This is the first glimpse of a truly fascinating world in what has the potential to be a spectacular series. Tsao created a character in Murgatroyd Floyd so unassuming that he is practically a caricature. But he is also surprisingly endearing and I found myself rooting for him, feeling sorry for him, and outraged upon his behalf. In our world, Murgatroyd would have never amounted to anything more than Singapore's best waiter, but in Tsao's world of Oddfits, he has the potential to be a great explorer.

The worldbuilding is, as mentioned earlier, truly fascinating. There isn't much detail given on just how the More Known World can exist and how Oddfits can travel between it and the Known World, but I expect that will come in later books as Murgatroyd becomes further pulled into the world of the Questians.

This book took an oddly long time for me to read given how short it was, and how slim on plot it contained. The language in the story exuded a languid feeling and I felt myself deliberately slowing myself down. The plot, what there was, bordered on the ridiculous at times, with a Duck Assassin and parents who so hated their child that they actively invented ways to make his life a living hell. But it still all fit together and didn't feel ridiculous. You could even say that Murgatroyd's Oddfitness was no surprise because he already existed in the weird and strange.

The Oddfits read more like the first part of a larger 700+ page tome than a stand-alone novel, and by itself left me wanting a bit. I'm looking forward to book 2, though, and hope that now that the inevitably slow exposition of first book is dealt with, we'll get more plot and character development.

(Shame about that awful cover. It really doesn't do the book justice.)

Review copy courtesy of the publisher via Netgalley. ( )

Not action packed, but well written and interesting. Though it does get rambling in parts (can't say I enjoyed 2 pages worth of a food list), I enjoyed the slow build up and was kept interested (why did his parents do that??) and then quite satisfied with the answer. Different and engaging. I might go on with the series. ( )

Why was I so surprised by how odd this book is? It's right there in the title: 'Oddfits'. It's about people who don't fit in, who are so obviously and fundamentally out of tune with where they are that it's clear that, although they're there, they belong somewhere else.


Yet I didn't expect a Roal Dahl meets Kafka reading experience that made me feel so off-balance, making me feel that I, the reader, was the oddfit who couldn't quite grasp what was expected of me or what I should expect of the author. I'm a quarter of the way through and I'm still not sure what is going on, what is going to happen next, or even what kind of book I'm reading.


The writing is deliberately stylised in a formal old-fashioned fairy story way when the narrative is being moved along but becomes keenly nuanced in terms of accent and dialect once we get to dialogue. There are some disorienting inversions: like Brit parents in Singapore complaining that they're not ex-pats but naturalised citizens and their son was born there and so they should be treated just like everyone else. Or getting a lobster's eye view of a restaurant where it's on the menu. And there's a constant promise that it will all make sense soon when our young hero accepts his oddfit destiny and becomes someone special.


But I'm sad to say that I can't settle to this book. It's too strange for me. I can't find my balance. It feels like being thrown around on a fairground ride. The only option is to give up control and go with the ride. The thing is, I hate fairground rides. I'd pay to get off them. So I'm getting off this ride and moving on to something else.


Your sense of balance may be better than mine and you might find this fun. Click the SoundCloud link below and see whether it appeals to you.


https://soundcloud.com/brilliance-audio/the-oddfits-by-tiffany-tsao

I found this to be an odd but engrossing book, and well worth thinking about after reading.

The premise- over simplified, I'm sure!: some souls are not born into the right time and place for them. Our protagonist is one of these; he is awkward in many ways that do not endear him to others.

But then- that awkwardness may well have precipitated the intentional cruelty from his parents, because, by their lights, they found him "irritating" from day 1, and bonded over their goal to make his life a living hell. At which they succeeded, and the text says "they're not bad people"- but what could be worse? It's like they had their own, private Omelas, in which their contentment was explicitly based on their son's misery. Nonetheless, their son loved them, and assumed they loved him back... until events made him look at their behavior with some objectivity.

His parents even admit to him that they consciously made his life hell for their amusement... and then plead with him to stay with them since torturing him is the only thing that makes their lives worth living. To his credit, he does not. The scapegoat is utterly vital to the existence of the system... but that's certainly no reason for the scapegoat to participate! (I know my own parents marriage fell apart when I stopped being their scapegoat.)

But- that's not really the point. of this novel. I am not sure what the point is- but it's fascinating, and I love the alternative worlds that sit in the cracks in our world, and most of all, I love the very different perspective compared to the cliched Western tropes. ( )

Heavens to Murgatroyd!

What a great book! Murgatroyd Floyd has had a hard time of it. His parents take delight in finding new ways to distress him, from making his hot cocoa with salt instead of sugar, to lying that his father has cancer. His boss considers him to be her personal trained monkey and his best and only friend does all he can to keep Murgatroyd from joining the fabulous Quest. Can Murgatroyd overcome everything the Known World throws at him to finally find the home he had a taste of at the Tutti Fruity Ice Cream Parlor when he was nine? ( )