Review: The Wicked Will Rise

The Wicked Will Rise
Author: Danielle Paige
Publication Date: May 7th 20105
Publisher: Harper Collins
~A copy was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review~ 

In this dark, high-octane sequel to the New York Times bestselling Dorothy Must Die, Amy Gumm must do everything in her power to kill Dorothy and free Oz.

To make Oz a free land again, Amy Gumm was given a mission: remove the Tin Woodman’s heart, steal the Scarecrow’s brain, take the Lion’s courage, and then Dorothy must die....

But Dorothy still lives. Now the Revolutionary Order of the Wicked has vanished, and mysterious Princess Ozma might be Amy’s only ally. As Amy learns the truth about her mission, she realizes that she’s only just scratched the surface of Oz’s past—and that Kansas, the home she couldn't wait to leave behind, may also be in danger. In a place where the line between good and evil shifts with just a strong gust of wind, who can Amy trust—and who is really Wicked?

I read Dorothy Must Die last year, and it fell flat for me. Maybe that was because of high expectations or the lack of learning the plot considering what you learn from the whole 452 pages was mostly on the back of the book. But, I did love how twisted Oz had become (or should I say, more twisted?) and it felt more of a companion to The Wizard of Oz in the vein of Splintered, which was the best part of the book. Going into The Wicked Will Rise, I lowered my expectations and I ignored the synopsis and the mission taglines on the back, and you know what? I liked it so much better for it. The Wicked Will Rise was everything I wanted Dorothy Must Die to be, badass, twisted, character development and originality in a world we already know. In short, The Wicked Will Rise brought it's A Game.

One of my main problems with Dorothy Must Die was Amy. I couldn't connect to her at all, and she felt whiny, but The Wicked Will Rise, Amy? That's my kind of character. She was badass, and owned it. She grew a lot, from the end of Dorothy Must Die to the end of this one, she grew into the Amy she was supposed to be, and even though I still didn't feel a connection, I understood her a lot better than I did before, and the decisions she makes.  So this time, my problem wasn't with her. The other core characters, Dorothy and Glinda the Good, still feel like an enigma, and unfortunately, the secondary characters still feel just like characters there to play a part, they don't feel as fleshed out, but it didn't deter me from the story.

The best part of The Wicked Will Rise, is once again, the wonderful twisted world of Oz, we get a more a wider view of Oz outside of The Emerald City, and let me tell you, it is just as beautiful and weird and vivid as you could imagine. It's the parts of Oz that make Oz, if that makes sense, it's all the essence of what Oz is supposed to be and is no longer not. We also get more exploration plot wise, and I'll tell you this, it was not what I was expecting, in a good way, it's warped and complicated and you don't know who to put your trust in, who is good and who is bad, where the lines are completely blurred, and so much more to it than we got previously, and some things make a lot more sense now.  

If you loved Dorothy Must Die, there's no doubt you'll love the sequel.  If you were like me, and weren't that bothered with it, The Wicked Will Rise is so much better than Dorothy Must Die, it didn't suffer from sophomore book syndrome, it was fast paced, everything meant something, and the story was always on the move, the plot wasn't as simple as it seemed, trust me, The Wicked Will rise was just as wicked as the title and to put it bluntly, simply awesome, you do not want to miss out on this one.

Rating: 4/5