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click here.I probably will not finish this series.
My jumbled thoughts:
1) This book was grossly misrepresented from the advertising on the back. "Remove the Tin Woodman's heart. Steal the Scarecrows brain. Take the Lion's courage. And then--Dorothy must die." I went into this expecting this to understandably be the plot of this book. No, this is the directive Amy gets at the end of this book. Like literally the last chapter. This is apparently the plot of the NEXT book. Severely disappointing.
2) I had preI probably will not finish this series.
My jumbled thoughts:
1) This book was grossly misrepresented from the advertising on the back. "Remove the Tin Woodman's heart. Steal the Scarecrows brain. Take the Lion's courage. And then--Dorothy must die." I went into this expecting this to understandably be the plot of this book. No, this is the directive Amy gets at the end of this book. Like literally the last chapter. This is apparently the plot of the NEXT book. Severely disappointing.
2) I had predicted the Pete=Ozma thing from the beginning. I'm happy this part came true.
3) The writing style is a bit stilted like the author hadn't quite found herself yet. Which is fine--every writer has this--but it can sometimes be very distracting and offputting.
4) Amy is a bit of a Mary Sue surrounded by other Mary Sue's and Gary Stu's. The characters feel flat to me, which makes them hard to read about.
5) The plot feels not thoroughly developed. You never know quite where it's going, but not necessarily in a good way--largely because of how the summary on the back is highly misleading. The true plot is: Amy from Kansas gets deposited in OZ where Dorothy has turned it into a grim dark torture zone (seriously--a little too emo and ~*~edgy~*~ rather than truly a darker take on the story). Amy is trained by the witches of OZ to take out Dorothy (because Amy is the chosen one), and she spends the book trying to work up the courage to do it while working undercover at the palace. (She doesn't succeed).
6) I love the cover. Ray Shappell and Erin Fitzsimmons did an excellent job. Whoever wrote the summery on the back should be severely reprimanded, though.
7) I can't decide if Indigo the goth munchkin (no, seriously) or Amy was supposed to be the self insert. But one of them was. Also, why did Indigo make the final cut? She dies almost immediately. Where was the editor's input on that?
8) I forgot--Star the rat is my fave character. I wish she had been a little better developed. On the other hand, Amy, who hates rats completely while in Kansas, suddenly loves Star as soon as they end up in OZ? I didn't buy it. I wish they had liked each other from the beginning. Then, their sweet relationship in OZ wouldn't have felt out of no where.
9) Amy's attraction to Nox is embarrassing. Nox's Gary Stu's misunderstood-hunkasaurusness is embarrassing. All the interactions between the two of them makes me cringe in second hand embarrassment.
10) Same with Amy's attraction to Pete. Unless Ozma and Amy are endgame. In which case, rock that awkward romantic tension, you can laugh about it later.
11) The obstacles Amy has to overcome seem really forced. Like the author realized there had to be obstacles there and constructed some. Including Amy's conflicts with her school bully, her conflicts with her mother, her conflicts with learning magic, her conflicts in killing Dorothy, her conflict in not being properly informed by the Order, especially about the identity of her handler.... Not that the conflicts themselves were impossible or even improbable, they just weren't presented very believably.
12) The setting is a rare piece of excellence in this book, the most vibrant. I never had a difficult time placing the characters. The places were always very well described and easily picturable.
13) The description of the Perma-Smile was the one truly creepy part about the book. The description of it sticks with you, especially when Jellia was overusing it during her fall from grace. Excellent use of the creepy.
Overall, I feel like this book wasn't a good fit for me, and probably won't read the second unless it happens to come across me when I have nothing else to read. ...more
