b-rad
1/7/2019
I read this as I attempt to get through my remaining 13 books on the NPR top 100 list. What a bizarre tale. The book spins Oz completely on it's head. The political atmosphere and civil environment parallels our Earth today fairly well in ways.
It is very hard to describe much of this book, without ruining it, but essentially the author takes everything you knew about Oz and completely flips it upside down. The heroes are the bad guys, the evil people are freedom fighters, there's class warfare, genocide, massive public disinformation campaigns, and the constant theme of totalitarianism.
The book essentially follows the entire life of the wicked witch of the west. You already know how the tale ends, but this details the path to get there. Is she evil? Was she always evil? What is evil anyways?
The first 2/3 of the book is 5*, the slow buildup to the immediate conclusion detracted from that, but the entire book was still quite fascinating.
I don't think I'll ever be able to look at the Wizard of Oz the same.