Saturday, April 1, 2023

The Wicked Will Rise by Danielle Paige (Dorothy Must Die Series, book 2)

This is an example of where the second installment is better than the first. If you aren't familiar with the Dorothy Must Die series of books, you can read my review of book 1 here

Basically, this is the second book in the Dorothy Must Die series, which tells the story of Amy Gumm, a teenager from Flat Hills Kansas, who finds herself whisked away to Oz. Amy discovers Dorothy is real, and has transformed Oz into a magical wasteland and ruled with an iron fist. Amy has joined forces with other witches to try to stop Dorothy and her entourage consisting of Glinda, the Scarecrow, the Lion, and the Tin Man.

Book two picks up right where book 1 left off. But unlike book 1, I feel like the pace was better, and we get to see more of Oz - the jungle where Lulu, the monkey queen rules, and Rainbow Falls, home to Polychrome and her fake (but mayby real?) panther/unicorn Heathcliff.

Amy also settles into her magical powers more and evolves as a witch. Or maybe she's devolving, as we start to see hints of, well, wickedness creeping into her craft. And as Dorothy begins to tap into the evil of Oz's magic, we travel with her to the shadowlands and see her transformation into a literal magical monster.

And Paige doesn't pull punches. There are a lot of characters we say goodbye to in this book, some we like and others we don't. Paige even killed a few characters I was really sad to see go. And I have to hand it to her, she wrote in a few really good battles. I tried reading them as if I was watching a movie and she had some great visuals and moments of flair that were pretty satisfying. I'm actually amazed these books haven't been turned into a miniseries or movie yet (I read on wikipedia the CW was in negotiations, but that was 10 years ago!). Her characters are sassy, colorful, and fun. She has truly evil villains and wicked heroes. And while there were times I rolled my eyes (generally anything to do with the love story arc) overall, I was here for it.


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