The choice of character, the almost ridiculous setting, and the career of the main character all add to the originality of this story.
+It feels like some of the major lessons you can infer from this one are important to not only historical understanding but also to modern day events.

Who Should Read This One:
-Fans of satire in their historical fiction (think Catch-22)

My Rating: 2 Stars
For me, the unsupported historical claims in a historical fiction story was problematic.

Part of this nation’s soul is black. If we’re to grow into a sane, stable society, we should embrace and exploit the whole of our character. from How to Dodge a Cannonball by Dennard Dayle

Relentless satire skewers America’s most cherished myths.

Experience the Civil War through an original protagonist, Anders, a naive white teenager who deserts the Union Army, then the Confederate Army, finally assuming a Black identity and joining a black Union troop.

Anders finds himself in the middle of the New York City draft riots, performs in a play about a human computer called The Prometheus Abacus, becomes entangled with the soldier Petey, also known as Polly, Patricia, and Porter, an “immature sixteen, compared to Anders’s mature fifteen.” He is sent West to kill Native Americans. The regiment defects to join Queen Columbia I, but monarchy also has its dark side; Anders learns about wage slavery.

Anders encounters Black Jeffersons related to “a Top-Three president” who “indulged in miscegenation.” A Haitian revolutionary fighting to free American slaves. And Slade Jefferson, a ruthless profiteer who sells arms to Confederate and Union armies alike.

Anders’s skill is flag twirling, which figures throughout the story.

There are a lot of Easter Egg references for those in the know, such as The Munsterite Rebellion and Dante’s Inferno.

Entertaining and irreverent, this book is for a discriminating reader who seeks originality.

Thanks to the publisher for a free book.

This book was a disappointment at best. The author’s writing style just did not resonate with me. The book was a challenge to complete as the storyline, which had great potential, did not hold my interest. Some others seem to enjoy the book so I will leave it to you as to whether or not you want to gives this novel a try.

I received a free Kindle copy of this book courtesy of publisher with the understanding that I would post a review on Goodreads, Net Galley, Amazon and my nonfiction book review blog.

2.5 stars, rounded down
Hmm, I’m not sure what to make of this. The book starts in a stream of consciousness about Pickett’s Charge. Our hero, Anders, is a young flag twirler in the Confederate Army. But when he witnesses most of his unit die, he steals a Union uniform from a dead man. And thus, he becomes the sole white man in a black battalion. Not that he lets them know he’s white. He “passes” himself off as an octaroon.
The story is bonkers - a satire with some laugh out loud moments but also confusing and discombobulated. It just went a little too far off the deep end to really hold my interest. The characters were interesting, especially Petey.
I felt this had a lot of potential that, unfortunately, it didn’t live up to.
My thanks to Netgalley and Henry Holt for an advance copy of this book.

_How to Dodge a Cannonball_ by Dennard Dayle is a humorous and witty historical fiction read. Anders, a teenage flag-twirler for both sides during the Civil War, decides to join a Black regiment at Gettysburg. As he experiences the war alongside the other soldiers, and meets individuals working for both sides, he gains interesting perspectives of a waring nation. A challenging and rewarding read for fans of satire.

The Civil War and humor do not go together.
I was intrigued by the premise and am trying to read more historical fiction that is based during the Civil War. But this was a miss for me. A white teenager escapes his home life to enlist with an all Black regiment. From there is was all over the place.
Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for access to this eARC.

How to Dodge a Cannon Ball is satirical, and is laugh out loud funny in many points of the book if you’re clever enough to be in on the joke. It also feels like a confusing fever dream that’s incredibly hard to follow if you try to focus on anything but the satire. The book follows Anders, a white flag twirler descended from a long line of flag twirlers who always choose the wrong side of the war to twirl for. Determined to avoid the fate of his ancestors, Anders defects from the Confederate Army and joins the Union. Since in his own way, Anders doesn’t see color, the uniform he steals belongs to a dead Black man, so he joins a Black regiment and tells everyone he’s an octoroon. This is the sane part of the story. The relationships he forms while a part of this regiment are sincere and reflect the nature of the person’s character and not the color of his skin, but the plot gets nutty, including a trip to New York City, where Anders’ commanding officer puts on a play, and then a trip out west to put down unruly Indians on behalf of cooperative Indians that ends up with everyone committing treason and ending up in the kingdom of West Hanover, or the third and best America. As readers try to untangle the neurons in their brain from that, they can delight in the ever opportunist Slade Jefferson and the ever evolving Petey. And twirling. Lots of twirling. I enjoyed the sly humor but the storyline gave me a headache. A complimentary copy of this book was provided by the publisher. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Lyrical, eloquent, alive... those are the three best words to describe the style of Dennard Dayle's writing in How to Dodge a Cannonball.

This novel is simply stunning.

I haven't laughed this much at a novel in a very long time, and that the setting for it is the American Civil War makes it even better because that isn't a historical event you'd associated with laughter. But Dayle's novel is meant as satire so the humor is intended. And it lands with perfect balance in the story of Anders, a white teenager who joins the Union Army to be a flag twirler for General George McClellan, then defects to the Confederate Army to be a flag twirler for General Robert E. Lee, before defecting again to be an octoroon among a Black regiment in the Union Army.

Much of the novel reads almost, but not strictly, as Anders' stream-of-consciousness and the things that run through his head, the thoughts and observations he has on himself, the people around him, and America at-large during the Civil War are witty, lyrical, honest, endearing, and important.

It's hard to explain the ways it's so good, definitely the best book I've read so far this year and no doubt in the running to be the best of the year, because it is so good. Dennard Dayle really says it all perfectly. He makes the story come alive off the page in a way not many authors can do.

So if you like satire novels, historical fiction, commentaries on the human condition, and novelized looks at what makes America and what matters to America... you should read this book.

Obviously because it involves the Civil War, any trigger warnings would have to include war imagery and Civil War-era language involving slavery and the n- word. But all of it is given the attention and respect it deserves in the context of history and the story, and none of it is used gratuitously.

I'm going to give it a couple months and read this book again...