"The Patchwork Girl of Oz" Book Review

The Patchwork Girl Of Oz by L. Frank Baum

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

"Ojo and Unk Nunkie visit a magician, who uses the Powder of Life to bring a Patchwork Girl to life. But then a terrible accident turns Unk Nunkie into a statue! Ojo must go on a quest to gather the strange ingredients needed to restore his uncle. Joined by Scraps the Patchwork Girl, Bungle the glass cat, and a host of other creatures, Ojo sets off on his travels around Oz."

This is the second book involving Baum's Oz book series that I've read so far, so needless to say, I am reading the books out of order. Not that that matters overmuch, since the plots of each of the books tie up nicely at the end of each and aren't mentioned in the next. If anything needs to be known, it is quickly summarized and then they move on. I wish more authors would do this - it would save me a lot of headaches.

As for the characters, I liked Ojo from the start, even though he sorely needed a confidence booster. Apparently other characters needed to be made more humble. More on that later. The Woozy was kind of useless. The Patchwork Girl herself needed to grow on me, by the end of it I liked her the most and now I'm a Scarecrow/Patchwork shipper. (Does anyone get the feeling that the Tin Woodsman is gay? Oh, just me, nevermind.) One character wasn't explained though: What was with the Mysterious House with its disembodied voice and free bed-and-breakfast deal?

***SPOILER ALERT*** You have been warned (I didn't feel like blocking half of my review).

While I enjoyed this book, I can see how easy it was for Gregory Maguire to turn the rulers of Oz into despotic dictators. I mean, it's a fairyland but no one is allowed to use magic?! That's awful, I thought that was the point of living in a fairyland. And nearly all of Ozma's friends were produced by magical means, so I don't understand how she could hold such a grudge towards it, even with the awful witch who enslaved her and turned her into a boy.

(On that note: Why didn't she stay that way?! She could pee standing up - men will never know how much more free they are because of that slight advantage. I mean, think about it - they can go anywhere, they can make it fun by aiming at stuff, and they're done so quickly! Although they need to wash their hands more - don't think for a minute that no one noticed you guys don't wash your hands! Ewww!)

I'm glad they fixed the Crooked Magician's extreme Rheumatoid Arthritis, but they had to give him something after taking all of his magic away. And it wasn't like he was a bad man with it, or just crap at it, he was doing amazing stuff! Everyone liked his creations: the Patchwork Girl was some much needed sass next to Ojo's downtrodden behavior and the Glass Cat was pretty if not really useful and kind of annoying at times. He was dabbling with things like the Powder of Life! That has to be difficult to make, even for one who is used to practicing magic. Ozma could have used him is all I'm saying.

And then they took the Glass Cat's pink brains out so she would be more humble. How terrible! Instead of waiting for her to mature into a better person(cat?) or develop humility on her own, they took away a physical characteristic of hers to suit their own needs.

And since they went through the trouble of doing that, why didn't they 'fix' the poor Phonograph? His problem was easy, you just switch out his crappy record for a better one and everyone is happy. If I don't see him in the next book, then that means someone destroyed him for doing the one thing he was made to do and that was to try to entertain them, which is sad.

Also, I love how Ozma is slowly putting all of the people she needs to keep an eye on very close by. But since this is a children's book, I'll keep a few of my 'conspiracy theories' and 'observations' to myself.

And Glinda the Good is a bitch! She watched Ojo walk all over Oz to get all this stuff to fix his Uncle who he feared he wouldn't see alive again for at least six years, if ever, only to fail to get all of the items needed when she knew the whole time a simple way to fix his problem.... Oh, wait, that's how she rolls.

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Ozma of Oz says 5 out of 5 stars!

"The School for Good And Evil" Book Review

The School for Good and Evil by Soman Chainani
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

New York Times Bestseller * Indie List Bestseller * Indie Next Pick * Barnes & Noble Best Book of 2013 * Soon to be a Major Film from Universal Pictures 

"The first kidnappings happened two hundred years before. Some years it was two boys taken, some years two girls, sometimes one of each. But if at first the choices seemed random, soon the pattern became clear. One was always beautiful and good, the child every parent wanted as their own. The other was homely and odd, an outcast from birth. An opposing pair, plucked from youth and spirited away.

"This year, best friends Sophie and Agatha are about to discover where all the lost children go: the fabled School for Good & Evil, where ordinary boys and girls are trained to be fairy tale heroes and villains. As the most beautiful girl in Gavaldon, Sophie has dreamed of being kidnapped into an enchanted world her whole life. With her pink dresses, glass slippers, and devotion to good deeds, she knows she’ll earn top marks at the School for Good and graduate a storybook princess. Meanwhile Agatha, with her shapeless black frocks, wicked pet cat, and dislike of nearly everyone, seems a natural fit for the School for Evil.

"But when the two girls are swept into the Endless Woods, they find their fortunes reversed—Sophie’s dumped in the School for Evil to take Uglification, Death Curses, and Henchmen Training, while Agatha finds herself in the School For Good, thrust amongst handsome princes and fair maidens for classes in Princess Etiquette and Animal Communication.. But what if the mistake is actually the first clue to discovering who Sophie and Agatha really are…?

"The School for Good & Evil is an epic journey into a dazzling new world, where the only way out of a fairy tale is to live through one."

Oh my god! I cannot wait for the next book in the trilogy! I loved it! Everything! Poor Tedros! I don't have a clue what he is going to do!

While reading it I felt bad and sympathetic for all of the characters, but after reading and thinking about I feel much more sympathetic towards Agatha and not so much towards Sophie. She's quite horrible at many different stages throughout the book, but it's understandable.

It was a very clever take on witches and princesses and how fairy tales come about. To a certain degree everything is fairly sad. Just punishments and so forth. There were parts of this book that were downright disgustingly awful to read. They were horrible to each other. I'm not sure I would let a little kid read this, but I guess if video games happen, ehh...

It's a middle school age book so don't expect too much of a deeper reading into good and evil, but it is very enjoyable. I devoured it in a day and I didn't expect to do that.

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Five out of five stars.

My review for the second book, "The School for Good and Evil: A World Without Princes" can be found here.

My review for the third book is coming soon!

"The Silver Blade" Book Review

The Silver Blade by Sally Gardner
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

"A stirring tale of magic and revolution- fans of The Red Necklace won't want to miss it. The year is 1794. With his beloved Sido safely in England and the Reign of Terror at its height, mysterious Yann returns to revolutionary France to smuggle out aristocratic refugees who will otherwise face the guillotine. But while the two are apart, Yann's Gypsy origins prejudice Sido's guardian against their marriage, thwarting their longed-for reunion. When Sido is kidnapped under strange circumstances, however, Yann must use all his strength and courage to outwit the evil Count Kalliovski, rescue Sido, and help save all of France.

"As she did in The Red Necklace and the award-winning I, Coriander, Sally Gardner spins an epic tale that combines a vivid sense of history, characters full of Dickensian drama and fascination, and a sizzling adventure with touches of magic and romance."

I liked this part of the series, but I think the first book was better. But I felt as if this book could've used a better editor in some places. I also thought that Anselm's part of the story could've ended differently, more drastically maybe. But otherwise I liked it.

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"The Red Necklace" Book Review

The Red Necklace by Sally Gardner
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

"The winds of change are blowing through Paris in the winter of 1789, both for France and for our hero, a striking and mysterious Gypsy boy named Yann Margoza. He was born with a gift for knowing what people are thinking and an uncanny ability to throw his voice, and he has been using those skills while working for a rather foolish magicia. That work will soon end, however, and on the night of the magician's final performance, Yann's life will truly begin. That's the night he meets shy Sido, an heiress with a coldhearted father, a young girl who has only known loneliness until now. Though they have the shortest of conversations, an attachment is born that will influence both their paths.

"And what paths those will be! While Revolution is afoot in France, Sido is being used as the pawn of a fearful villain who goes by the name Count Kalliovski. Some have instead called him the devil, and only Yann, for Sido's sake, will dare to oppose him."

I really enjoyed this book. Some of its characterizations were a bit typical: the bad guy was referred to as the devil at times, there was a damsel in distress whose parentage was questionable, and the hero was a bit annoyingly virtuous, but overall it was very well written.

I don't usually like historical fiction because even though I'm not a huge historian and I don't know all of the details from that time, if it is written from the point of view of a very famous person from that time and I don't agree with how they are perceived and written about according to the author's point of view, it makes it hard to read and also makes me question how much time they took researching for a fictional account of a very well-known time in human history.

But this one was good! And I also love the time of Marie Antoinette so I was sold there, although I find the French Revolution appalling. I also liked that it was from a point of view outside of the royal family and the aristocracy, to a point. I would never have imagined the revolution from the point of view of an orphaned Gypsy. That was very clever on the part of the author. The magic was fun too, and the horror scenes weren't too graphic so young people could read it without getting nightmares. So I enjoyed it and recommend it to people who like young adult historical fiction with a twist.


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