“Sometimes I wonder if it’s even Dorothy’s fault., or if this place was just rotten from the start, underneath everything. If maybe that’s the price you pay for magic.”
Rating: 1/5 Stars
Unfortunately the Dorothy Must Die series continues to go downhill with the third installment, Yellow Brick War. The series follows Amy Gumm, another Kansas girl who finds herself in the land of Oz. However, Oz has fallen back into darkness thanks to the power hungry Dorothy Gale and her cronies.
The concept of the series came across as quite interesting in Dorothy Must Die and the book was mostly great. The only downfall was that it was quite lengthy and could have been refined a little more.
Then came the sequel, The Wicked Will Rise. This book was significantly shorter than its predecessor. The issue for this book was that the storyline was incredibly jumbled and became just plain silly.
Now with Yellow Brick War, the series could have easily wrapped already but it is being pulled to extraordinary lengths. The series was initially meant to be a trilogy, but it appears that there is to be another instalment in the series and it may not even be the last one!
The plot is poor and stretched very thinly. For the first 130 pages, Amy is back in Kansas and reunites with her family. She then teams up with some incredibly random characters, including a baby, who attempt to redeem themselves in Amy’s eyes. This entire section lacked the excitement of magic and the wonderful land of Oz and perhaps that is why it was so terrible.
Like many protagonists, Amy is conflicted with whether she is good or bad, which makes her even more whiny than before. Amy’s character has barely developed over the past three books, and the same can be said for all the other characters as they come across very flat.
While the book does feature a ‘war’ as the title suggests, it’s fast and Dorothy supposedly dies. But it’s okay readers! There is now a new villain, the Nome King, who has been thrown into the plot so it seems as though the book has some form of direction.
Final thoughts? It was very disappointing with an ambiguous ending. From a personal perspective, I doubt I will continue the series but younger readers may find more enjoyment from the series.
The End of Oz will be out in March.
