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mrs_a_is_a_book_nerd's reviews
456 reviews
The first third was fairly motivating. Then it got sort of forced and cliche. I finished it, hoping for it to return to the inspiration I felt at the start, but no dice. Also, Mr. Gordon needs a better editor; as an educated individual, I was fairly distracted by punctuation that was missing and needed.
3.5 This is a novel and entertaining re-imagining of the tale of Dorothy from Kansas. Told from the perspective of Amy Gum, a fellow Kansan who lands in Oz post-twister, it suggests that Dorothy, her journey to Oz, and endearing friends the Scarecrow, the Lion, and the Tin Man were not as saccharine as the famous story suggests.
Amy is recruited by the Royal Order of the Wicked to help take a power-hungry and ruthless Dorothy and Glinda down and restore Oz to its former, happy glory. But almost nothing--and no one--is as it seems, and Amy questions whose side she's even fighting for.
I'm not sure why I wasn't more captivated by the story. I can't pick out anything in particular that I didn't like, it just seemed to take a long time to read, and I was never really pulled in by the story--I was curious, but not rapt. Maybe the genre? Not sure. I may read the sequel(s) down the line, but I was ready to move on to something else for now.
Amy is recruited by the Royal Order of the Wicked to help take a power-hungry and ruthless Dorothy and Glinda down and restore Oz to its former, happy glory. But almost nothing--and no one--is as it seems, and Amy questions whose side she's even fighting for.
I'm not sure why I wasn't more captivated by the story. I can't pick out anything in particular that I didn't like, it just seemed to take a long time to read, and I was never really pulled in by the story--I was curious, but not rapt. Maybe the genre? Not sure. I may read the sequel(s) down the line, but I was ready to move on to something else for now.
Excellent pacing and suspense. I enjoyed this one a lot. Read it in a day!
To me, this read like a first novel. The plot was interesting, but the conflict was dragged out and repetitive. The climax and resolution sped by.
So, here were my reactions while reading:
"Huh. Really? ...Well, that's sort of unusual... Oooh, steamy... Uh-uh. No. Don't go there, girl... Yikes! Plot twist! ...Wait. What? ...Oh my Gawwwwd! ...What? NO! ...<> ... That's right, that's what you need to--wait, no! No, no, no... Uh oh! OH SNAP! Ok, glad that's ov--wait, WHAAAAAT??... What. Just. Happened."
"Huh. Really? ...Well, that's sort of unusual... Oooh, steamy... Uh-uh. No. Don't go there, girl... Yikes! Plot twist! ...Wait. What? ...Oh my Gawwwwd! ...What? NO! ...<
3.5 Stars. This was a fun read, although maybe meatier than it needed to be. I'm not exactly sure what I'd cut, but it felt a bit too long to me, nonetheless. That aside, it was a super interesting profile of one young woman's life as she learns to define herself as a woman, fighting for freedom and liberation, sometimes conforming to the norms and sometimes defying them with abandon...and suffering the consequences of doing so. It's not a coming-of-age book; it's a coming-of-ages, as we witness Vivian navigate her personal and feminine identities from age 19 to 89.
This book was captivating. I know there's been hullabaloo about a non-Latinx author writing it, but I think it's most important that these stories be told. I feel the story puts a face on the multitude of reasons that people migrate to the U.S. illegally. They're not all criminals. And, in fact, when you read about the journeys of Lydia, her son Luca, and the others they meet along the way, you realize that NO ONE would take on such a journey unless they felt they had no other option. My only complaint was that I felt the story wrapped up a little too neatly in the end.
I didn't like the very end, but otherwise, I enjoyed it a lot. There are some questions important to the social justice dialogue that get explored through the characters. I appreciated the diversity of characters, feelings, and thoughts on the topic, and how important ideas aren't used as a club to beat readers with.