The Wicked Will Rise by Danielle Paige

Firstly, this is a sequel. I did not review the first book, Dorothy Must Die (sorry!), so if you don't want spoilers, look away!(Here's a little backstory~.) Amy Gumm is "trash". This modern styled retelling of the story, Wizard of Oz, is about another girl who goes to Kansas, after Dorothy. Back at Kansas, Amy was trash, with a single parent (one abandoned them), and a bunch of kids who make fun of her and call her Salvation Army. She's treated like trash, and everyone hates her. But suddenly, she's swept up by a tornado, and lands in the land of Oz. She finds out that Dorothy is evil, and Amy is supposed to kill her- there's a prophecy- yada, yada, yada. She is MAGICAL. And there is a love interest, Nox. Also, Pete is secretly Ozma. Basically, she pretends to be a servant, gains info, all that good stuff. In the end, she tries to kill Dorothy, but FAILS, thus leaving with a gigantic cliffhanger and all of us wondering what to do with our lives. Okay, moving on.
I feel like Dorothy's character development was great, but there was a lot of caution on the "too much magic is a no-no" rule. Foreshadowing much? Anyways, she has to find the rest of the gang so that they can reunite and figure out a plan to try to kill Dorothy. Again. Let's hope Amy doesn't fail again. (I should really stop throwing shade.) Anyways, it turns out that she was given more steps to her mission to kill Dorothy, which was to take the Scarecrow's brain, the Tin-Man's heart, and Lion's courage, in order to kill Dorothy.
Dorothy herself becomes more courageous during the story, although she's set back on the self esteem a little, after she failed to kill Dorothy in the first book. She also learns how to wield her magic more. I also think that the empathy of other characters really resonates with you. You can really relate, and not all of the characters themselves are perfect. They have stupid and irritating moments, but they also have genius and loving moments. I think that the characters really do represent the feelings of an actual human.
I loved the settings in this story. They all seemed wonderfully magical, and they travel a lot. I loved the wicked setting and the different magical objects that they encountered.
The plot was less interesting than the first, because in this she's more traveling and exploring other's characters, but it's still intriguing nonetheless.
I give this book 4.5 stars, and I definitely recommend this for those who love fantasy retellings, dark world building, and magical fighting.