Come, Let Us Adore The Tyee’s 2025 Holiday Reads
The Tyee | Tyee Staff | December 5, 2025
Cannon recommended in The Tyee’s 2025 Holiday Reads!
"For folks who love Montreal and their best friend (in equal measure): Cannon By Lee Lai
Australian author and Montreal resident Lee Lai’s graphic novel takes its title from the story’s central protagonist. Cannon works in an upscale Montreal eatery, overseen by a creepy boss. In addition to the oppressive heat both inside and outside the kitchen, she is also contending with a variety of issues, including aging relatives and a complicated relationship with Trish, her best friend.
Trish has her own problems: her casual sexual hookups have become overlaid with sticky emotion and she’s suffering from serious writers’ block, as well the dawning realization that she, too, might have complex feelings for her longtime friend.
All the drama unfolds against the meticulously observed background of summertime Montreal. After Lai’s award-winning graphic novel Stone Fruit, Cannon cements her as an astute chronicler of contemporary queer life.
With razor-sharp drawing and a gentle approach to the most intricate nuances of love and family, it is wise, funny and heartbreaking, all at the same time."
Australian author and Montreal resident Lee Lai’s graphic novel takes its title from the story’s central protagonist. Cannon works in an upscale Montreal eatery, overseen by a creepy boss. In addition to the oppressive heat both inside and outside the kitchen, she is also contending with a variety of issues, including aging relatives and a complicated relationship with Trish, her best friend.
Trish has her own problems: her casual sexual hookups have become overlaid with sticky emotion and she’s suffering from serious writers’ block, as well the dawning realization that she, too, might have complex feelings for her longtime friend.
All the drama unfolds against the meticulously observed background of summertime Montreal. After Lai’s award-winning graphic novel Stone Fruit, Cannon cements her as an astute chronicler of contemporary queer life.
With razor-sharp drawing and a gentle approach to the most intricate nuances of love and family, it is wise, funny and heartbreaking, all at the same time."