Lindsey's Library

Critique

At first, I didn’t know what to expect from this book. It had gotten mixed reviews for various reasons, especially the ways Kennedy composes sentence structure. However, long, sometimes confusing sentences aside, I feel like the critics were wrong on this one. It’s a wonderfully imaginative book the likes of which we haven’t seen since The Phantom Tollbooth, and in many ways reminds me of Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. Kennedy not only creates a totally unique world and landscape, but does an excellent job of defining the rules of this world, and describing how everything looks so that you can imagine along with him. My biggest gripe, often, with alternate world fantasy is that the description isn’t enough to really imagine what’s happening.

The characters are endearing, and original in their own right. The Odd Fish are exactly what you think they would be, terribly odd. Odd in everything, in fact, including their topic of study, the way they talk to each other and dress, the house they live in, and even the servants are all giant cockroaches who act like pretentious British butlers. I recommend this to all readers 10+.