Fairy Tale Spotlight: The Giant Garden of Oz [Book Review]

[Spoilers included for a book nobody reads anymore.]

"The Giant Garden of Oz" is the fifty-third book in the Oz series created by L. Frank Baum. It was written by Eric Shanower and published in 1993. Yes, I know the year drops back below 2006. That is how the Oz canon works sometimes. Some books were canonized out of order to their publication dates.

So this is another book that was written by an illustrator. Eric Shanower is probably best known for being a mainstream comic book artist. He also did the official graphic novels for the original Oz stories by L. Frank Baum. He is an amazing guy and a talented artist, but how is he at writing?

"The Giant Garden of Oz" perfectly breaks the formula of what makes an Oz book what it is. Although it starts off fairly normal, very quickly does this story begin to feel... different. Different how? Well, it starts off being about Uncle Henry and Aunt Em wanting to finally start their own farm in Oz, something that has been put off for many, many, many decades.

This opening bit of the story has one of the most touching scenes in it that I have ever read in an Oz book. It's all about how Uncle Henry just misses being a farmer and wants to get back into the life. This whole scene is so warm and shows much of his relationship with both his wife and with his niece, Dorothy. I liked it, but I figured it was just the author being a little sentimental. Little did I know that this book was going to just about break me emotionally down the line.

Seriously, what the actual hell is this book?! I don't even know where to begin. Basically, something horrible goes wrong with the farm. All the vegetables grow to a giant size overnight. This may seem fun and whimsical, and in any other Oz book it would have been. In reality, having your house knocked up into the sky by a bunch of giant vegetables that also just destroyed your barn in the process is a very real and terrible problem. And on top of this, Uncle Henry is now feeling like he's just a crap farmer and that it may never work out for him.

Dorothy is then dispatched to go to the Emerald City to get help from Ozma and the Wizard. She goes out with Billina the Yellow Chicken and Toto the Dog. She also meets a very nice cow named Imogene and then the Wizard shortly after. Once the Wizard is found... literally nothing good happens after that. The book becomes a constant stream is terrible, awful things that keep compounding on one another until it leaves the reader exhausted and frankly sad.

Eric knew what he was doing though. Don't get me wrong. I actually do like this book. I think perhaps that the author had seen and was also a fan of the surprisingly dark movie "Return to Oz." That movie dealt with some rough topics. There was a constant feeling of dread that lasted throughout that film, and I was feeling it again as I read this book.

Without going too much into spoilers, Dorothy has to undergo so many nightmarish situations caused by the giant garden that it is a wonder she doesn't have PTSD afterwards. During this story, she is frequently cut, smashed, suffers from crippling hunger and thirst, forced underground into the dirt, touched and grabbed by creepy giant moles, and she also is forced out of her clothing so that she has to do a portion of the story naked. She also bled quite a bit when she was hurt, and the author did not mince words about what this was like. By the end of the story, she was a filthy, naked, and terrified girl.

Oh, and by the way, this book is canon. It actually happened.

Surprisingly, much of the horror comes from the fact that nobody can die in Oz. But, as the Wizard explains, if the heart stops beating, blood cannot get to the brain. If the brain doesn't get blood, then it cannot properly function. The person may be alive, but they will remain in a state of unconsciousness until they can somehow be saved, if that is even possible, mind you. In many ways, it is still possible to die in Oz... even if you're technically still alive.

The main structure of this story was a lot like an Irwin Allen movie, such as "Towering Inferno" or "The Poseidon Adventure." It is genuinely as scary as one of those movies as well. This book is basically a survival horror from beginning to end. Although the book is intended for children, be forewarned that in every other aspect, this really is an adult book. Read it to your children at your own risk. If it was made into a movie, it could easily get the PG-13 rating if not R out right. (The R is especially a possibility when you consider how violated Dorothy feels when she loses her clothing and how she has to confront not only her friends while naked but also her aunt and uncle, who are basically her parents.)

"The Giant Garden of Oz" is an extremely well-written Oz book. It's good. It's really good. I do recommend it. Although I should say that if you have phobias of being trapped in the dark and similar things, I would run away from this one. It's so intensely written that it may actually make you feel like it's happening.

By the way, if you are thinking about giving this one a read, it's super available. The book is still in print and available for a very good price for both physical and Kindle versions. If you are looking for a deadly serious Oz book that bridges the horror survival genre with the whimsy of Oz, then you need to read this book. It is well worth your time.

This blog was written on September 27, 2023.

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