#iz dmd

It's considered YA? But I'd say sort of on the lower end of YA? Like, for younger kids? Ish? But it has a few swears and actually rather graphic descriptions of weird people-mechanics-hybrids and violence, but...still feels a little juvenile? And I don't know if that's because the point of view is younger or I just associate the Wizard of Oz as like a little kid movie, I don't even know. Nonetheless, all those slight hindrances aside, I really liked this book.

I gave it a 4/5 because of those hindances, and that - at times - it felt a little slow or had its predictable plot moments, but overall I did like it. Loved, maybe. It had good humor and cool (albeit gross, at times) descriptions; characters deaths were a little startling to me but I liked that, because it sort of immediately teaches you that you can't trust this book. Bad things are gunna happen and magic isn't going to be able to solve it.

For the most part I liked Amy. I liked Star, ahaha. Pete was weird (BUT MAN THE REVEAL WITH PETE? That was one I didn't see coming and I was thoroughly angry at myself for not seeing it but pleased with the bookfor its trickery to that point). I like the premise. I think, if anything, I have to give this book a 4/5 because of the premise. I thought it was a stand-alone. I thought by the end Oz's fate would be sealed. Dorothy would be dead or she wouldn't be. It would be the end. Turns out, no, there's more books to come. The premise makes it seem like this book is going to have three major beats - killing the Scarecrow, Lion, and Tin Man - and then end with the battle between Dorothy. Instead, it's Amy's back story, her arrival in Oz, her capture, her escape, her training, her fake maid life, and then the battle with Dorothy that doesn't end up being the final battle. It felt deceiving. And I guess that lack of closure that I thought I was getting is why I have to give it a 4/5.