Sophomore Undercover. A review

Sophomore Undercover

Ben Esch


I decided to take time out of my Yukon fur trapping endeavours and snow shovelling to sit down with a doughnut and write a review of Mr. Esch’s book.

Sophomore Undercover is an absolute riot. When a book is this full of funny, an author runs the risk of substituting humour for plot. Not so in this case. Giving us such free access to the inner thoughts of Dixie Nguyen (pronounced Win), lets us get to know him in ways that saves us from pages of narrative explanation. The plot is all at once suspense filled, hormone driven and full of investigatory challenges. It’s geared toward a teenage audience, but honestly, I loved reading it. I felt like I knew Dixie for all of his hormone infested geekiness. I rooted for him all through the book, whether his head was stuck in the toilet, or he was sleeping under a bridge.

Dixie is a Korean teenager living in Stilton, California, who has been adopted by a police sergeant and his family. The police sergeant is actually his second adoptive father. “His first adoptive father had been a figurative “bleeding heart” Berkeley professor, who became a literal bleeding heart Berkeley professor after a car crash”.

Dixie is the lead reporter of the school newspaper. “As the most intelligent, dedicated, and only enrolled student in the class, he quickly became the lead reporter.” The plot of the book surrounds Dixie’s investigation of a drug scandal that he feels has infested the school football team. This leads him into conflict with Ms. Trasker, the menopausal journalism teacher, into legal charges for assault and drug possession, and drug rehab with Huggy Bear (aka Mr. Steinberg), the former math teacher turned school counsellor.

It also leads him into a pseudo romantic relationship with the girl of his dreams, whom he meets during his meditation sessions with Huggy Bear. She’s a former cheerleader, who’s turned goth. “Brynn laughed and tossed back the hair out of her face. She really did have beautiful eyes. It was a shame they didn’t get out more often.”

I literally laughed out loud at one thing or another on every single page. Seriously. And yet, like I said, that did not get in the way of moving the plot forward. This book is raunchy, skilfully written, bouncing with humour, and a blast to read. And it's nothing like Twilight.

oh, and check out his blog, it's as hilarious as he is. He wears lovely sweaters and cultivates an awesome beard.



so, Suck on That.

The Order of Odd Fish, a review

First of all, I have to welcome my first follower, Kate. She found me here through facebook, and I actually know her in real life. Hopefully, she'll stick around, comment a bit, and actually enjoy what she reads here. I have to also welcome my first commenter, Clover, who is a friend of mine, we go way back, through Found Magazine. (note to readers. I've learned how to insert links. yay!!!)

I have to explain how it is I came to have this book. I am a follower of Murphblog, which is authored by Paul Michael Murphy (no relation, although we do share a love of parentheses). He ran a contest in April, which I entered. Imagine my surprise when i actually won the contest.Yay Me!! I wasn't announced as the winner for a while, though, as Mr. James Kennedy had a baby in the midst of the voting.Here's Lucy Momo Kennedy!! So, yeah, the prize for the contest was the book, personally signed by Mr. James Kennedy (take a gander at the title page, up there), a soundtrack for the book, and... the piece de resistance, Mr. Kennedy will read part of my Work In Progress. That's the best part, and I'm waiting on that, with bated breath.

"The Order of Odd Fish" is a wonderful book. If I had to compare it to something that's already out there, I'd have to say that there isn't anything quite like it. Although the Lemony Snicket series comes close. It's only vaguely Harry Potter-esque, in that the protagonist, Jo Larouche, is a young adolescent who didn't know she truly was for most of her life. (and i only mention Harry Potter and J.K. Rowling to send errant searchers my way. Also, TWILIGHT!! [that's apropos of nothing, by the way])

Mr. Paul Michael Murphy interviewed James Kennedy on his blog You can read the interview, and actually, read about the contest here as well. In that interview, James talks about the various things that influenced him as a writer. (basically, his entire, crazy life). He credits Madeline L'engle(amazon link here!), Isaac Asimov, Douglas Adams, and so on. He writes with a crazy abandon that is incredibly energetic. It almost bubbles with frenetic energy, but at the same time, you get to know the characters and what drives them. Yeah, and I think it has a bit of a Monty Python feel to it, as well. (however, if you're not a Python fan, don't let that drive you away from it)

Ok.. so far, this hasn't been much of an review. Frankly, I've never done a review before, so what do you expect? I just really, really liked this book. It's so well written, funny, moving, and exciting. There are cockroaches for butlers, bizarre weapons, a quest, a duel, a battle against good and evil, and an unlikely (and unwilling)hero. I think that it's meant for pre-teen to early teen, (I hate pigeonholing books into agegroups, but people seem to like that) However, in the same way that Harry Potter's taken off in every age group, I think that this book will take off in the same way.