The Order of Odd-Fish – The Bookish Mutant

The Radiohead Book Tag (ORIGINAL BOOKISH MUTANT BOOK TAG!)

Posted on March 26, 2020March 26, 2020 by Madeline @ The Bookish Mutant

Hi again, bibliophiles!

Sorry for being semi-ominous about the creation of this tag for the past; I had a few kinks to work out, and I wanted to make sure that nobody else had come up with the tag before I did. (Book tag plagiarism? That’s probably a thing, but I don’t know…)

Anyway…

Since I got into them about a year ago [cut to me last year, crouched in the entrance to the lunchroom reading Tennyson whilst blasting OK Computer through my headphones], Radiohead has quickly become one of my favorite bands. Their musical and lyrical prowess is almost unrivalled, and has managed to become instantly timeless. So, naturally, I decided to make a book tag about them. As one does. I hope you like it!

Let’s lay down some rules:

RULES:

Thank and tag the creator (yours truly, The Bookish Mutant)
Answer all of the questions to the best of your ability
Tag as many people as you want
Have fun!

Here we go…

PABLO HONEY: The debut novel of an author you admire

Half Bad, though not nearly as masterful as Green’s Smoke Thieves series, was certainly a brave debut, to say the least.

THE BENDS: A book that brought you to tears

Not only did A Monster Calls give me a MAJOR book hangover, there were buckets of tears shed…veritable BUCKETS…

OK COMPUTER: A book that changed your life

I know I keep going back to The Search for WondLa a lot, but this novel/series will always hold a special place in my heart–not only for introducing me to the wide world of sci-fi literature, but for inspiring me to be an author someday as well.

KID A: A book that’s a different genre from the author’s previous works

(on an unrelated note, this album’s my current desktop wallpaper…so pretty…)

Before Carry On, Rainbow Rowell mostly stuck to realistic and historical fiction. I’m glad to say that she’s equally adept in both genres. 💗

AMNESIAC: A book with grim or dark imagery

(I mean…okay, most of Radiohead’s stuff is pretty dark, but I’m just trying to make these questions make sense…)

All of B.P.R.D.: Hell on Earth would fit the bill to a T. Y’know, just your garden-variety apocalypse, plus the added Fun™️ of frightening creatures laying waste to the Earth. Good times.

HAIL TO THE THIEF: A book with a clever title

(I just…really like this album title? I really don’t know why, but it’s really cool to me…)

Though I’m not sure if this is *completely* true (I think it’s been tested, and Bradbury was probably wrong about it), Ray Bradbury named the novel Fahrenheit 451 because it was (supposedly) the temperature at which paper burned. Right or wrong, I find it quite clever.

IN RAINBOWS: A book with a colorful cover

The Strange Fascinations of Noah Hypnotik. Enough said. [squints at cover through 3-D glasses]

THE KING OF LIMBS: A book you found to be strange, but loved all the same

The Order of Odd-Fish was an absolutely wild, Monty Python-esque ride that got weirder and weirder with every passing page…in the best way possible.

A MOON-SHAPED POOL: A dystopian novel that you adore

I just finished The Scorpion Rules up a few days ago, and though my expectations were fairly average, I was blown away at how well-done it was!

Let’s stay on topic for today’s song…

I still can’t quite decide if this is my favorite Radiohead song, but it’s up there with “Fake Plastic Trees,” “Street Spirit (Fade Out)”, and “Airbag” for me. 🙂

For now, I can only think of one other fellow book blogger who likes Radiohead, so I tag Emer @ A Little Haze Book Blog to take part, if you want! Otherwise, anyone who would like to participate, feel free! Have fun!

That’s it for my first original book tag! Have a wonderful rest of your day, and take care of yourselves!

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

Posted on February 25, 2020 by Madeline @ The Bookish Mutant

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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!

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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.

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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!

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Books, Weekly Updates

Weekly Update: February 3-9, 2020

Posted on February 9, 2020 by Madeline @ The Bookish Mutant

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Happy Sunday, bibliophiles!

It’s been an interesting week, to be sure. We got DUMPED with snow here, and we had a 2-hour delay AND a snow day, all in the same week. WHOA.

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I finally finished up the Watchmen TV series (AAAAA), got through a much better library haul than last week, saw Birds of Prey last night (super fun!), got to a really fun spot in my main WIP (almost 70 pages now), and as a result of all the snow delays, got to post a lot more! Pretty good week, I’d say.

WHAT I READ THIS WEEK:

The Order of Odd-Fish–James Kennedy (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)

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Kiss Number 8–Colleen A.F. Venable and Ellen T. Crenshaw (⭐️⭐️⭐️.5)

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