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Review: Out of Oz by Gregory Maguire

15 Friday Nov 2024

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Rating: ⭐⭐⭐💫/5

The fourth and final book in Maguire’s Wicked series, Out of Oz, had been sitting on my shelf for a decade before I finally decided to buckle down and read it. I was pretty disappointed in book three, A Lion Among Men, so I was apprehensive about this one. Wicked is among my all-time favorite books, and I didn’t want my last memory of the series to be negative. In the end, Out of Oz was pretty decent. I can’t say it’s my favorite of the series, but it brought a satisfying end to the saga of the Thropp family and seemed like a good way to wrap up Maguire’s vision of a gritty and complex land of Oz.

Summary:
Social unrest bubbles through Oz as Munchkinland fights to maintain its independence and the forces of the Emerald City scheme and struggle to bring the economically crucial province back under control. Amidst the chaos, Lady Glinda finds herself under house arrest, while the Cowardly Lion is on the lam with the Clock of the Time Dragon, and rumors begin to spread of the return of Dorothy. Stuck in the center of all this hubbub is Rain, the daughter of Liir and supposed granddaughter of Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West. As she comes of age she’ll find that there is perhaps nothing more dangerous and challenging than being true to her roots.

***

Slipping back into Maguire’s Oz is like taking a vacation to a favorite country. It’s old, filled with secrets, and constantly healing from wounds caused by perennial conflicts. But it has a charm and richness that makes me want to keep coming back (which is probably why I’ve re-read Wicked more than almost any other book in my library). Out of Oz takes the reader through this well-developed backdrop to check in on familiar characters and meet many new and interesting ones. I loved getting to spend time with Glinda again, and even the Lion didn’t annoy me as much this time around. The main character, Rain, has a great arc and her growth as she navigates a difficult upbringing in a chaotic time is ultimately quite satisfying.

That being said, I didn’t quite LOVE this book. There were spans when it just seemed to slog on pointlessly and I couldn’t wait to be done with it. I also strenuously object to the off-screen death of a particular character whose existence seemed so important to the plot of the previous two books. Having that character die in an off-hand way for seemingly no reason felt like a slap in the face.

But this book does something right, because by the end I was riveted, emotional, and loathe to say goodbye to Oz and its colorful characters. My final impression was that this book did a great job wrapping up the Wicked Years quadrilogy.

❓ The film adaptation of Wicked (the musical) is out this month. Are you planning to go see it?

Review: The Witching Hour by Anne Rice

10 Sunday Sep 2023

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Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐💫

I just finished Anne Rice’s expansive 1990 novel The Witching Hour, or as I like to call it, Sexghost: A Southern Gothic.

I tried and failed to read this book when I was seventeen. After having read the first three books of The Vampire Chronicles, to say I was obsessed would have been be a gross understatement. Rice pulled me into this darkly beautiful world of sexy immortals who had lots of adventures and inner turmoil. I wanted to be one of them so badly! So I went into The Witching Hour looking for more of that sort of feeling.

This novel, which gives an exhaustive description of each character’s entire life experience before much of anything plot-related happens, was not it. I got a little over a hundred pages in, then summer ended and I’m pretty sure I just left the book at my grandparents’ beach house.

Anne Rice ended up back on my radar recently, probably because of a podcast, so I figured it was time to give The Witching Hour another whirl. I did make it through to the end, though it felt like a slog at times. I’m really glad that I powered through, though, because this is a gorgeously crafted, luscious work of horror that deserves your time.

At a decaying house in New Orleans, an old woman sits on the porch. Both—the house as well as the woman—are rumored to be haunted. Across the continent in San Francisco bay, clairvoyant surgeon Rowan Mayfair rescues a man from the ocean. He returns to life with the power to see into the past of any object he touches. They’ll soon discover that their lives are already intertwined in extraordinary ways. In Anne Rice’s epic saga The Witching Hour, Rowan and Michael journey back to their home town of New Orleans to learn of the Mayfair legacy and how it’s connected to their destiny. This rich and artful history of the powerful Mayfair witch family tells a tale of forbidden romance, corruption, and an unbreakable pact with a supernatural force. Will Rowan’s powers be enough to save her from being consumed by her family’s past?

Some of the tropes in this book:
Bad Powers, Good People
Good Powers, Bad People
13 Is Unlucky
Tangled Family Tree
Switching POV
I Just Want To Be Normal
Medicate the Medium
Psychic Powers
Superior Successor
Powerful family

I’m really glad I experienced this book mostly in audiobook format. I have a hardback copy as well, and I read from that here and there, but mostly I listened to The Witching Hour on my earbuds. That was the right way to do it. While Rice’s imagery is vivid and haunting, the characters layered, and the plot built on a strong foundation of in-world history, that plot takes a REALLY REALLY LONG TIME to get moving. You have to put in a lot of time on that backstory. It was nice, then, to passively cruise through those parts while I went about my day taking care of my responsibilities.

Rice’s gorgeous prose is the saving grace of this work. It is rich and deep, like a decadent high-end dessert. When she describes the First Street house rotting in the New Orleans humidity, she engages every sense so that you swear you can feel the suffocating heat and smell the flowers growing wild in the neglected gardens there. Each chapter feels like a setpiece you could almost walk through.

And speaking of the house, it’s possible that I enjoyed reading about the house more than any of the actual characters (and I enjoyed the majority of the characters quite a bit). In a way, this book is like a really long, dark episode of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. Early in the novel, we learn that the protagonist Michael enjoys “house movies,” films in which a grand old house figures prominently . This is definitely a house book.

One way The Witching Hour stands out as surprisingly progressive is in its portrayal of a lead female character with sexual agency, who really knows what she wants and voices it frankly. I like Rowan as a character quite a bit—even though the sex ghost stuff gets pretty bizarre there toward the end. We get it, Anne, you’re a kinky bitch.

On that note, there is a whole heap of problematic sex stuff in this novel. From incest that makes the Targaryens look like the Brady Bunch, to statuatory rape, to incredibly mind-boggling things I can’t mention for spoilers, The Witching Hour is filled with it. Rice did not shy away from sexual horror. Anyone who finds themselves upset by that brand of terror will not be into this book.

I was a bit bothered by the fact that, despite this book being set mostly in New Orleans, no black characters were developed in any meaningful way. The ones that do appear are either servants or just there to be atmospheric—like when Michael is walking through his childhood neighborhood noticing how rundown it’s become, and he realizes that no white people live in the area anymore. Some may argue that that’s likely accurate to New Orleans in the late 80s, but even if that’s the case, ouch. BIPOC representation wasn’t encouraged in fiction back then the way it is now, but still, I’m disappointed that Rice had the opportunity and didn’t take it.

Last gripe: Michael didn’t really need to put any effort into looking for answers, did he? Fortunately for him, Aaron is there to function as the Exposition Fairy, literally handing Michael the “How We Got Here” of it all in the form of a file on the Mayfair family. Rice doesn’t summarize the contents of this file from Michael’s point of view, oh no, she slaps the entirety of the file right into the middle of this book. It was already both dense and lengthy, but Rice made a decision between the main plot and dedicating space to the immensely detailed family history. Choosing to go for the history feels a little self-indulgent.

But then again, I can’t argue with the results. I was absolutely riveted by the time, 45 hours into the audiobook, that Lasher and Rowan were finally together in the same room having a conversation. There was so much buildup getting to that point, so many agonizing hours of varying eyewitness accounts and achingly detailed descriptions of everything. Somehow, though, Rice was able to summon with her beautiful voice a level of dramatic, disturbing horror that made the journey feel worth it. I felt well-rewarded for my time.

The Witching Hour by Anne Rice gets 4.5 stars from me. She took this story to some truly bold, horrifying places. I can’t count the number of times I muttered “what the fuck” out loud to myself while listening to it. It is dense and lush, and sometimes you’re just trucking along enjoying the scenery when SNAP! something darts out to bite you, and you’re like, “oh my god Anne Rice, what did you just do to me?” And while the novel could have benefitted from some abridging of the voluminous Mayfair family history in favor of the main plot, the result by the end was so enjoyable to me as a horror fan that I almost feel bad taking half a star away.

What are your thoughts on this book, or on Anne Rice as an author? Chat with me in the comments!

Re-Read Review: The Betrayal (The Fear Street Saga #1) by R.L. Stine + A Reintroduction

13 Sunday Aug 2023

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Before we dig into this Fear Street Saga review, a reintroduction is in order. If you’ve been here before, you may notice some big differences, like the name Adequate Squatch Reads. The old name (Mal Has Bookworms) didn’t really seem to fit anymore (and honestly, was a little bit gross). After a lot of deliberating and weeding out of name ideas that were already taken, I settled on Adequate Squatch because it sounded cool, and because it seems accurate to how I often feel as I move and exist in the world—like I’m a bit of an oddball, but one who’s doing a pretty okay job of blending in.

If this is your first time visiting, hello! I’m Mallory, a food-motivated Gemini who lives in the Midwest and really enjoys a good book or three or seven. I’ll be posting reviews and other book-related content. Check out my Reviews page to learn about my book review standards, and feel free while you’re there to browse my archive of old posts.

If you’re a lover of books, too, then come interact with me about them on social media! Follow @adequate_squatch on Instagram, or click here to be my friend on Goodreads. I can’t wait to talk smack about books with you! ^.^

ANYWAY. On to the reason you probably came here.

A Review of The Betrayal by R.L. Stine

betrayal

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐

I recently came into a lot of Fear Street books.

fear street

Combing through these gems, I was incredibly psyched to get the opportunity to revisit one of my formative reading experiences: R.L. Stine’s The Fear Street Saga.

I read this trilogy out of order the first time around. I was nine years old and already a Goosebumps afficionado, with a few Fear Street books under my belt as well, when I first found a copy of The Burning (Book 3) in the little books and magazines section of the supermarket. It promised to be the origin story of the evil that plagued the citizens of Shadyside. The evil that made 99 Fear Street uninhabitable (for the living, anyway). The same evil that had possessed those cheerleaders! I HAD TO KNOOOOOOOOW!

I took that book home and devoured it. Then I immediately went back to the beginning and read it again. I couldn’t get it out of my head. It had everything I wanted in a story: a generations-spanning curse, forbidden love, fashion, betrayal, witchcraft, and people dying in all sorts of horrific ways. As soon as I could, I found the nearest willing adult to take me to the Tyrone Barnes & Noble to snag the first two books.

Upon finishing the entire trilogy, verily did I become shook. I’d never read something so haunting, violent and all-encompassingly dramatic. It was a shot of Miracle Gro to my budding horror fascination. As horror and its adjacent media genres are basically 60% of my personality today, it’s clear that I owe a lot to these books. Seriously revisiting them as an adult seems like the least I can do.

I had originally planned for this to be a single review for the whole trilogy, but it turns out I have a lot of opinions about these books. So this will be a three-part review, with one post dedicated to each book. Come along with me as I dig into the first book in this series: The Betrayal.

The Fear Street Saga (Subtitle: …where the terror began) was a young-adult horror trilogy by R.L. Stine. In it we meet Nora Goode, the last survivor of the fire that swallowed the Fear mansion. Nora knows of the horrific origins of the Fear family and the curse that has rained misery down upon its descendents. She knows about their legacy of evil and misfortune, and that it won’t stop with death. She knows the story must be told to prevent further tragedy.

The Betrayal tells the story of Susannah Goode, a young 17th century settler who has the misfortune of falling in love with Edward Fier. When Edward’s father Benjamin accuses Susannah and her mother of witchcraft, it sets in motion a chain of events that lead to a horrific curse that the Fiers can never hope to escape. Fleeing town and settling far away on a new farm can only keep the evil at bay for so long. Will Mary Fier be forced to pay the price for her family’s sins?

Note: This trilogy is not to be confused with the Fear Street Sagas, a 16-book series that Stine wrote after The Fear Street Saga. It also tells haunting tales of the Fear family and its curse, but they’re not in chronological order and there is no framing device tying them together.

Some of the tropes found in this book:
How We Got Here
Secret Relationship
Child Marriage Veto
Burn the Witch!
Artifact of Doom
Hereditary Curse
Feuding Families

Re-reading The Betrayal was like squeezing into a favorite old sweater: It’s a little small and out of fashion, but it’s so soft, it smells familiar in a really comforting way, and you remember how good you felt when you used to wear it all the time. In those first few chapters I was immediately sucked into the drama of the mansion on fire, the forbidden love between the rich Magistrate’s son and the poor farmer’s daughter, and the witch trial that seemed so maddeningly unfair.

The plot of The Betrayal is stacked with twists, turns and little cliffhangers that keep you turning the page. Then the witch trial arc ends and you realize that what seemed to be the climax of the story is only the beginning. The plot continues, following the Fiers to where they think they’re safe. You then get a front seat to the heart-pumping action as the curse comes calling. It’s just a whole lot of bloody, horrific fun.

I discovered while reading this, though, that while I love the nostalgia, atmosphere and fast-paced action of these books, like that beloved old sweater it’s just something that’s not meant for me anymore. These are 90s kids’ books and it shows. I found myself frustrated by the stiff dialogue, oversold melodrama, and plot-driven twists that made no sense for the characters—stuff that I didn’t really notice as a preteen, but which really stick out now that I’m (marginally, at least) a more mature reader. Things like the hilariously cartoonish evil of Matthew Fier and the artifically inflated drama of pretty much every scene made it tough to immerse myself in this book as much as I could when I was younger.

The handling of the female characters also bugged me. Two of the three POVs in this book are female, but the primary character trait for each of them is that they’re infatuated with a boy. They don’t have much agency of their own, and seem to primarily exist to be victims of the men’s blood-soaked schemes. As those are the actual juicy parts that move the plot forward, it leaves the women feeling like filler characters, only there to be acted upon for the sake of drama and body count.

All that being said, I truly enjoyed reading this book and there are images in it that may haunt me forever. The story of Susannah Goode as the catalyst for the curse that plagues Fear Street to this day is too good to ever forget. The mayhem that overwhelms the unsuspecting Fiers makes a worthy climax for this chilling introduction to the trilogy.

On re-read, this book earns a three-star rating from me. I understand that these are books for teens, but I also know that books for teens can be done way better than this. I would still recommend this as a really fun read for any teen or preteen who’s just starting to get into horror.

Have you read this book? Share your experience down in the comments. Then make sure you come back next week for my review of the second book in this series: The Secret.