I've reviewed this book as a part of an event I am hosting in September 2021 called GeekDis. GeekDis is a collaborative event for members of the disability community to talk about disability representation in pop culture. You can learn more about GeekDis here!

Originally posted on Just Geeking by.


Odd & True was not at all what I expected, and I’ll be frank, I was quite disappointed with the plot as a whole. This book is listed as fantasy, supernatural and paranormal, however, I personally would put it more in the magical realism category. I spent the majority of the book wondering if I had been fleeced; if there was actually going to be any real magic or paranormal creatures in it. Without giving too much away, I can confirm that yes, this book does actually exist in the realm of fantasy. However, if you’re like me and prefer your fantasy and paranormal novels to be chock-full of those things, then you’re going to be disappointed like I was.

This is essentially a story about two sisters, family and the stories we tell ourselves and are told to keep the monsters of reality at bay. It is very well written, it’s just not personally my cup of tea. From a disability representation perspective, it’s very good. Trudchen, aka Tru, became ill with Polio as a child and as a result her right leg grew at a different rate. This resulted in a discrepancy between her two limbs of two and a half inches. With the aid of a brace and shoe with a taller heel, she is able to walk short distances. Walking is painful for Tru as moving her right leg requires a great deal of force which aggravates her joints, especially her hip.

Throughout the book, Winters never forgets that Tru is always conscious of how she has to move and the pain that accompanies it. As someone with chronic pain, I tend to notice when authors write about chronic pain and then forget about it for the little things, only remembering it when something big happens (for example, getting out of a carriage). There is one scene in particular where Tru has to walk on snow, and I appreciated how Winters took the time to describe how awkward it was for Tru to walk on a completely different surface. A lot of people don’t realise that surface texture makes a huge difference for those of us with physical disabilities that affect our lower limbs.

Likewise, Winters takes on the issue of how people perceive Tru, which in 1909 is completely wrapped up in her identity as a woman as well. Intersectionality is a huge part of the disabled community, and so often it gets completely ignored.

While I wasn’t a big fan of the plot, from a disability perspective Odd & True is a great read.

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"Odd & True" was a pleasant surprise: a tale of two sisters that blends historical fiction about women in America at the start of the twentieth century, the hunting of supernatural monsters in the wild woods of New Jersey and an exploration of how the stories we tell ourselves and each other shape who we become.

It is a peculiar book that resists categorisation, insisting on creating its own unique place on my mental bookshelf. For me, it's mainly a book about how women empower themselves and each other and how belief is, in itself, a form of magic.

Most of the action of the book is set in 1909 and revolves around two teenage sisters, Odette (Od) and Trudchen (Tru) who are on a mission to hunt the Jersey Devil.

Od and Tru are not the Winchester brothers in early twentieth-century dresses and the story is not primarily about the hunting of a monster, although it is about the creation of heroines.

The story is told from three perspectives in parallel. These tellings interact with one another in a way that makes truth something complex, agile and hard to fix in a single voice.

We hear from Tru, the younger sister who polio has left with a withered leg and constant pain, remembering her unquestioning belief in the stories her older sister told her of how the women in her family were fierce protectors who used magic to hunt monsters and her struggle to see this belief as anything other than a lie told to bolster the spirits of a crippled girl when her sister leaves home and sends back less than credible stories of her current life in a circus.

We get to read Od's account of her childhood and the traumas in it that she used stories and will-power and intimacy to try and shelter her sister from and then we learn of the things that nearly destroyed her in the two years she was away from home.

The third perspective is the present-day (1908) story of Od reuniting with Tru and taking her on a monster hunt.

This is not a light-weight tale. It's full of ugliness, pain and despair. None of it is exploitative but all of it is credible. It makes clear all the ways in which woman are vulnerable and how little support they have, except from each other.

It is also a tale of magic, not in the "clap your hands if you believe in fairies" kind of magic but the sort that you have to make for yourself by belief and courage and love.

There's a lot in the book about people who have lost their magic, or at least their hope. Od tries to explain this to Tru by saying

"Life has a way of knocking the whimsy out of people, Tru."

Yet as Od re-unites with Tru and starts to build up her courage again, she reaches a decision about the central choice the book asks readers to consider:

"I'd decided I'd rather be foolish than ordinary. I'd rather risk chasing monsters that might not exist, searching for a child I'm not meant to find, than to believe we're nothing more than mundane characters, steeped in ordinary lives."

By the end of the book, I could see that embracing the possibility of magic in our lives, of being and doing something more than the accommodating the inevitable and enduring the unacceptable is the first step to making ourselves magical. Magic is not used as a Get Out Of Jail Free card here. You can't just click the heels of your ruby slippers together to make everything alright but, with work and courage and love you can become something better than who you're being told to be even if you can't become the Princess you dreamed of being when you were a child.

This is my first Cat Winters book but it won't be my last. I like the way she makes me think and I love the way her characters see the reality of the world but don't let themselves be entirely determined by its expectations and constraints. ( )

This book is told from the perspectives of two sisters- Odette & Trudchen. Odette's storyline starts farther in the past and ends with her perspective in present time (for the contect of the book) whereas Trudchen's viewpoint is in the present. I thought there would be more monster fighting involved but really it is about two sisters connecting over some family secrets. ( )

Goodness gracious, this was another fantastic read from Cat Winters.

Odette and Trudchen Grey, two sisters, whose childhoods have been spent shrouded in mystery, entertained by stories of monsters and of the ancestors who fought them. Were these stories true or just the products of wildly active imaginations? Together, they set out on a quest into the Pennsylvania woods to discover the truth of a legendary monster.

I formed a connection with these two girls early on in the book because they were so much like me as a teenager. Fascinated by legends of monsters and determined to discover the truth, no matter the obstacles they face. They also reminded me of how strong the bond of family is, even when separated for years. The deep love these sisters had for each other really came through and leaped from the pages into my heart.

This is what I love about Cat Winters. Many of her books are centered around strong female characters who are fighting battles both outwardly and inwardly, showing amazing growth, courage, and determination that many readers can really relate to. I would really love another story about these characters. One of my favorites from Cat Winters. ( )

The marketing of this book makes me so angry. Picked it up expecting a girl-power monster-slaying adventure based on the cover and the back cover blurb. NOPE. It's actually a very well-written story of a family in shambles in the early 1900s, with the smallest hint of the supernatural in the last chapters. Go in knowing this, and you'll enjoy it. As for me, I feel duped yet glad I read it. ( )