Odder [Book Review]

"Odder" is a book by Katherine Applegate. It was published in 2022. I stumbled over this one at a bookstore. You may remember I read a previous book by her called "Crenshaw."

"Odder" was a wild ride, and I don't think I'll ever find another one like it. It is a story about a female otter raised in an aquarium and then released back into the wild... only to be bitten by a shark. The story tells of her relationship to other otters as well as with the humans taking care of her.

This is the type of story that I often call "unfairly manipulated by the author," insomuch as the author is giving a real feral otter human feelings that we can understand that would not otherwise exist in real life. This is not a complaint. I actually like coming across stories like this. It's good for the imagination, and frankly we do it all the time with our pets.

What is crazy about this book is that it is entirely written in free verse poetry. There is not a consistent structure to the poetry and nothing ever rhymes. I have seen stories written this way, but they are often filled with chiefly poetic jargon and is a pain to read. "Odder" amazingly reads as if it was written in prose, and I have no idea how she did it. Bravo.

Honestly, the way she constructed her verse is so good that I would have been happy to read another one just like this for the experience alone. It had me scratching my head. How can free verse poetry read so fluidly?! Katherine is obviously very talented.

Of course, I do recommend this book, but I do want to warn you about something. Most people love and adore otters, but this book does not ever pull its punches. It deals with extremely hard topics, some of which turned my stomach a bit. It never does it just to be mean; it's just trying to be honest about what happens in the wild and even some bad things that happen in aquariums. All said, however, I loved the experience and would enjoy seeing more like it.

This blog was written on April 8, 2026.

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