Books written by Danielle Paige, published 2014-2017.
Amy Gumm leads a pretty grim life. Her dad left, her mom’s an addict, and the kids at school call her “trailer trash” and “Salvation Amy”. Everyone else wants to get out of Flat Hill, Kansas, just because it’s Kansas, but Amy’s way past want. She needs to get out. One tornado later, Amy gets her wish. She’s literally whisked off to the magical land of Oz, where nothing is the way it is in the storybooks. The Scarecrow, the Tin Man, and the Lion terrorize the innocent while Glinda drains Oz of its magic. Amy is recruited by a revolutionary band of witches who have one goal. In order to put Oz to rights, the tyrant Dorothy Gale must die.
I’ve read this series a few times now, so I guess you could say I enjoy it, but it may not be for everyone. For me, it shares a similar vibe with the Splintered series by A.G. Howard in that both authors took a lush, colorful fantasy world and gave it a beautiful bit of morbid to make the book difficult to put down.
I will say that I think Paige tells more than she shows. This isn’t really a bad thing; it’s nice to see Amy’s train of thought because hers moves a lot like mine does, but for a plot that moves as fast as this one does, I don’t need to see that train so much in the action scenes. It’s actually hard for me to slow down sometimes and appreciate the character growth in those scenes because it doesn’t feel like it’s in the moment.
That being said, Paige has written a series of very clearly written characters with strong story arcs. Amy’s character development especially felt a lot like watching a superhero’s origin story. Amy empowers herself to stand up for herself and others, she develops her strength and her magic, but she doesn’t change in her core. She maintains her sense of morality, and her newfound strength becomes a tool in enforcing that.
I did say the series was a bit morbid, so here’s what readers should be aware of: Violence, including cruel punishment, maiming, blood, and (obviously) death. There’s also some steamy romance (including a vague, on-screen sex scene), and a fair bit of language—like, more f-bombs than are legally allowed in a PG-13 movie.
This is where the Yellow Brick Road runs through spoiler territory. If you don't want me to ruin the series for you, I suggest detouring through the books themselves ;)
"And remember, as in all of us, it is only your capacity for wickedness that makes selflessness possible."
I know I said I liked the morbid in this series, and the context of my warning makes it sound like I’m a total psychopath. Not any more than the people who casually enjoy true-crime podcasts or Dateline. Honestly, I pay the most attention to Amy’s dark tendencies compared to anything else. The girl has absolutely no fear, just a load of sass and righteous fury, and characters like that are fascinating. Characters without fear lack a crucial human element, and they’re usually hit or miss. I don’t typically relate to characters without fear, but in Amy’s case, she has a lot of empathy. A lot of the problems she faces in Oz relate in one way or another to something she experiences or sees in someone else back in Kansas. Empathy is a really strong emotion, and it actually empowered Amy to do something about the troubles she sees in Oz, so it was a nice balance to her brashness. Amy still struggles with “goodness”—she has some pretty dark moments—but she’s a good person, and she’s really the only one that can remind Oz what that means. So, she’s a fun character to get into it with.
Unfortunately, I do have my quibbles with the last book of the series, The End of Oz. I honestly felt like we were dragging the plot on a bit far by that point. I don’t mind going into the drama with the Nome King, but it didn’t seem to add anything new or important to drive the characters forward. It felt like a lot of the characters were still dealing with the same stuff as they were in the book previous, so it didn’t read like a new or final chapter of the story. However, the climax never fails to make me sweat a little. Like, I’m never sure I’m going to like the way the story ends (you can’t keep Nox and Amy apart like that after everything they’ve been through! How pointless is that?!). It’s definitely not my favorite book of the series, but it’s not exactly anticlimactic, so it serves its purpose well.
There's actually a lot of uncharted territory here for me. Paige has written a lot of novellas that go with the series I haven't read yet, and I haven't read the original Oz books by L. Frank Baum either. If any of you are more well-read than I am, what would you recommend I read next?
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