Book Review: Yellow Brick War

I loved DOROTHY MUST DIE, the original book in Danielle Paige's series. I'm a sucker for retellings, and was excited to revisit this twisted version of Oz.  In the third installment of the series, Amy Gumm and her companions return to take another shot at thwarting Dorothy Gale's attempts to destroy both Oz and The Other Place (the one in which Dorothy's and Amy's Kansas can be found).

Dorothy's companions have already been destroyed, all except for little Toto. Although weakened, Dorothy is still extremely powerful.  As the magic of Oz destroys her mind, Dorothy becomes a threat, not only to Oz, but to her Kansas home as well.

After Dorothy kills the wizard, she and Amy get sucked back to Flat Hills, Kansas. The Wicked witches follow, attempting to trap Dorothy in Kansas for good. But Dorothy still has the ruby slippers, and pops back to Oz before they can stop her. That leaves Amy and the witches trapped in Kansas and Dorothy unopposed in Oz.

The responsibility to stop Dorothy once again falls on Amy Gumm. You see, once upon a time, Dorothy had a second pair of magical shoes, and that pair is supposedly still in Kansas. Finding the shoes is a long shot, but it's Amy's only ticket back to Oz. There's just a few problems. One: Amy has been missing for a month and will have to move back in with her mother while she's in Kansas. Two: Amy has no magic in Kansas, and the witches are mere shadows of their former selves. The shoes will have to be found without magical assistance. Three: The last known location of the shoes was at the site of Amy's old high school, which means she has to face all of the classmates she thought she'd left behind forever. And four: Her vice principal is The Nome King. You know, the one from Ev who has been trying to take over Oz for hundreds of years. Yeah, that one. And he's not a very nice guy.

There were many thing I didn't love about this book. That's not to say I didn't enjoy it, because I did, but I wasn't as crazy about it as I was the first two books. I don't know if Paige is running out of steam, or if she's rushing to meet deadlines, but this book felt more forced than the others. The plot is rushed, details spared for action. Amy is reduced to a whiny, love-sick teenager instead of the badass warrior she had become. The poverty and dinginess of Flat Hills, Kansas is so over the top that it reaches ridiculous levels. The cliffhanger ending could have been just the end of a chapter and the while Oz business could have been wrapped up in this book.  Instead, we're left with the threat of the Nome King still lingering in the Emerald City while Amy, Nox, and a very confused and terrified Madison are carried away by the yellow brick road. I'm too invested in the series to not read another book at this point, but I feel like this one was so rushed and short, that whatever story remains could just have been tacked onto the end.

I hope Amy finds the steely reserve that melted away in this book and brings it back in the next installment. I also hope that her and Nox get their relationship straightened out so she doesn't whine about it as much. Given how great the first book in this series was, I feel like there's still potential for it to end on a high note, and this book will just be a stepping stone to a great finish.

Three out of five stars.

Steering the Craft

Since I finished editing my Nanowrimo novel, I decided to focus a bit more on honing my writing craft. Instead of biting my nails while I wait for the feedback from my wonderful beta readers, I'm writing, albeit much shorter fiction.

Steering the craft combines the wisdom of Ursula Le Guin and a collection of exercises to make you more conscious of the structure of your writing. It is informative, challenging, and inspiring. I stumbled upon it at my local library, and decided to give it a try.  I've tried various other books on craft, but have had mixed results. This one seems to be the perfect blend for me. As an added bonus, it's a short book instead of an intimidating tome.

An example of one of the exercises is to write 100-150 words without using any punctuation. It is far more difficult than you might think. It is instinctive to place periods at the end of sentences, at least it is for me. I had to mark many of them out because I placed them there out of habit. Le Guin recommended writing about an event that is filled with action or chaos.

the metal twisted around his legs and he struggled to free himself from its grip the smell of gasoline was in the air so potent that his eyes began to water somewhere in the recesses of his addled brain he recognized that the smell of gas meant danger his heart began to hammer in his chest and his efforts to extract himself from the wreckage grew more desperate it was all he could do not to weep with joy when his legs pulled free of the mangled mass in fact he could have been weeping given the wetness that poured over his cheeks he assumed it was due to the sting of the gasoline fumes he ignored the possibility that it might be blood

As you can see, without punctuation, everything gets a little crazy. If you can't at least tell that it is someone escaping their vehicle after an auto accident, then I have failed. The lack of punctuation does give the passage a sense of urgency and mimics the chaos that is in the driver's mind as he hurries to free himself, but it's a little too confusing for readers to follow. It was fun to play around with though.  Le Guin recommends coming back to add punctuation in later. I might just do that, though if I revisit this, I will expand it into a full length story.

I have found that books on writing craft are beneficial for me in two ways. One: they make me more conscious of my writing as I write. I was very aware of the lack of punctuation as I wrote and it was difficult to push myself to exclude it. Two: the exercises open a floodgate of ideas. I have snippets of stories scribbled on bits of notebook paper and stuffed into the book. I'm only about a third of the way through. I expect there will be many more scraps of paper to follow.

While I'm not a published author, and am barely figuring out this whole writing thing myself, I would offer this piece of advice to other new writers: do not pass up opportunities to learn more about writing. Whether it's by attending workshops and conferences, or just self-teaching through books borrowed from the library, the effort you put into learning your craft will be reflected in your work. 

(And that's a good thing.)