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After Oz
After Oz: A Novel | Gordon McAlpine
4 posts | 4 read | 1 reading | 6 to read
Gripping and emotionally riveting, this whimsical tale is an empowering and timely retelling of The Wizard of Oz where one little girl is forced to face head on the prejudices of the Midwest in the late 19th century. Kansas,1896. After a tornado destroys the Gale family farm, 11-year-old Dorothy goes missing. As the days pass by, the Gales are increasingly terrified the worst has happened. But when the girl turns up unharmed four days later, the townsfolk breathe in a sigh of relief. That is, until Dorothy herself relates her account of the events that took place after her disappearance. In vivid detail, Dorothy describes a fantastical land and its magical inhabitants, from the scarecrow, the tin man, and the cowardly lion to the wizard and the witch. Her recollections are not only regarded as delusional, but also as pagan and diabolical in nature, especially when the body of a local spinster is found. Making connections between the evil witch Dorothy claims to have defeated and the ill-tempered old crone, authorities find what they believe to be incriminating evidence, sentencing Dorothy to the Topeka Insane Asylum. When 28-year-old psychologist Dr. Evelyn Grace Wilford arrives at the asylum to interview Dorothy, she begins to wonder if Dorothy truly committed the crime or if something unfathomable has really occurred. In a small town full of insidious secrets, will Evelyn be able to save Dorothy from her terrible circumstances? Or is something menacing lurking just out of sight?
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Melismatic
After Oz: A Novel | Gordon McAlpine
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marleed
After Oz: A Novel | Gordon McAlpine
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Mehso-so

I live in Kansas so have to try Wizard of Oz inspired 📖 even though Kansas typically gets the short end of the where-to-plant-your-feet stick. I expected 11yo Dorothy as the MC. Instead fictional Dr Evelyn Grace Woodford (cousin to the IRL Frank L Baum) rode in from New York to save Dorothy from rural religious Kansans. I get and respect the message, the bastardization of faith - I just wish it wasn‘t with Dorothy, Uncle Henry, and Auntie Em.

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Charityann
After Oz: A Novel | Gordon McAlpine
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Pickpick

This is so good! An accurate picture of what happens when people are too close-minded to consider they might be wrong about something. All of the Oz elements were weaved in so well and I couldn‘t put it down until I finished.

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LibrarianRyan
After Oz: A Novel | Gordon McAlpine
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Pickpick

4.5 ⭐I don‘t know what I was expecting from this book but an addictive murder mystery was not it. While this book is about Dorothy Gale, it has nothing to do with the land of Oz. It is a historical murder mystery. We start with a tornado ripping through a community and everybody looking for Dorothy. She is missing for four days. She just walks out of field and says here I am and I have been in Oz. Dorothy is a tad bit scared because she melted

LibrarianRyan a witch. The community thinks she‘s crazy. And until a few days later when one of the matriarchs of the town is found dead with her face melted off. The first half of this book is “what to do with Dorothy”. Did Dorothy do it? The town has a hearing (not a trial) to show if evidence can prove Dorothy could have killed this woman. The evidence is interesting and intriguing and me going WTF! Dorothy is sent to live in an asylum. And that takes us 4mo
LibrarianRyan And that takes us the halfway point.
The second half of this book is learning more about the towns people because there is somebody who thinks this can‘t be Dorothy and they‘re bound determined to prove it. Listening to this book it felt like a cross between the old movie Return to Oz. At least the part of that movie before she ends up back in Oz, and To Kill a Mockingbird. That seems like a weird comparison, but that‘s just the way it made me
4mo
LibrarianRyan feel. The second half of the book feels like different version of an old show called Christy. A big city lady coming into a new town and a type of life she doesn‘t understand but trying to make things happen. This book was addictive. It was engrossing and the entire time I‘m listening it I keep thinking - I want this for Book Club. I want to talk to other readers; I want to talk to all my Oz loving friends and ask “What do you think?”. At the end 4mo
LibrarianRyan the audiobook the reader is notified that the author has died, and this was their last work. I haven‘t read anything else by this author and it‘s a shame that he is gone because I would read what he would do next. 4mo
BookmarkTavern I love Oz! Stacked! 4mo
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