This was not one of my favorite books. I'll just warn you now. There are a few spoilers, but if you're okay with that than by all means keep reading.
After Dorothy's adventure in the Wizard of Oz, a new girl drops in from Kansas. Amy Gumm lives in a trailer with her mother, who isn't all there for her. When a tornado happens to pick her up and throw her into Oz, Amy realizes that the books and movies weren't made up. But, she didn't ask to be in Oz. She definitely didn't sign up to lead a revolution. So with Good witches turning bad, and Wicked witches turning into heroes, Amy kind of at a lose on who to trust.
I don't blame her. Yeesh.
Honestly, it was slow. The first half of the book is bogged down with inner monologue talk. The main character keeps rambling on and on, without much development. Amy learns how to fight and all, but it's too drawn out. The only excitement is when the Cowardly Lion (who isn't so cowardly anymore) shows up and eats people. Then, by the second half, there was some action, but again it was very slow. The climax was extremely anti-climactic, where Dorothy escapes and our main character is whisked
away on flying monkeys. Personally, I would have preferred more interaction with the three main Oz characters: the lion, scarecrow, and tinman. Now those were great twisted characters! It's too bad they weren't more up in the front of the story.
Lion is basically King of all animals and eats people who are punished by Dorothy. Scarecrow (my personal favorite) becomes a mad scientist who experiments on people and animals. There's even a moment where Amy realizes that Scarecrow is injecting brain fluids into his head to function. And Tinman has a buzzsaw! How cool is that?
But no, no the book focuses more on a slow to act protagonist. I get it. She's not some fighter or anything, but come on. In a realm where magic is kinda everywhere, you'd think she'd get a handle on something more useful than concealing a knife.
Stars: 1/5
Recommend: No thanks
Image from Goodreads.com
