Goodreads Mobile | see what your friends are reading

Oct 13, 2008

Jon rated it:

I’ll be honest with you: the entire young adult fantasy genre excites me about a much as a pile of old, dry, stale oats. I have never watched an episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and I’ve never read a line of Harry Potter.

So, you can imagine my trepidation at the very sight of James Kennedy’s The Order of The Odd-Fish, which clocks in at a generous 400-plus pages. I reckoned I’d get 30 pages in, decipher just enough of a gist to be able to discuss it intelligently (young girl, f More...

0 comments like (12 people liked it)

Aug 25, 2008

Jennifer rated it:

Reviewed by Rebecca Wells for TeensReadToo.com

Jo Larouche has always been ordinary - or as ordinary as you can be when you live in a ruby palace with a highly eccentric retired movie star for an aunt. Though she was found in her aunt Lily's laundry room with a note detailing her as a dangerous baby, Jo has been for all of her thirteen years just about as dangerous as a glass of milk.

Things begin to change when strange events at Lily's Christmas party contrive to send Jo More...

0 comments like (5 people liked it)

Sep 27, 2008

Patrick rated it:

In the first few chapters of The Order of Odd-Fish, our young hero finds herself torn from everyday existence and plunged into a magical world with magical people and magical items. Anyone who read only so far might think it conventional--even formulaic.

That poor soul would miss the magic, because it's then--just as we get our bearings and settle in for yet another fantasy novel--that Kennedy pushes the reset button again. And again. And again.

Like the story's arch-vill More...

0 comments like (5 people liked it)

Oct 02, 2011

Norm rated it:

When I told James Kennedy I'm not yet (still trying) a fan of Neil Gaiman because the books are so layered, thick with prose which slows down the pace, he said, "oh, you won't like mine, then."

Well, James wasn't right. Yes, there were long, rambling descriptions. Yes, it was a deep slow-developing plot. and no, it wasn't one of the roller-coaster mile a minute paces I enjoy. But the same things I typically don't like in a book were the things I enjoyed about this.

More...

2 comments like (4 people liked it)

Jun 16, 2011

Emily rated it:

I picked up this book because it just looked like it was made for me. I got to reading it and it freakin' rocked my socks. Kennedy's style of humor is so hilarious and random and it was just the sort of book I needed at that time. Since this is sort of an adventure fantasy not everything can be hilarious at every moment and the serious parts of the book were done very well. By page 120 I was so thoroughly pulled into the story that I didn't want to stop reading.
And also may I add that More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Nov 25, 2008

Kricket rated it:

one of my co-workers arranged for james kennedy to visit our library in january. somehow the book had escaped my radar, perhaps because we had it in the 'youth middle school' section, but when i found out kennedy would be coming, i grudgingly decided to read his book. and i am so glad i did, FOR IT IS SCRUMPTIOUS!!

jo is 13, living with her batty aunt lily in a red palace in the desert outside los angeles. at aunt lily's christmas costume party, many mysterious occurrences occur, and More...

3 comments like (4 people liked it)

Apr 18, 2011

Kate rated it:

I wasn't quite sure what I was getting into with this one, but I ended up throughly enjoying it, and now I want to meet other people who enjoyed this odd, quirky story as much as I did.

The trade paperback artwork was just fabulous and if I had to pick a favorite character I would have to say it would be Ken Kiang. With sarcastically funny dialogue like: "No man calls me a boobly-boobly-boo-boo and lives!" You can't help but liking this complex character. Also, something qui More...

4 comments like (6 people liked it)

Sep 30, 2008

Kate rated it:

The Order of Odd-fish is nuts, but it's a lot of fun! Jo seems like an ordinary girl, but when she was found as a baby--inside a washing machine--by flambouyant actress Lily LaRouche, the note accompanying her read: "This is Jo. Please take care of her. But beware. This is a DANGEROUS baby." The danger comes to light after Lily and Jo flee a supervillain billionaire to a place called Eldritch City. Lily turns out to be a knight of the Order of Odd-fish, whose mission is to search out u More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jan 05, 2009

Veronica rated it:

Was randomly sent this book for a Book Club review and am blown away by how awesome it is. It's Lemony Snicket, Lewis Carroll, Roald Dahl, and Norton Juster all rolled into one with some Monty Python sprinkled on top. This may go down as one of my favorite reads of the year. You can read my full review here.

1 comment like (4 people liked it)

Jul 05, 2011

Chris rated it:

This is Jo. Please take care of her.

But beware.

This is a DANGEROUS baby.

Lily Larouche, famous actress, life of the party, and oddball, was missing for forty years. Then, thirteen years ago, she mysteriously woke in her dusty bed in her house dubbed the "ruby palace" with no memory of the missing forty years. In her washing machine was a crying baby with the above note attached.

Jo is now thirteen and used to life with her eccentric Aunt Lily, l More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Nov 02, 2008

Shasta rated it:

Though at times it deviates from the childish Dr. Seuss fantasy it leads on to be, The Order of Odd-Fish is a quick-paced, wildly original story that I'd suggest to any Harry Potter fan looking for a bandaid now that the series is over.

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Mar 16, 2009

Meghan rated it:

Thirteen years ago, a baby was left outside the door of an eccentric elderly movie starlet, with a note reading: "This is Jo. Please take care of her. But beware - this is a dangerous baby."

Jo grows up into a young teenager and one day, is engulfed by a mad fantasy world, where she might learn who her parents were and why everyone thinks she is dangerous. Like a Phantom Tollbooth for teenagers with strains of Terry Pratchett, this is an excellent read for its clever and hil More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Feb 23, 2009

Erin rated it:

Definitely an oddball book. Jo is a girl living with her dramatic and flamboyant aunt, Lily Larouche. She knows nothing about her past,except that she was left to Aunt Lily with a note: this is a dangerous baby. The normal takes a turn for the absurd and fantastical and comical when she and her aunt get flung into a different world, where giant cockroaches are butlers and knights of order of Odd Fish study useless things. But there's a giant secret lurking in Jo's past that her aunt won't le More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Oct 30, 2008

Angie rated it:

Boiling Brezhnevs! This sure is a fun book.

Well, it was more fun at the beginning of the story, which I particularly enjoyed. Once they got to Eldritch City, there were too many characters. Okay, basically, I wish there was more Sefino, the dandy cockroach butler.

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Feb 22, 2008

Zach rated it:

When I first started Odd-Fish, all I wanted was to do was drink the blood of a kitten, but by the end this book had me feeling as coy and cute as The Silver Kitten of Deceit.

0 comments like (5 people liked it)

Jun 30, 2009

Meg rated it:

Truly one of the best books I've read in a long time! A must read for any Harry Potter fan. You'll quickly get engrossed in this twisted and seriously fun world.

2 comments like (3 people liked it)

Jan 29, 2009

Liz rated it:

Best book I read all of last year. I laughed out loud on the subway several times reading this book. The plot and the writing are utter perfection.

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Aug 25, 2008

Burke rated it:

This book made me laugh until I cried a cup full of tears, which I then used to make a salty, bitter cup of tea to drink in the moonlight.

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Sep 27, 2008

Renee rated it:

This is one of the nuttiest books I've read in my life, and I absolutley adored it. Bravo, James Kennedy!

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jan 04, 2009

Ramlaokami rated it:

One of my absolute favorite books now! Its hilarious, edgy, witty, well-written, well-constructed, intricate, surprising, and the ending was a great success! Lately, I've been very bored with the whole 'teen fantasy' genre, since most of the books hold the same plot, story, and characters as well as mostly being directed toward teen girls (although i am one...). But this book had a strange, bizarre plot with wonderful scenes of complete irony and hilarity. I really couldn't put it down, and I ac More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Feb 18, 2008

Jennifer rated it:

THE YA book of the year-- hands down!
place your order now!

2 comments like (3 people liked it)

Jun 15, 2011

Anna rated it:

If you loved Roald Dahl (Matilda, James and the Giant Peach) as a kid, you'll probably love James Kennedy's The Order of Odd-Fish. Jo has grown up in the desert with her eccentric and forgetful Aunt Lily. Jo showed up in Aunt Lily's laundry room with a note declaring her "dangerous." On Christmas Day a Russian colonel and a large cockroach (he walks on his hind legs) show up and Jo's ordinary life becomes bizarre. Soon they are all on the shores of Eldritch City, where fantastic creatu More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Apr 09, 2009

Elina rated it:

I really enjoyed the whimsy and the fun of this fantastical book. I picked it up because the writer went to Japan through the same program I did and I was curious to see if there was any Japanese influence could be noticed in his writing and there was. But I enjoyed the book for its story and its main character, Jo, who is a very well-written 13 year old who is thrown into a fantastical world into which she is trying to fit in but can't because of a terrible secret she carries inside of her. More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jun 17, 2009

Hallie rated it:

Decided I had to read this after I (along with most of the rest of the bloggie world) discovered this mind-blowingly wacky post.

13/5 update: This is seriously funny! And I'm getting more and more impressed with the narrator, which is something I don't say all that often.

Finished this yesterday - the length of time the I spent listening to the audiobook should not be taken as evidence of lack of interest. Loved it. Every time it seemed as if the exuberant whimsy might he More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jan 25, 2011

Victor rated it:

James Kennedy's debut young-adult fantasy novel about a 13 year-old girl from southern California that discovers she's the center of an ancient prophecy from Eldritch City (a city that exists in a tangent dimension to ours, or something like that) is insane, fun goodness from start to finish. Talking cockroaches, blubbering knights, Dome of Doom battles, insult guns, all-devouring Gods, and metaphysics. Yes.

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 08, 2009

Emma rated it:

It's an amazing book!!!! My friend recommended it to me, and I thought it was weird, but I loved it so much! It seems like a nonsense book, but it gets really interesting during the end...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Apr 02, 2009

Melissa rated it:

Delightfully surreal, wonderfully crazy, amazingly... odd. Think of it as a cross between Douglas Adams and Roald Dahl (sort of), with a dash of Monty Python and a pinch of Harry Potter. Makes no sense? Well... neither does the book, really, but it's an astounding lot of fun.

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Mar 31, 2009

Diane rated it:

Totally bizarre, and I mean that in a good way. I get the comparisons to Douglas Adams, but this had more weird, quirky details than snarky narrator action. It also had more plot; it was fun and became a real page-turner at the end.

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Apr 20, 2009

Annaruse rated it:

"As an Odd-Fish, it is not my job to be right," said Sir Oort. "It is my job to be wrong in new and exciting ways."

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Apr 15, 2009

Hailey rated it:

This book is the literary equal of Monty Python. It does not get enough credit. It needs to be a best seller. NOW.

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

reviews