The Orphan of Awkward Falls is a book full of fun, spookiness, and mystery. The story was very amazing and I was surprised how the author was able to tell a story with only three days passing in the whole story. The atmosphere, dark, cloudy, and gloomy, really fitted the mood of the story because the story does contain a cannibal, monsters, and a somewhat, mad scientist. One treat that the book also offered was that there were pictures to go along with some of the memorable scenes. If you are in the mood to get ready for the Halloween season, this book is defiantly worth a read. ( )

I borrowed this from a friend who received it as an Early Reviewer book. It looked promising as a YA sci-fi/horror novel, but I found that the execution fell flat, and I found it a struggle to stay interested in the story.

Josephine and her crunchy, enlightened parents move into a creepy old dilapidated house in a small town in northern Canada. Josephine makes friends with an orphaned boy-scientist who lives in the creepy old dilapidated mansion next door, and he turns out to be not what either of them expected. There's also a scary villain, some monsters and robots, and some running and biting and a fire before the story works itself out.

The story tries hard to be fun and random with little details about the parents' quirky habits and vegetarianism, and the town's Sauerkraut Awareness Day, and the library-slash-fishing-tackle-shop. But it seems to miss the mark, or at least to be confused about its direction. Sometimes it's shockingly graphic, sometimes it's cloying and predictable, sometimes it's just uneven. My 12-yr-old friend found it too scary to finish, and I believe she is probably right at the center of the target audience.

I think the frankenstein-y story idea has potential, but I found this particular book forgettable. ( )

Gruesome but lively. Dark but humorous. The Orphan of Awkward Falls tells the story of twelve-year-old Josephine Cravitz's arrival in the northern Manitoba town of Awkward Falls, where her scientist father has taken a university research position, at roughly the same time that a violent cannibalistic inmate (Fetid Stenchley) has escaped from the Asylum for the Dangerously Insane. Josephine discovers a mysterious boy genius living in the dark rundown mansion next door, supposedly the grandson of Celsius Hibble, the Nobel-prize-winning scientist, whom Stenchley murdered some ten years back. Stenchley returns, of course, to Hibble's mansion, for, though he murdered Hibble, his employer, it was a crime of passion. He had felt cruelly displaced in Hibble's affections by Hibble's genetic experiments--specifically by one of Hibble's young clones of himself, whom Stenchley now intends to do away with. Stenchley's return to the mansion forces Josephine and Thaddeus on a dark adventure in which they attempt to escape Stenchley as well as Hibble's other disturbing creations--hybrids of spiders and baboons, panthers and buffalo. Stenchley knows enough about his previous employers' infernal machines to change his appearance so that he resembles Thaddeus and Thaddeus appears to be him. This only adds to the troubles of Josephine and Thaddeus. As well, Stenchley resurrects his zombified master, who follows him about throughout this dark and fast-paced tale.
The Orphan of Awkward Falls is certainly not a typical children's novel. A cannibalistic lunatic and lots of violence may make some parents hesitant about this book. However, I know that there are many kids, particularly boys, in grades five to eight who would lap up this book. The book shares some features with the opening scenes of Neil Gaiman's The Graveyard Book (in which a gruesome family murder is described) as well as the works of Lemony Snicket and Roald Dahl. But it also resembles Darren Shan's Demonata and Cirque du Freak horror series as well.
I was initially put off by the macabre qualities of the book, and I had abandoned it for some time. However, when I returned to it, I found it fast paced and disturbingly engaging. The illustrations the author includes (very Brian Selznick) and an attractive cover add to the novel's appeal.
Apart from the dark qualities of the narrative, my chief criticisms are picky ones. In the early part of the book, we're told that the "governor" is coming to the Asylum for the Dangerously Insane to observe one of the treatments that Stenchley endures on a daily basis. However, the governor and the first lady then appear to morph into the "mayor " and his wife. It seems that the author can't figure out what to call these officials, and this causes some confusion for the reader. Additionally, the author should have been corrected on details of Canadian government: Canadian provinces are governed not by "governors" but by "premiers". Minor quibbles as I said, but still...details that should have been attended to.
Parents and young readers should be warned that this is not a book for everyone. It is definitely not for the squeamish. ( )

The Orphan of Awkward Falls – Keith Graves

Publisher: Chronicle Books
Pages: 256
Source: I received the book from LibraryThing in exchange for a review
Genre: MG Horror

On Amazon this book as listed for ages 8 – 12. On the author website it states it might not be suitable for anyone under the age of 12. I will say this. You must know your child or students reading likes and dislikes, their ability to handle certain material. The day after I received this book I took it to school and shared part of it with the teacher next door. She really wanted to read it.
I was intrigued when I read the first twosentences: “The little town of Awkward Falls was kow for two things: its canned sauerkraut and its insane asylum. Both had achieved notoriety for their repulsiveness.”
The asylum is home to the criminally insane, especially one known as Fetid Stenchley. He is the worst among all of them. He is in fact a cannibal. It is he who killed the grandfather of our main character Thaddeus Hibble. Thaddeus lives in a Victorian mansion with only a robot butler and a pieced together, Frankenstein style, talking cat. Things change when Josephine and her family move to Awkward Falls and actually move in next door to Thaddeus. Thaddeus and Josephine meet when she sees something in the fog and goes out to investigate. She ends up snooping around the place next door and meets Thaddeus. They become good friends. Of course this story would not have any tension if the aforementioned cannibal had not escaped. The problem is he is headed back to where his last crime was. This puts Josephine, her family and new friend in jeopardy.

There are so many things that I love about this book. It is a gross, creepy, horrifically humorous book. Many of the scenes are possibly too frightening for younger children. Many of my own students read more mature books and more intense horror. For them this would be a wonderful book. I still have some who prefer the younger books such as The Magic Tree House series. For them this would not be an appropriate book. This is where it is important to know your students or children. For a book like this I usually send a note home explaining what the book is about and getting parent permission if I think there may be an issue.

The characters were wonderful, the plot moved at a great pace so that I didn’t want to put the book down. I believe that the majority of children in middle school will love this book. For those adult who love reading middle grade fiction this is one I recommend to you. Get the book and find out what happens in Awkward Falls. ( )

The Orphan of Awkward Falls is a children's horror/dark humor book. It has fantastic illustrations, and I laughed out loud several times while reading it. Some parents may find the subject matter to be too dark/scary for their children, since the book is written for, perhaps, 5th graders. However, I think most kids will be fine with the content and find the book very fun. It is no scarier than R.L. Stine, and no grosser than Roald Dahl. I read both of these authors when I was a child, and I THINK I developed into a healthy adult anyway. :) In short, it's a great book for pre-teens who like a little bit of horror. ( )