Odd & True by Cat Winters (Spoiler-free) Review

Trudchen grew up hearing Odette’s stories of their monster-slaying mother and a magician’s curse. But now that Tru’s older, she’s starting to wonder if her older sister’s tales were just comforting lies, especially because there’s nothing fantastic about her own life—permanently disabled and in constant pain from childhood polio.

In 1909, after a two-year absence, Od reappears with a suitcase supposedly full of weapons and a promise to rescue Tru from the monsters on their way to attack her. But it’s Od who seems haunted by something. And when the sisters’ search for their mother leads them to a face-off with the Leeds Devil, a nightmarish beast that’s wreaking havoc in the Mid-Atlantic states, Tru discovers the peculiar possibility that she and her sister—despite their dark pasts and ordinary appearances—might, indeed, have magic after all.

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Odd & True is a historical fiction book that takes place between the late 1800s and the early 1900s. The book is told in rotating point of view. Odette’s point of view takes place in the past and Trudchen’s point of view takes place in the present. I quite enjoyed this format, as it was easy to follow along with and it was essential to the story that Od’s point of view told the story of the past.

The present story line is told through the younger sister’s eyes, Tru. Tru was disabled at a young age due to polio. Because of this, she is sheltered and thought of as delicate. Tru and Od were separated for a few years due to Od being sent away. During this time, Od goes through some horrors that she has trouble coping with.

In Od’s point of view, we see what happened in the past. Od, being the older sister had been through some life-changing situations when she was younger. Trying to be the protective older sister, Od never tells Tru the truth of their past and hides it by telling tall tales. She tells tales of how their mother and her siblings are monster-hunters and that monster-hunting and magic runs in their blood. One day, after Od’s long absence, she shows up and takes Tru away to hunt for monsters across the country.

This tale is truly one of sisterhood. I loved how even though the sisters were torn apart for a few years, their bond always stayed strong. Everything Od did was to protect her sister, even if that meant telling lies.

Going into this book, I expected the typical paranormal fantasy book about monsters. That is not all that I got. While there are paranormal aspects to this book, there are a lot of hard hitting topics as well. Od had been through some traumas that she had to work through over the course of the book. Even though it wasn’t the story I was expecting, I truly enjoyed this book immensely. I thought Cat Winters did a great job of writing about these hard topics and how the characters reacted to the horrors.

All in all, I rate this book 4 out of 5 stars. Publication date is September 12, 2017.

Thank you to Netgalley, the publisher, and Cat Winters for an advanced copy of this book in return for an honest review.