Date Finished: October 16, 2017
Page Count: 277
Genre: Fantasy
Dorothy
does not, I repeat, does NOT
die in this book. At least I’m pretty sure she doesn’t. She dumps a bucket of
water her head and rewrites the Oz time line or something, so everyone is happy
and no one has died thanks to her vanity. Aside from whatever the hell
happened, reading this book was a huge mistake. Did I mention that there should
have only been three books in the series in my last review due to the series
becoming tedious and losing its charm? That was the problem with this book, and
it somehow managed to screwed up everything I love about the series. It got rid
of all the characters, setting and elements I loved for poorer characters,
crappy setting and romance everywhere (I kid you not, the basis of the plot
revolve around the Nome King trying to marry Dorothy). Who cares though, this
is my opinion so none of it can be true right? Well, I might be exaggerating
just a teeny, tiny, microscopic bit though so allow me to go into detail on
everything wrong with this book. Just be warned that everything I say from here
on out should be taken with a grain of salt and I mean no disrespect to
Danielle Paige. She is an awesome write who just wrote a book that only one fan
got salty over or maybe more if other feel the same way as me.
For
starters, let me talk about the beginning. We have Amy Maddison and Nox on the
yellow brick road escaping the attack of Galinda/Glamora and the Nome King and
as it flies through the sky Amy explains everything that happened to her to
Maddison. So the recaps are a regular in the series but they never cease to
slightly irritate me since I jump from book to book with less than 24 hours
between reading each book. Having Maddison around for the adventure seemed like
it’d be an interesting thing as I had hope I’d get to experience what Oz is
like from the eyes of a U.S. citizen again rather than a native or a veteran.
Rather than stay in Oz though, the Yellow Brick road takes the three to the
Kingdom of Ev, where the Nome King is from. Yep, his dreary, plain, flat slab
of a kingdom with nothing but living nightmares that don’t really leave an
impression and tons of people that we never get to meet. Good bye all my
favorite characters in Oz because instead of a proper goodbye like with Pete in
book three we just get a glance at you guys kicking butt against Gilinda/Glamora
sometime after the trio has been hiding in Ev and even then it’s merely a
glimpse. Seriously Paige, why would you do that?! None of the characters in Ev
besides Bupu, Dorothy’s Muchkin maid, were interesting! Why get rid of all your
glorious little children and give you readers nothing more than a glimpse of
them in chapter ten!! They’re one of the best things about the series!!! Even
Satan would agree that taking the plot to Ev was a sin because of how mediocre
the plot is compared to the other three books!!!! HOW COULD YOU DO THIS TO THE
FANS!!!!!
…
This was by
far one of the worst things about this book and just about killed my enthusiasm
for the series. In the past three reviews, I praised Paige for her fabulous
character development and diction for describing them. She made me love them
even though I knew they could die at any moment just like Indigo way back in
book one. To just get up and leave them fighting what could have been the most
epic battle in the series was an awful decision. The only interesting about the
cast from Ev in this book was seeing the Nome King get tight with Dorothy (in some
twisted, romantic way) and Lang, a former member of the Order forced to work
for the Nome King, with her feelings for Merlindra, another member of the order
meet in book one who had half a body of tin, and got them rejected, and Bupu
because of her candid yet fearful personality and desire to help Dorothy
despite the wickedness in her heart. That was all they brought to the story and
though it was something, the plot was still highly uninteresting and drab. The
one glimpse we do get to see of all our friends in Oz they’re kicking butt,
which I think I stated before, but that scene was just a shell of the
awesomeness that could have been the finale. Just picture the epicenes of the
battle through Paige’s own words but even better than what we got (part of a
chapter) because Amy and Nox would be there too and since it would take up the
majority of the book. But nope, characters gone and their replacements just
weren’t as good so the book was highly dissatisfying.
Despite the
lack of enjoyable characters, you’d think this would still be like all the
other books in the series, full of action and blood pumping battle that have
you on the edge of your seat, right? Wrong! The only battles are at the middle
where Amy get a glimpse of what’s happening in Oz, and at the end when the Nome
King realizes Amy has made it into Ev during his wedding and plans to crash it
(which isn’t as much as a battle as it’s a struggle to me), and some sort of
mini cat fight between Dorothy and Amy as they tried to kill each other without
powers. That was it. I kept waiting for the moment to come where someone would
run forward to sever a head from a body like in book two or shoot oversized
sparkly lightning bolts into the heart of their opponent like in books two and
three (and maybe one), but that only happened in the second battle I mentioned.
Huge disappointment. I get that Paige was trying to write Amy as reasonable and
able to solve her problems with her head rather than her magic, but when you
build a series based on battling with Pokémon there had better be a Pokémon battle
the final confrontation and not humans fighting humans!
I will
admit however, it was nice to see Amy trying to find a way to defeat Dorothy
without killing her as she just couldn’t weigh that on her conscience, and it
was also really cool for the story to be told from the perspective of Dorothy
at times (one of the few redeeming things about this book that I seriously look
forward to). She’s such a inspiring villain and it was wonderful that we got to
see her open up about her thoughts and past life after becoming a power-hungry
tyrant. And I’ll admit, I’m glad that Nox and Amy could be together since the
changed time in Oz (still not sure how) and he chose to go to Kansas to be with
her, and I actually like the cliffhanger for once since it left possibilities
open for what happens next but was still a satisfying conclusion that could end
the series. I actually what to know what happens next because the land of Oz
was great, and after a whole book of being deprived of it I’d hate for the
series to end this way.
So the
final judgment eh? I honestly didn’t see it coming out like this, but I don’t
recommend this book to people who have come to love the Dorothy Must Die series as I have. The action is gone, the
characters are gone, the magical land of Oz is gone (so in a sort of twisted
irony, it makes the title fit really well), and it’s as if some pitiful
mushroom is growing in a magnificent valley of flowers. If you want to see a
much more merciful and metacognitive version of Amy, the inner thoughts of
Dorothy, or more Amy and Nox romance then read this book. Who knows, you may
find satisfaction where I find disappointment, though I do apologize if my
review has made you bias and you can’t enjoy the book now because I haven’t.
This really was a disappointing end to the series, satisfying but
disappointing. If I had to describe my feeling towards this book it be getting
shot by bullets made of salt ten-trillion times without dying, then being cut
in half with a salt sword along my midsagittal plane and every sagittal plane
possible without dying, but rather having a hundred layers of salt put in
between my severed flesh and then being stitched back together with a needle
and thread made of salt and finally wrapped in ten layers of salt bandages.
Then when I’d think everything was over I’d learn that a thousand giant nuclear
bomb of salt was headed straight for me for the finishing blow and I just sit
thinking that it’s a relief to have everything end, but when my body is
obliterated by all the bombs my soul ends up in salt hell for all eternity and
Satan is sadly shaking his head at me saying he feels the same way (although
with much more vulgar language) and then whipping me for all eternity while a
waterfall of salt simultaneously drops millions upon millions of pounds of salt
on me. So, yeah, I’m a little salty about the ending and everything that
happened in the book. It was like it would never end and it makes me almost
regret reading the series in the first place. However, you should still read Dorothy Must Die and the other two books
in the series at least and either choose to heed my words or ignore them and
see what you think about, The End of Oz.
Change can be a good thing, this sort of abrupt change right at the end of a
series it the kind of this the tears fans up and then by erasing time you’re
usually just throwing salt in the wound. I honestly think Daniel Paige is a
phenomenal author with some of the best diction I’ve ever read and fantastic
characters to dance in her beautiful imagery, but Marissa Meyer remains the
retelling queen, and the way this series has ended simply leaves the same sort
of bitter taste in my mouth as D. Gray
Man. I’d still read the series again after enough time has passed, with the
exception of this book and highly recommend the overall series to all those who
enjoy young adult fantasy or a more morbid retelling of a classic tale.
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