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brookhorse's review against another edition
4.0
Another highly enjoyable adventure. Lots of interesting characters, a fun plot, plenty of humor. The ending felt a little bit abrupt, but I didn't mind too much. Also, some very interesting ideas on prisons.
gregsaysstuff's review against another edition
5.0
I was very skeptical about reading past the sixth book, because it was obvious reading foreword after foreword that Baum was trying to end the series with The Emerald City of Oz. Either by that point, a mob of children had just started threatening early twentieth-century water torture, his bank accounts were all running on empty, or a little of both, because for some reason or another he doesn't know the meaning of the words "artistic integrity" and "I have free will and can say no to children." With Patchwork Girl, he seems more or less resigned to his fate at this point.
Honestly, though? The book was actually funny. Not because I've spent a decent part of the past five or so months occasionally bearing witness to an old man of questionable sanity periodically extolling the apparent genius of the Page 29 illustration in Chapter Two, either, which for reference purposes depicts Dr. Pipt simultaneously stirring four cauldrons. The illustration can best be qualitatively described as "okay," and this is all I'm willing to expound on that topic.
This is probably Baum's most facile integration of his growing list of characters yet into a plot centered around newcomers; I would hardly consider their inclusion a spoiler. It appears to be a compulsory feature of Oz to incorporate Dorothy, Toto, and everyone else no matter what in any given book. It thankfully started off with someone totally different, and out of everything I've read so far, Ojo the Unlucky is the most compelling boy to feature in an Oz book at all. The titular Patchwork Girl is batshit insane in a good way. The quest feels more like the quest in Wonderful Wizard than any of the others, and arguably even reads as more JRPG-esque than the former.
That isn't to say it's without its low points. I gave this a five because I'm pretty sure I gave The Wonderful Wizard of Oz a five, and I know I liked this better than that, but there are definitely a number of missed opportunities. Vic was horridly underutilized; I'd have liked to see him implemented as a key to solving a conundrum somewhere along the way. I'm also not a fan of love stories, but I do understand that the B-plot involving Scraps and the Scarecrow made sense and wasn't so overused back in those days. It just depresses me that a character as relateable as the Scarecrow's been this entire time would be the one to get a crush, and without a heart at that! Of course, if the story had been written within the past ten years we'd have had the Scarecrow immediately just hooking up with the Tin Man in The Marvelous Land of Oz I'm sure, so at least I can be thankful it didn't turn instantly to BL, much to the dismay of thousands of weeaboos the world over.
I'm still trying to figure out how both Toto and Billina are from the real world, and how Toto explicitly can't talk because he's from the real world, but Billina can. Perhaps Baum just conveniently forgot that Billina was from roughly the same farm. Occam's Razor at work there. The fact that radium still wasn't considered dangerous at the time of this book's publication continues to fascinate me to no end. I really hope radium in Oz is a totally different element that is far less destructive and unstable. I also have enjoyed the Wizard's character development immensely.
Despite its flaws, I highly recommend this, and ultimately I suppose I'm glad Frank Baum had no spine after all.
Honestly, though? The book was actually funny. Not because I've spent a decent part of the past five or so months occasionally bearing witness to an old man of questionable sanity periodically extolling the apparent genius of the Page 29 illustration in Chapter Two, either, which for reference purposes depicts Dr. Pipt simultaneously stirring four cauldrons. The illustration can best be qualitatively described as "okay," and this is all I'm willing to expound on that topic.
This is probably Baum's most facile integration of his growing list of characters yet into a plot centered around newcomers; I would hardly consider their inclusion a spoiler. It appears to be a compulsory feature of Oz to incorporate Dorothy, Toto, and everyone else no matter what in any given book. It thankfully started off with someone totally different, and out of everything I've read so far, Ojo the Unlucky is the most compelling boy to feature in an Oz book at all. The titular Patchwork Girl is batshit insane in a good way. The quest feels more like the quest in Wonderful Wizard than any of the others, and arguably even reads as more JRPG-esque than the former.
That isn't to say it's without its low points. I gave this a five because I'm pretty sure I gave The Wonderful Wizard of Oz a five, and I know I liked this better than that, but there are definitely a number of missed opportunities. Vic was horridly underutilized; I'd have liked to see him implemented as a key to solving a conundrum somewhere along the way. I'm also not a fan of love stories, but I do understand that the B-plot involving Scraps and the Scarecrow made sense and wasn't so overused back in those days. It just depresses me that a character as relateable as the Scarecrow's been this entire time would be the one to get a crush, and without a heart at that! Of course, if the story had been written within the past ten years we'd have had the Scarecrow immediately just hooking up with the Tin Man in The Marvelous Land of Oz I'm sure, so at least I can be thankful it didn't turn instantly to BL, much to the dismay of thousands of weeaboos the world over.
I'm still trying to figure out how both Toto and Billina are from the real world, and how Toto explicitly can't talk because he's from the real world, but Billina can. Perhaps Baum just conveniently forgot that Billina was from roughly the same farm. Occam's Razor at work there. The fact that radium still wasn't considered dangerous at the time of this book's publication continues to fascinate me to no end. I really hope radium in Oz is a totally different element that is far less destructive and unstable. I also have enjoyed the Wizard's character development immensely.
Despite its flaws, I highly recommend this, and ultimately I suppose I'm glad Frank Baum had no spine after all.
katharine_whitfield's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
cspeet's review against another edition
4.0
This installment of the Oz saga boasted a more comprehensive plot than some of the others (many of which seemed to be a series of unconnected encounters with odd characters and unusual places). I enjoyed the tale and the quest to gather the ingredients needed for the potion that would solve the story's central problem. The ending seemed too abrupt, though, almost as if the author got tired of writing the tale and decided to suddenly wrap everything up. Still, a fun read.
elvislove1234's review against another edition
3.0
This the eight story in the Wizard of the oz series. It was okay.
meaghanpalmer's review against another edition
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
4.0
nostalgia_reader's review against another edition
3.0
A very hasty wrap up to the quest that rendered the whole thing pointless, but overall an enjoyable installment.
lejoy's review against another edition
3.0
Although Book 6 was the final story in the Oz series, a few years later Baum needed money so he returned. Only now that Oz has been cut off from the rest of the world to protect it from threats that means that the stories are likely to be even less interesting. In Book 7, our heroes are Ojo, a Munchkin boy who has spent his entire life in the middle of a forest with a monosyllabic uncle, and Scraps, a girl made from a patchwork quilt brought to life by some magic powder (last seen bringing the likes of Jack Pumpkinhead to life). This explains why our heroes know nothing of Oz despite being FROM Oz and they set out on a quest to collect a bunch of objects. Yes it does sound like a computer game. They spend the first half of the book with Shaggy Man, and the second half with Dorothy and the Scarecrow. There is a brief interlude in the middle where Ojo is put on trial by Ozma, but otherwise it is the usual series of random events with new characters and none of it ever comes back or amounts to anything. In fact I am sure that Baum must have been working to a deadline and suddenly had to end this story before he was ready because it really just crashes into the finale after having really spent its time meandering about earlier and he even forgets to wrap up some of the plot. Or rather, he hated phonographs so brings a phonograph to life in this just to have everyone tell it they hate it. Wow, what a great story. Good news though, turns out Dorothy didn't abandon her kitten in Kansas after all.
eoviattb's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
ljenkins09's review against another edition
4.0
Like all of Baum's books, the author strikes the balance between story and moral lesson that is artful and full of vivid description.