*Review* Twisted by Elizabeth Montgomery

Photo Credit: Goodreads

Genre: YA/Fantasy

Published: February 27, 2016

Pages: 148

Setting: Oz and Wonderland

Synopsis

Who could’ve known one pair of shoes could cause so much trouble. 

Dee’s lost the sparkly red heels, and when she befriends a witch to help her find a way home, she finds herself down the rabbit hole. With the veil between Wonderland and Oz torn wide open, things go awry.

The flying monkeys are loose in the Kingdom, Hatter is lost on the sun-colored brick road, and betwixt a battle of the worlds, the Red Queen seeks power, but all Dee wants is to go home.

Review

I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

A little known fact about me (unless you've met my mother) is that I LOVE The Wizard of Oz. According to my mother, when I was 3, I had to watch it 3 times a day, every single day. She probably hated the movie after the first month of that. Even though I've never read the books by L. Frank Baum, I get very excited about Wizard of Oz retellings or continuations. Twisted by Elizabeth Montgomery imagines what Dorothy's life would have been like after the wizard took off in his balloon if she'd lost the ruby slippers.

I felt like this approach was a fresh take on The Wizard of Oz story and provided a slightly different view of Glinda that really makes sense if you think about it just a little bit. Even if you think about her actions in the movie (I'm not sure about the books since I haven't read them), they fit with this view of her. 

A big issue with this story for me is that Ms. Montgomery avoided using names from the original stories like the plague, and it was completely unnecessary because The Wizard of Oz is in the public domain. There was no real good reason to refer to Toto as "the pup" all the time, and it annoyed it, a lot. Additionally, when Dee encountered a tin man, it was like she'd never seen one before, and that made no sense at all to me. 

Another issue for me is that there were far too many spelling and grammar errors for a book this size. Granted, I had an ARC, but I checked two separate issues that I'd highlighted against the version available on Amazon and both were still present, so I have reason to believe the others were not caught and corrected either. 

Overall I give Twisted 3 out of 5 stars because I liked the idea and overall story arc, but it failed to deliver on a few aspects. - Katie 

Buy the Book

Amazon

About the Author

Elizabeth Montgomery was born in Williamsburg, Va and raised in Yorktown, Va. Growing up in and around the historic triangle spurred her love for the unusual and paranormal. She is a mom to four amazing kids, a wife to an extraordinary husband and a full-time pediatric nurse. When not writing, working or helping with homework you can find Elizabeth with her nose stuck in a book or hovering around her Keurig waiting for that next cup. She is the author of the best-selling Dyphillum Series, an Upper YA paranormal series, and her latest release Scarred that hit #1 Hot New Release on Amazon for her category. A portion of all proceeds for Scarred are donated to an antibullying foundation.