What do you do when you finish reading a book so amazingly wonderful that you don’t know what to do now that it’s over? Tell everybody you know, and those you don’t, to go read it themselves- that’s what!

Oddity is a middle grade/YA novel that simply can’t be ignored. I mean, really, when the first paragraphs of a book have the elementary students fighting wild cats in gym class for points, well, it doesn’t get any wilder than that!

Ada has lived her entire life in Oddity. So the fact that nothing is normal there is, by definition, normal. It’s a totally bizarre town, but to those that live there there’s nothing at all unusual about it. Like everyone else, Ada loves her home and everything about it. Well, almost everything. One thing she doesn’t love though is the fact that her sister won the annual Sweepstakes and disappeared without a trace, just as all the winners do. Those in charge never really said what happened when you won, just that it was something worth winning. However, what if it was all lies? What if there’s more to the Sweepstakes than meets the eye? What if Pearl is out there somewhere desperately needing her sister Ada’s help?

This book reminded me a little of The Hunger Games, if the Hunger Games included aliens, zombie rabbits, and evil puppets. There’s so much going on from the very first page, that I could hardly stand to put this book down. The action and excitement, the humor, the heart. Oddity had it all! Don’t walk- run to your nearest book buying establishment now to get your copy! And while you’re at it, grab some marshmallows too; you never know when you’re gonna need them.

Thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for this awesome review opportunity.

Although not my usual genre, i like that there is a main character of color. My students enjoyed my booktalks about it and i look forward to purchasing it for my library.

Oddity is so very odd! I was thrown into a fantastical world of crazy, man-eating creatures, lucky to have Ada and Raymond by my side to fight them off. . The description of the creatures made them come to life, and the reader can feel the excitement and panic as the characters fight for their lives. I know this book needs to be added to our library!

A desert town where zombie rabbits roam freely, and a vague, yet menacing, government agency holds sway over the populace... Welcome to Oddity (said in Cecil's Welcome to Nightvale voice). Okay, here's the scoop: Ada is an 11 year-old rebel who loves to push the boundaries in her New Mexico hometown, Oddity. She's flanked by her best friend, Raymond, and the new kid in town, Cayden; Cayden, who comes from Chicago and just wants to go back to normalcy, which Ada finds incredibly boring. After all, does Chicago come with a Blurmonster? Or zombie rabbits who fiend on marshmallows and play Punkball games with the aliens hanging around town? But see, Ada's got some issues. Pearl, her twin sister, won the town's annual Sweepstakes last year, and hasn't been heard from since. Her mother's all but withdrawn from life and her father buries himself in work, which leaves her aunt - who puts up with no foolishness - in charge. Ada and her friends are Nopesers (think Snopes, but with more danger) and go on the sneak to solve Oddity's various mysteries, but when one sneak goes haywire, Ada finds something off about the Sweepstakes... one thing leads to another, and just like that, Ada's leading a resistance and demanding to find out the truth about Pearl and about Oddity.

I LOVED this book. I love the Welcome to Nightvale podcast, and this book could be an episode on its own. Ada is a brilliant role model: smart, spunky, and willing to stand up for what's right. She's a child of color who takes pride in her braids, leading to a giggle-worthy moment when she crosses her aunt. Raymond is a Latinx character with two moms, one of whom he refers to as "jefa" - The Boss. I love the world Sarah Cannon's created with Oddity: even seemingly peripheral characters leap off the page, coming to life as sentient mannequins and misunderstood monsters. There are countless great moments in this book, giving you endless amounts of talking points for a discussion (or writing exercises, for the English teachers in my life).

Do yourself a favor and pick up Oddity, and (for grownups and teens) check out the Welcome to Nightvale podcast. You know Tamika Flynn and Ada would be best friends.

This was hands down my favorite book of the year. I think that is mainly due to the fact that this book, much like it's title, is odd. I think the author just jotted down every bizarre thought she ever had and decided to put them all into one book. You'd think that couldn't possibly work but it does, it delightfully does. There's a little bit of Oz, a little twisted Disney, some traditional spooks and haunts, plus so many new and exciting things from our author's crazy and fantastic brain. Just read it.

I'd heard this was pitched as an MG Nightvale, but I'm not familiar w/Nightvale, so I really had no idea what to expect. And I don't think anything could have prepared me for what I found in these pages. This book is SO quirky and weird in the best possibly way, with a wildly imaginative world, a wonderful protagonist, and lots of spooky fun. Very original!

I love everything about this story. The characters, the humor, the diversity, the plot, the villains, the setting, the Night Vale vibe... but I think my favorite thing is that every single character had a role and a value and no one was insignificant, right down to the zombie rabbits. The prose was descriptive enough that I could clearly picture entire scenes, but not so flowery that I was tempted to skim past it. I can't praise Ada enough, except to say that she is exactly the protagonist I want to be. Readers with big imaginations and twisted senses of humor would do themselves a great favor by reading this book.

Ada is not your everyday fifth-grade monster fighting, zombie rabbit wrangling, alien negotiating, creepy puppet smashing, smack talking hero. She's leading a quest of her friends to learn the fate of her twin sister, Pearl who disappeared a year ago after winning Oddity's coveted annual Sweepstakes. The residents of Oddity, a community filled with strange creatures and aliens, have struck up an uneasy truce with a collection of creepy puppets who supposedly protect its human citizens from the invisible, slow-moving Blurmonster.

Oddity would make a fantastic movie or mini-series on Netflix. I found the writing powerful, punchy, and clever, but confusing. Reading the first 50 pages was like parachuting into a treacherous unknown territory on a vague mission at night without a map. Once I grasped the context of the town's weird inhabitants and the mission to find Pearl, I connected with Ada and was with her till the end. This book needs scaffolding such as maps, illustrations, or a book trailer to give kids enough context to read to the end. Kids will be the ultimate judges of Oddity's popularity.

This is definitely something that should be required reading in the United States.