Book Review Tuesday (2/25/20)–The Order of Odd-Fish

Hello, fellow bibliophiles!

YIKES, this one’s been on my TBR for ages. Another artifact from my January-ish early TBR cleaning and scouring of Prospector, The Order of Odd-Fish was just about as I expected it to be, and how the reviews promised it would be. And that’s a perfectly good thing, because what The Order of Odd-Fish delivered was a bundle of absolutely madcap fun.

Enjoy this week’s review!

The Order of Odd-Fish

This is Jo. Please take care of her. But beware. This is a dangerous baby.

Thus went the inscription that was delivered along with baby Jo to Lily Larouche, an aging veteran of old Hollywood. For 13 years, she has raised Jo in a remote desert in California, throwing parties for the masses and not knowing exactly what made Jo so dangerous. But after an unfortunate series of incidents at one of Lily’s famed Christmas parties, Jo is swept into the fantastical world of Eldritch City, and into the Order of the Odd-Fish, an organization of knights dedicated to the study of functionally useless knowledge. Aided by the Order (and a certain bipedal cockroach), it finally occurs to Jo why she is so dangerous–and this unrevealed secret could spell her death.

It’s difficult to compare The Order of Odd-Fish to any recent MG or YA literature; that’s just how absolutely bizarre it is. Bursting with creativity and absurdity (and decidedly British humor), it’s such a fun ride from start to finish. Everything, down to the most inconsequential details, is peppered with something strange and unheard of. Even when the twists grow a little darker, Kennedy handles them with deft humor and ingenuity. Verging from the corny to the positively mind-boggling, The Order of Odd-Fish pulls out all the stops as a sci-fi/fantasy-comedy.

Though I didn’t relate to or particularly care about all of the characters, most of them ended up eliciting at least a snicker from me–everyone from the various Knights to the Belgian Prankster, the character who ends up going from a running joke in the background to a major villain. Every detail comes back to bite the characters eventually, and in the most surprising and unexpected ways.

Alright, I *sort of* take back what I said about not being able to compare The Order of Odd-Fish to anything. Though I find no comparisons in any literature I can remember, it absolutely reeks of Monty Python. (Hence, British humor.) And I absolutely adored that quality.

All in all, The Order of Odd-Fish was an absolutely bizarre comedy–and not one that I’ll forget anytime soon. Four stars for me. 

Today’s song:

(Guess what’s been stuck in my head all day…)

That just about wraps up this week’s Book Review Tuesday! Have a wonderful rest of your day, and take care of yourselves!