annieb123's Review of Banished (Storymakers, #3)

by Betsy Schow

Can Princess Dorthea and Rexi have to get the land of Story its happy ending? Find out in this magical conclusion to the Storymakers trilogy, a wickedly funny Wizard of Oz retelling and fairy tale mashup perfect for fans of the Twisted Tales series and Jen Calonita

Dorthea of Emerald is used to being treated like the princess she is. Except she's trapped in a strange land called Kansas, where no one recognizes she's royalty. Not her parents, not the hospital's doctors, not even the cute patient who keeps flirting with her. The only one who knows who she really is? The evil Blanc. And she's thundering into Kansas to erase Dorethea's―and everyone else's―story.

Back in Camelot, outlaw Rexi's got her own problems...like being locked in a tower. She may have trained with Robin Hood, but she's going to need to steal more than a key to escape Gwenevere's trap to take back Excalibur. And even if Rexi manages to get free, she still needs to reclaim her storyline from Morte's wicked plotting.

It's not over until the last spot of ink dries.

Dorethea and Rexi won't give up their happily ever afters without a fight. But with the villains of Story scripting their triumph, does this spell The End for Dorethea and Rexi?

Fast-paced and delightfully unique, Banished is a perfect for readers looking for:

a clever retelling of the classic Wizard of Oz book series
a fresh take on Robin Hood and other timeless fairy tales
young adult books with adventure, humor, and magic
whimsical fantasy for tweens and teens
dynamic and relatable heroines with snark

Originally published on my blog: Nonstop Reader.

Banished is the final book in the Storymakers trilogy by Betsy Schow. Published by Sourcebooks Fire and released 1st February, 2018, it's aimed firmly at the younger end of the YA market. There is a strong continuity and back story for the characters and plot arc from the first two books, so I definitely wouldn't recommend this one as a standalone.

I enjoy the parallel fictional world and fictional characters in the 'real world' subgenre. There are several that are superlative (Jasper Fforde's Thursday Next books to name a standout). This series, the Storymakers, never really got going for me personally. Admittedly, it's been a lot of years since I was a 13 year old girl - the primary audience. On the other hand, there are an awful lot of awkwardly written scenes covered over with sarcastic dialogue. I can't count the number of times I was yanked out of my suspension of disbelief by clunky descriptions or unfortunate dialogue. I received an early ARC for purposes of review, so it's entirely possible that much editing and polishing has occurred in the release copy.

I found many of the wordplay jokes too precious to be enjoyable: 'No way in spell', 'No pixing joke', etc etc. I also freely admit the 'really sane person trying to convince authority figures in a mental hospital that the monsters are real' trope hasalways really bothered me a lot. I'm a medical professional and reading 'chemotherapy' in that sort of setting made me grind my teeth. It was just so unnecessary.

Without belaboring the point, Banished wasn't for me, I am not the intended audience, and there are enough really glowing reviews that my experience is probably anomalous.

Published 1st February, 336 pages, available in ebook and paperback formats.

Two and a half stars (mostly for grammar and snark. If punctuation and sentence structure don't matter to you, add a star or more).

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

Banished (Storymakers, #3)

by Betsy Schow

Reviewed by annieb123 on Jun 5, 2018

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