Look, I'll be honest—I started this at 5:47 AM on a Tuesday, wedged between a guy manspreading into my seat and someone eating what I can only describe as aggressive tuna. Not ideal conditions. But by the time we hit Palo Alto, I was so locked in that I almost missed my stop.
Bottom Line: Worth your commute. This is basically a revenge quest wrapped in Oz nostalgia, and Devon Sorvari's narration is the production upgrade this series desperately needed.
When Your Childhood Gets a Security Patch
So here's the thing about Wicked Will Rise—it's the second book in the Dorothy Must Die series, and it operates on a simple premise: what if Dorothy came back to Oz and went full dictator? What if the "good" witches were actually the worst? It's basically a system inversion. Everything you thought you knew about Oz's architecture? Deprecated.
Amy Gumm is our protagonist, another Kansas girl who got tornado'd into Oz, except she's from a trailer park and has pink hair and a chip on her shoulder the size of the Emerald City. Her mission from book one—assassinate Dorothy—didn't exactly go according to plan. Now she's scrambling to find the Revolutionary Order of the Wicked (yes, that's what they call themselves, and yes, it's kind of extra), protect the true ruler of Oz, and figure out what role she's actually supposed to play in this whole mess.
The pacing here is genuinely improved from the first book. No more of those weird pauses that made me check if my Bluetooth was dying. Danielle Paige keeps things moving—Amy's constantly in motion, constantly making questionable decisions, constantly getting into situations that made me mutter "girl, no" under my breath on a crowded train.
Devon Sorvari Understood the Assignment
The narrator. Devon Sorvari is an Earphones Award winner and Audie nominee, and you can tell. Her Amy voice has this specific edge—not quite cynical, but definitely a girl who's had to grow up too fast and is tired of everyone's nonsense. When she shifts to the Wicked Witches, there's this lower register she drops into that signals "these are the complicated allies you're not sure you can trust."
What really works is how she differentiates the villains. Dorothy's voice has this saccharine quality that's genuinely unsettling—like customer service voice but weaponized. You know that tone people use when they're being polite but absolutely mean it as a threat? That. And Glinda—the former "Good" Witch—gets this breathy, performative sweetness that made my skin crawl in the best way.
The production quality bump from book one is noticeable. No random silence gaps, no weird audio artifacts. Clean listen from start to finish.
Perfect for: Train. Gym. Skip for: Deep Work
Here's my honest assessment: this is a 9-hour middle book in a series. You're going to get a lot of setup, a lot of Amy figuring out her powers, a lot of political maneuvering between various Oz factions. If you're looking for a complete story arc with a satisfying ending—this isn't it. There's a cliffhanger. (Of course there's a cliffhanger.)
But as commute fuel? As something to keep your brain engaged while you're stuck in transit purgatory? The ROI is solid. The profanity uptick from the first book might matter if you're listening with kids around—this is technically marketed as YA but skews darker than your average fairy tale retelling.
I finished this in 3 commutes at 1.5x speed. Perfectly followable at that pace—Sorvari's enunciation is clean enough that you won't miss plot points. Could probably push to 1.75x if you're familiar with the series and just want to get to the action.
Who Should Queue This Up (And Who Should Skip)
If you liked the first Dorothy Must Die and want to see where Amy's story goes—obviously. If you're into Marissa Meyer's Lunar Chronicles or Gregory Maguire's Wicked and want something in that "fairy tale but make it darker" space—yes. Wizard's First Rule scratches a similar itch if you want that epic fantasy quest structure with morally gray magic users.
Skip if you need a complete standalone experience or you want something super literary.
The target demographic is clearly YA, but I'm a grown woman who debugs distributed systems for a living and I found it engaging. Sometimes you just want a story where the protagonist has a clear enemy and a mission, you know? Simple goal architecture. Kill the dictator, save the realm, figure out your identity along the way.
Sarah's Final Commit
It's a solid middle-book experience with a narrator who elevates the material. Not going to change your life, but it'll make your commute disappear. And honestly? On a packed 6 AM train surrounded by sleepy tech workers and that one guy who always has a conference call at maximum volume? That's worth something.
