Comment

Apr 13, 2017ADWithrow rated this title 1 out of 5 stars
I'm calling it a day with this one at just under 50%. I tried, really I did. But this just falls flat at every opportunity. Let's start with Oz. This was supposed to be Tim Burton's Oz. Dark, twisted, fucked up, and not at all your like childhood memory. The author accomplishes this by mentioning the lack of color about 1000 times in the first few chapters into Oz. And while some of the characters thus far are doing fucked up things I am really not getting the twisted-turned on it's head-craziness of Tim Burton. Then there's Amy. This is supposed to be our badass protagonist that is going to take down Dorothy. Except she is just unbearably whiny the whole time. Granted, up to this point she is no Mary Sue. But I seriously have never met a single person from a trailer park that is as weak and pathetic as Amy. Add it the serious issue of her not being able to grasp the simplest concepts. She has spent the entire time in Oz trying to figure out what happened to it. And even after a very clear explanation (multiple explanations actually) she is struggling with the concept. Dorothy is bad, Dorothy is killing Oz, Dorothy's gotta go. This is all lost on Amy. She also can't seem to figure out if she is on the side of good or evil (apparently standing opposed to a maniacal tyrant didn't make that clear enough) and is obsessed with what the word "wicked" means. Seriously Amy. Get it together. As for the other characters.....let's see: we have the totally hot Nox and beautiful Pete (cause obviously we have to set up the love triangle), we have the menacing, evil (so of course super sexy) Dorothy. We have the evil henchmen and Glinda (so beautiful naturally). The problem is these characters are barely explored or even described. Too much is hinging on memories from the original/movie. Being that this is supposed to be the Tim Burton-ed version you would expect the central characters to look a little different and would expect the author to demonstrate that at some point. She doesn't. Maybe I am spoiled on fairy tale retelling since I am in the middle of the Lunar Chronicles (which are great). But I expect the unique element the author has chosen to be better explored. I expect the world building to be based on the original material but demonstrably different as a result of the "twist" the author is introducing. I expect the characters to fit with the adjusted landscape and behave reasonably within it. I am not getting that here and really don't suspect that I will in the next 50%.