I received a digital advance reader’s copy (ARC) of The School for Wicked Witches by Will Taylor. Since this version is just a proof and not the final version, I won’t quote directly and will keep my comments general.

In The School for Wicked Witches, Ava Heartstraw is about to start her magical education at the witch academy of West Oz… but when her entrance exam’s spell goes haywire, she’s dubbed “wicked” and sent away to the horrible-sounding School for Wicked Witches (Swickwit for short). Once there, though, she learns that this is not, in fact, a reform school, but is actually run by wicked witches, where magical kids practice spells of all kinds. But Ava isn’t sure she belongs here, and is determined to find a way out of the school and back to the rest of Oz. However, it’s unlikely she can do it alone, meaning she’ll have to make friends with her new schoolmates.

This is a perfect book for Halloween, and of course for younger fans of the Wicked movie coming out in November!

Oddly enough, I’ve never actually read The Wizard of Oz or Wicked, so this is my first literary adventure in Oz. And it was pretty fun!

Ava is a good protagonist, spunky and bold and eager to learn, but also with a rebellious and adventurous streak. I also quite liked her friend Henry, and was intrigued by the other student Crow. It’s a fun cast overall, with quirky and colorful characters that feel perfectly at home in Oz.

Speaking of Oz, the setting of this story is obviously familiar to fans of the books and the movie/musical, with some entertaining nods to some of the characters from the original. I also enjoyed Swickwit as a setting. It reminds me a lot of Hogwarts, but Oz-ified. And I also appreciated that Swickwit’s philosophy was to push back against conformity, to encourage creativity. It’s a theme that’s present in Wicked, so it makes sense that we’d explore it here. I do, however, wish that Ava had embraced the idea a bit more, and didn’t instead constantly rail against being labeled as “wicked” by a system that only wants witches to behave a certain way. But then again, this ends in a way that makes me sure there will be a sequel, so maybe her character arc will have a chance to continue.

In the end, The School for Wicked Witches was a perfectly decent middle grade story for younger Oz fans. The characters are charmingly strange, the setting is familiar but new, and the adventurous plot is entertaining. I wish that some of the character development had been stronger, and that the themes of individuality and moral ambiguity had been explored further, but it’s still a serviceable first book in a series (at least, I assume that’s what it is).

The School for Wicked Witches is available now!