Date Finished: October 11, 2017
Page Count: 270
Genre: Fantasy
Yellow Bick War by Danielle Paige is the
third entry in the Dorothy Must Die series,
and I’m sorry to say, the weakest book so far. The story picks up where it last
off in Kansas at the ruins of Dusty Acers trailer park after Amy, Nox and
Dorothy were sent there thanks to the wizard’s spell. There are three witches
in red, blue and gold, cloaks who turn out to be Galamora, Mombi and Gert,
respectively who are calling out to Nox to join them. I was super happy to find
out that Gert was still alive after she supposedly died in the first book since
she was such a caring and positive member of the Order. Heck, just having the
whole order back together was great as I enjoyed seeing them team up with Amy
so much in the first. My happiness soon diminished through the book however as the
order, with the exception of Nox, had a smaller role than previously and
interacted only a few times with Amy.
Speaking of Nox, it turns out that
the witches want Nox to step up and become the witch (or warlock in his case)
of the north in order for them to gain power and bring balance to Oz by uniting
together, which he accepts. Before the witches can use their magic to hold
Dorothy long enough for Amy to kill her however, Dorothy uses her shoes to
return to Oz, stranding Amy and the Order in Kansas. This was somewhat of a
double edged sword for me, as I always thought that the witches of the Order
represented the four divisions in Oz and to have it confirmed in the book made
it all the better to me, but the fact that the everyone was stuck in Kansas was
a huge downgrade form the magical land of Oz which I’ll talk about more later. With
the newly formed Quadrant, Nox becomes bound to the other witches and becomes
unable to live a normal life, including being unable to pursue a romantic
relationship with Amy. I found this a pivotal point in his character
development as before I simply saw him as a second rate side dish that was
nothing more than serious most of the time and Amy’s love interest. His
character consisted of bland and predictable qualities and I didn’t give a crap
about his existence other than the fact that he motivated and influenced Amy in
many situations. Heck, I didn’t even support the fact that they were in love
with each other as there was too little there and I felt that both were
stronger on their own, but this book changed all of that.
In his
youth, Nox had little chance to enjoy the luxuries of life like you and I, making
him a real tsundere with his brooding and mysterious personality, attractive appearance
and slightly cruel attitude at first before warming up to Amy. To me this was
super cliché and I despised Nox when he was around others, especially Amy. Now
that the two are unable to be together Paige has expanded more on how the two
specifically feel for each other, and established the tone the two have when
around each other. Nox finally cares about Amy to the point where he’ll fight
the Nome King, the true antagonist behind everything, against the Order’s
wishes. Before, Nox was so apathetic that he was willing to bring up the Amy’s
old nickname, Salvation Amy, to get her to use magic, but in Yellow Brick War he tries to do everything
he can to keep her out of danger. I love this change in his character as it
makes him far more relatable than he was before and at the same time it makes
me care for him now. Amy and Nox being together without any trouble was way too
easy compared to reality and everything else in Oz.
Mombi
(bottom left), Nox (top left), Amy and Amy as a monster (center), Glamora
(bottom right) and Gert (top right) simply jumping into battle.
Another
thing I enjoyed (though only mildly) was seeing Amy return home and have to
deal with being gone for a month. Seeing how she interacted with her mother
after she became sober and cleaned up her act was touching and provided many reasons
for Amy to consider staying in Kansas rather than returning to Oz, something
that I hope happens at the end of the series. It made her realize how similar she
is to Dorothy due to both wanting more after leaving the adventure for a simple
life, which was an interesting revelation and made me want to see an happy
ending for Amy rather than watch her become corrupted like Dorothy did. Amy was
also able to make amends with Madison, the former pregnant girl who would bully
Amy at school, and befriend her along with Madison’s ex, Dustin. Amy’s
interactions with these three people showed how much she matured from her
pre-Oz days, and adding to the realism of her character due to her capacity for
growth. It may seem a bit redundant for me to talk so much about characters in
this series by now, but characterization is one of Paige’s strongest traits and
it the thing I love most about the series.
One of the things
I had another love hate relationship with is the amount of pages the villains
got in this book. Dorothy appears in the first chapter and then goes home
leaving the readers with zero antagonist except form the Nome King (who I don’t
have anything to say about since he’s just a power hungry, evil incarnate as
far as I can tell who set up the whole plot of Glinda bringing Dorothy back to
Oz, which is boring compared to the other villains) until chapter eighteen when
Amy and the order arrive back in Oz. That’s almost halfway through the book!
I’m all for down time in an heavily action packed story, but there was simply
something displeasing about that part of the plot. Maybe it was because Amy was
the only person form Oz that primarily appeared during those chapters except
for during the beginning where she got a list of duties to due from the order
and the occasional check-in from one of the witches. It’s no fun when you take
out all the characters we’ve come to love for fifteen plus chapters Paige, so
don’t expect me to instantly flock you with praise for developing a bully and
abusive mother just for character development! Thank goodness there was a huge
fight against Glinda and her army once everyone returned to Oz and even Dorothy
got to show up a wreck shop with her mutated three-headed Toto. What made it all
the more better was that the two of them were stepping on each other’s toes instead
of working together like before. To read about the two of them trying to gain
the upper hand against each other was hilariously relatable, plus it made me appreciate
both more as villains. The final battle paled slightly in comparison to the fun
the first battle in Oz, despite its raised stakes with Dorothy screwing with
time, but it was still very action packed and satisfying, especially when Amy
went to meet Lurline, the fairy that created Oz, and gain wisdom to help her defeat
Dorothy.
Sadly, Dorothy wasn’t killed in
this book and I’m getting rather sick and tired of Paige always ending with a
cliff hanger. I also have a small problem with the None King, as he’s an interesting
villain and his presence is true to the original Oz books, but I find him a
dull character who isn’t as good an antagonist as Dorothy. Why couldn’t he have
just not made any moves at all and everyone be happy that Dorothy was dead
causing the book to end all happy and stuff? It makes me wish trilogies were
still a thing and I get the feeling that the fourth book was only made to make
a couple extra bucks. The whole reason I chose to read the series was to see
Dorothy die, and if that doesn’t happen in the final book there better be a
good explanation or I will be very disappointed (heck, even if there is a good explanation
I’ll probably still be disappointed). I’ve got a sneaking suspicion that Amy
might not be able to kill Dorothy since she spared her from her blade at the in
this book and chose to have the Emerald Palace fall on her instead rather than
dealing the final blow herself.
Overall, this was a good book but
not as good as the previous two books. It’s got a more lighthearted tone with
less violence and fewer moments with everyone’s favorite characters from Oz,
but when they did show up it was all good. Some of the new characters such as
the Nome King weren’t the best like previous characters that were introduced in
the past, but many returning characters improved such as Nox. I’d recommend
this book to those who have read the previous two books but if you find the
series getting a bit dry at some parts and don’t really want to read the fourth
book then I’d only read up to thirty-six. Anything past that leaves far too
many loose ends and you’ll end up with a cliffhanger which is no fun to sleep
on. I’ve been reading the fourth book for since the twelfth of the month and it’s
taking far longer to read than the other book because I simply don’t like it as
much so far. But I’ll save all my complaints for The End of Oz review and until then, I remain hopeful that the
series will end on a good note and look forward to Dorothy dying!
Dorothy Must Die Review (first book in the series)
The Wicked Will Rise Review (previous book in the series)
No comments:
Post a Comment