While it did start out a bit predictable at first (which is my only criticism), for the most part this is a solid and enjoyable dark retelling of Baum’s classic world. Being a big fan of the book series, I also appreciated the level of detail taken to stay with the original source material while also tipping almost everything onto its head. Because of that, I couldn’t help but really like Amy as a person. Her motivations were always to help people, even if in the long run she actually hurt others. And despite Amy being in situations throughout the book where she was told what to do, she would constantly break away and make her own decisions (even if it was to the determent of others). One of my pet peeves about YA books is that the protagonists rarely feel like they are actually pushing the narrative forward, and instead simply doing what other people tell them to do. There are definitely weaknesses to it and I left the book with a lot of questions for the sequel, but it doesn’t fall into as many tropes as many YA and it really kept me guessing as to where the plot would go next. And Amy is given a mission: kill Dorothy.
Amy is recruited into the Order, a resistance with the goal of taking down Dorothy. Dorothy has seized power, enslaving monkeys, munchkins, and all the rest of Oz. But this Oz is nothing like the one in the children’s book. That is, until Amy literally gets blown up into the sky in a tornado with her mother’s pet rat and gets deposited in Oz. She grew up hearing stories of Dorothy and Oz. Her life has never been easy, bullied by kids. Synopsis: Amy Gumm grew up in Kansas in a grimy trailer park with an alcoholic mother.
And, for the most part, I enjoyed this book. I mean, it’s a dark retelling of The Wizard of Oz, which I grew up with in both book and movie form. So when I saw this for $1 at my local book thrift store, I had to pick it up. I’ve talked about in the past how much of a sucker I am for classic retellings.
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