The Order of Odd-Fish

I accepted this book for review and expected a fun read. What I didn't expect was a well-crafted, frankly brilliant novel that left me wishing for more. Though it is billed as YA, I didn't see any reason besides a teen protagonist that this couldn't be enjoyed by lots of adult readers as well.

That teen protagonist is Jo Larouche, thirteen years old and an orphan, who lives with her "aunt" Lily Larouche in a bizarre, bedazzled palace in the California desert. They're celebrating Christmas Eve with a rip-roaring costume party when, well, things start happening. Not only does Jo notice a large man watching her, but she eventually ends up talking to a man-sized cockroach (not a costume). Then, at a pre-appointed time, a package falls from show more the sky with her name on it -- a cardboard container that contains a mysterious black box. By the next morning, Jo's life is in danger and what follows is an adventure that could only come from a very fertile imagination!

I'll admit that after a couple of days of reading this book regularly, it got to the point where I simply couldn't put it down. With itchy eyes and mild regrets about the following morning, I finished reading it at 4:30 in the morning! The villain of the story was, to be honest, terrifying. But Jo and her friends and "family" were fantastic. The story heads in a direction where you truly aren't sure who will survive the madness. Though some might find this story to be a bit much, I think it certainly deserves a wider audience.

http://webereading.com/2012/08/the-desert-was-empty-as-though-great.html show less

'"I thought the afterlife would be drier than this," said Jo.

"Or better lit," said Sefino.

"We're not dead!" insisted Aunt Lily.

No one spoke for a while. Jo fidgeted uncomfortably in the wet darkness. Her body was coming back, and it ached all over.

"Pretty dull afterlife," said Sefino. "I must have been more of a sinner than I thought."

"I expect it picks up later," said Colonel Korsakov.'

What do you think of this little snippet of The Order of Odd-Fish? Love it? This book is for you, then. Somehow, and I really can't imagine how, unless he has been working on this book his entire life, somehow author James Kennedy has written an entire four hundred page so-called children's book with this kind of repartee on every page. Absolutely show more delightful. With Alice in Wonderland-ish zany plot twists. And a Hitchhiker's Guide to the Universe-ish philosophical soul.

I feel like I just spent a week at some kind of wacky interplanetary Disneyworld.

Thank you to the author for this delightful review copy. show less

I loved this book. It was the kind of YA novel that wasn't fluff and it felt like something kids would read and then grow up and stumble upon once again.

It reminded me a lot of Terry Gilliam, in terms of darkness and strangeness. If they ever made a film adaptation I could see him directing it. I really liked Eldritch City, and I hope someday to know more about the people / things that inhabit it. Ken Kiang was hilarious a secondary villain, again if they ever made a film I swear Ken Jeong would be PERFECT, if you imagine him being as villainous and maniacal as he was in Community as Senor Chang.

There were a few things I would've liked to see more of / know more about. One is Jo's friends, I liked the charasmatic friend of hers that show more was the star of Teenage Icthala and would change costumes in an instant, though her other friends seemed to fall flat, like I tried to picture them in my mind but I couldn't think of any distinguishing features. Also I'm curious how people arrive at Eldritch city, maybe through various means? I won't go into spoilers but I would love to see that explored.

The whole mythology of the All-Devouring Mother was great, again I won't spoil that but I think it's a great origin of the universe story.

Anyways, great read! I can't wait for more from Mr. Kennedy! show less

It feels like this book has been written with the absurd in mind. Everything is tilted twisted 90 degrees and than tilted. Luckily, there is a solid base that makes this book into something a bit more than strange.

The characters were solid, if a bit surprising. I especially like the cockroach butlers. I did find this book to be rather overdone in the horror department - the top of the book is strange and funny, but once you get to the bones of it, you find something that is quite scary and Lovecraftian. I don't think this is a book for younger readers, but I suspect that older teens will love it.

It's difficult to decide what I should say about this book. If I could sum the novel up in one word it would be, well, odd. Or absurd. Or peculiar. And I mean this in the best possible way. The Order of Odd-Fish is a young adult fantasy that drips with the absurdist humor of Monty Python or Douglas Adams. Naturally, this secures me as a fan.

The novel is about Jo Larouche, an orphan who was found with a note that said, "This is Jo. Please take care of her. But beware--this is a DANGEROUS baby." For that alone, Jo received notoriety, but interest in her quickly faded when it appeared that she would be a normal child after all. Jo is raised by Lily Larouche, an eccentric and absent minded former Hollywood starlet who, despite being in her show more 80's, still parties like she did in her heyday. Through a few twists and turns, Jo and Lily find themselves in Eldritch City, a bizarre land of cockroach butlers, flying ostriches, and the Order of Odd-Fish--a knighthood dedicated to researching bizarre and useless facts when not defending Eldritch City. Lily, it seems, was once a member of Odd-Fish. However, after being accused of treason, her memory was wiped and she was exiled to the desert. Now that Lily is home and has her memory back, Jo learns of the circumstances surrounding her birth and a prophecy in which she plays a role in the destruction of the world--finally, Jo realizes just how dangerous she can be.

In the beginning, I wasn't crazy about the novel. I thought it was trying too hard to be bizarre, but once the characters find themselves in Eldritch City, the bizarre quality feels right. I would highly recommend the novel to young adult fantasy fans. show less

Plot Summary:
Jo Larouche lives with her elderly, former actress Aunt Lily in a ruby palace in California. All Jo knows about her past is that she was found in Aunt Lily's washing machine one day soon after she was born, with a note attached to her saying that she was a very dangerous baby.

On the day of Aunt Lily's Christmas party, a large Russian gentleman arrives at the Ruby Palace with a giant butler cockroach, saying that his digestive system has told him that he must protect Jo from Ken Kiang. He also has a box for her from The Order of Odd-Fish. Ken finds them, Jo and her friends escape in a plane only to be shot down and eaten by a giant fish, which eventually spits them up on the shore of Eldritch City. There, Jo learns that her show more aunt, the Russian and the cockroach are all members of The Order of Odd-Fish, a knighthood dedicated to the pursuit of useless and often baseless rumors and conjectures. Jo herself has a history with the knighthood and Eldritch City. After making friends with some squires, going on some quests, hiding from the Belgian Prankster and fighting a duel, Jo realizes that she must face her past and help save Eldritch City from the ravenous hunger of the All-Devouring Mother Goddess and her cult of Silent Sisters.

My Thoughts:
This book would be excellent to read out loud with someone- I bet the audiobook version is great. I enjoyed reading it, too; the plot is somewhat ridiculous, the dialogue witty and hilarious and the characters are certainly one of a kind. For example, Ken Kiang got so tired of doing good things that he tries to become evil. But he isn't very good at it, so he has to try very hard, and must focus on making his laugh truly evil.

The Order of Odd-Fish is fun, frothy and full of flavor. Just be prepared if you're reading it- it's Nickelodeon-like in its ability to really gross you out with bodily functions and fluids!

Truncated from full review at: http://aartichapati.blogspot.com/2009/10/review-order-of-odd-fish.html show less

13 year old Jo Larouche has her life disrupted and arrives in the fantastical Eldritch City where she discovers her frail Aunt Lily is actually a fierce and famous Odd-Fish Knight and that she herself is the most dangerous girl in the word.

This book is very weird. Not in a bad way, the blurb mentions shades of Monty Python and Roald Dahl but personally I think it is closer to Terry Pratchett's style.. but even stranger.

The author's imagination literally runs wild here and we're treated to Schwenk's and Urk-Acks, inconvenience devices and talking cockroaches, knights who fly ostriches into battle and the pursuit of the utterly pointless. As I said, it is a very odd story.

But enjoyable. Jo was born out of terrible evil that almost show more destroyed the world and now she has to face her destiny and give in or defy the prophecy which wants to turn her into the All-Devouring Mother goddess, the destroyer of everything.

The action keeps a fast pace throughout the book and the author packs the story with as many details as the reader can possibly keep track of, but you do, and the story is fun, pure escapism and if you are a lover of YA, Dahl, Pratchett, fantasy or giant cockroaches with a weakness for ridiculous hats then this is the book for you.

A fun read. show less