Library's review
No, but seriously: Amy Gumm is a teenage girl living in Kansas (remind you of anyone else in literary history)? She's got the usual angsty
Despite the author's fondness for refusing to share information with either her protagonist or her readers, we and Amy eventually learn that something or someone has brought her to Oz because it needs saving. It seems Dorothy, having first decided there was no place like home, took one look around the flatlands of Kansas and decided she was better off in Munchkinland. So she returned to Oz, where through some convoluted shenanigans that I still don't understand managed to overthrow the reigning princess and take control. Now she rules with an iron fist, in the form of a tyrannical Tin Woodman, along with a no-longer-cowardly Lion and a mad-scientist Scarecrow. Oh, and Glinda the Good Witch is now a bitch. The Revolutionary Order of the Wicked (as in Witches, among others) trains Amy to infiltrate the Emerald City and snuff out her fellow Kansan so that Oz can return to the magical wonderland it was always meant to be.
So the concept is intriguing but the execution is a mess. Amy is a whiny teenage girl (to be honest, not my favorite category of human being, and I say that as someone who was one) who is forever haring off and getting herself into trouble. The witches who are grooming her to be an assassin are more cryptic than a British crossword, and there's a painfully strained attempt at a love triangle that is just stupid. And if all that was not enough, the book ends on a damned cliffhanger and it turns out there are four or five more books in the series.
A few caveats to my negativity: I am assuredly not the target audience for a YA novel, though I have read and enjoyed many. Also, having never read L. Frank Baum's original Wizard of Oz books nor ever having seen the movie, I suspect some references may have gone over my head. And finally, I listened to the audiobook, narrated by Devon Sorvari, and I thought it was pretty terrible. It got better once the action moved to Oz but she still had that snotty teenager voice going that sets my teeth on edge.
One-tenth of a star upgrade for the name of the main character; the birth name of Judy Garland, who played Dorothy in the classic movie, was Frances Gumm.
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Fantasy. Romance. Young Adult Fiction. Young Adult Literature. HTML: The New York Times bestselling first book in a dark new series that reimagines the Oz saga, from debut author Danielle Paige. I didn't ask for any of this. I didn't ask to be some kind of hero. But when your whole life gets swept up by a tornado�??taking you with it�??you have no choice but to go along, you know? Sure, I've read the books. I've seen the movies. I know the song about the rainbow and the happy little blue birds. But I never expected Oz to look like this. To be a place where Good Witches can't be trusted, Wicked Witches may just be the good guys, and winged monkeys can be executed for acts of rebellion. There's still a road of yellow brick�??but even that's crumbling. What happened? Dorothy. They say she found a way to come back to Oz. They say she seized power and the power went to her head. And now no one is safe. My name is Amy Gumm�??and I'm the other girl from Kansas. I've been recruited by the Revolutionary Order of the Wicked. I've been trained to fight. And I have a mission: Remove the Tin Woodman's heart. Steal the Scarecrow's brain. Take the Lion's courage. And�??Dorothy… (more)