Rating: 
Summary: Deeply felt and unforgettable
Review: The Odd Sea haunted me for days after I read it. Mr. Reiken has the gift of being able to make us feel his characters deeply. His simple but elegant prose brings us right into their world. This is not a book for people who want a fantasy story, though in many ways it is a very magical novel. The magic comes out of the characters' love for each other, and from the beauty of their spirits as they bravely face an unbearable situation. This is a book that will teach you how to keep your soul alive.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful First Novel
Review: I can't believe it took me this long to find The Odd Sea by Frederick Reiken. It makes me wonder what publishers are doing these days, spending time to promote all the junky stuff and not enough on books like this one. Phillip Shumway, the novel's youthful narrator, tells the story of the five years following his older brother Ethan's disappearance in seven well crafted chapters. Though Ethan remains absent, he becomes a thoroughly real, thoroughly felt presence in the novel. And because he never appears, nobody gets any easy answers. Every character (the whole Shumway clan of Phillip, three sister, mother and father, plus Ethan's girlfriend Melissa and mentor Tori) must come to terms with the loss in his or her own particular sometimes idiosyncratic ways. That's really what this book is about, finding ways to cope with irreversible loss. But if you're worried this book will be depressing, don't be. Of course there are sad and emotional parts, but Philip is also hilarious, due to his unwavering obsession with finding Ethan. You can't help liking him even when he starts to drive other characters crazy. I have the feeling this book will be around for a long while.
Rating:
Summary: One of the best books
Review: You can surely read this book over and over again, without getting tired of it. I loved this book.
Rating:
Summary: Powerful book about loss
Review: The most consistent comment found in other reviews of this book is that "it will stay with you". And it will. "The Odd Sea" is by turns sorrowful and uplifting, but ultimately it is just about dealing. About living one's life in the face of the pain, frequently unexplainable, that comes into every life.As the reader follows Phillip's ongoing, quietly desperate, search for the whereabouts of his lost brother, we see all the characters deal with tragedy in their own way. Eventually, we see Phillip come to grips with his grief. "The Odd Sea" is a short novel, with simple, yet elegant, prose. I read it in just a few hours. However, its moving narrative will stay with me much longer; it is one of the best novels I have read in the last five years.
Rating:
Summary: an intelligent & emotionally charged tale
Review: It's rare that a book possesses both the intellectual complexity and the depth of emotion present in The Odd Sea. Yet this book seems to have it all. Most importantly, the characters are strong and the story so compelling that the novel grabs you by page 3 and won't let you go until you've stayed up all night to finish it. The story revolves around a 16 year old boy's disappearance and is loosely based on The Odyssey by Homer. Narrator Philip remarks that his father, a sometimes storyteller, "managed to cover everything: absence, distance, longing, hope, return." So does this book, in ways both moving and profound. The Odd Sea is a masterful piece of fiction. I am tempted to call it "perfect."
Rating:
Summary: A great find
Review: What a joy to discover a wonderful new writer. I'm just surprised I hadn't heard about Frederick Reiken sooner. He seems to be doing something that very few writers do these days. He tells intelligent, carefully crafted tales that are also suffused with deep emotion, so that the experience of reading is at once both physical and intellectual. This novel can work both on both the literal and metaphorical levels. It presents the reality of a family grappling with loss and at the same time the absent boy at the center of the story looms as a resonant symbol. The same wondrous adolescent point-of-view present in Reiken's recent New Yorker story "The Ocean" is also in evidence here. I'll look forward to whatever he writes next.
Rating: 
Summary: Limp, contrived, fluff
Review: I read Reiken's story in the New Yorker and found it interesting. I bought this book, and what a dud. Full of ridiculous stereotypical artists. No tension, no believable insights, just puff. The writing itself is annoyingly precious Hallmark material. Belongs on the shelf next to a "Gift From the Sea"
Rating: 
Summary: Oddly Comforting...
Review: I picked this up for $3.00 at a used bookstore. I had figured that for $3.00 it couldn't be that bad. It was a great read. If you have read "We Were the Mulvaney's" by Joyce Carol Oats and liked it, you'll like this book. This book deals with the question "when bad things happen to good people what happens next?" The oldest son from this family simply dissapears one day, never to be found. The book is sad, but not in a depressing way, eventually the family "heals" and does what each needs to do to move on. A great read!
Rating:
Summary: my favorite novel
Review: The Odd Sea is simply a marvel and one of my favorite books of all time. I first had to read eat it for a college course and have since given it to at least 10 people as a gift. It's one of those rare novels that promises to be around for a long, long time since the story is so timeless and penetrating and emotionally compelling. If you haven't read this book, I urge you to do so, immediately.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful book...
Review: I read Frederick Reiken's first book, The Lost Legends of New Jersey almost from start to finish, and I couldn't wait to get my hands on his second novel. It was every bit as good as his first, although totally different. It has a unique perspective and brings the reader into the world of a family wracked by a horrible loss that isn't tangible enough to grieve over. They are in a sort of limbo, and every member of the family reacts in a different way.
Reiken paints all his characters with plenty of faults, just like real humans, but they all evoke sympathy from the reader. This novel teaches some valuable lessons about love and life and loss and, especially in these times, we all could use more lessons!
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