RAINBOW IN THE DARK

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz gets the Black Mirror treatment in this dark fantasy.

Rainbow comes to in a new reality with no directions, no plan, and only fuzzy memories of what came before. Small clues and directions surface in the form of scraps of paper delivered through blue refrigeratorlike devices as Rainbow proceeds down a ladder to a refugee camp in the sky. As Rainbow continues the journey, the teen encounters three others—grumpy Chad01, and twins Lark, a mystic, and Owlsy, a scholar—and the group bands together to face deadly quests, impossible challenges and a supposedly benevolent wizard named Dave who may have nefarious plans for his polo-shirt–clad devotees. The challenges become more dangerous while Rainbow gradually remembers home—a move to the coast, ongoing depression and thoughts of suicide, and a complex relationship with once-beloved brother CJ—and wonders what awaits on the other side, if there is one. McGinty deftly updates L. Frank Baum’s classic tale with modern-day existential angst, creating a unique world that’s terrifying in both its foreignness and its familiarity. In this novel written in the second-person present, Rainbow is a gender-ambiguous character, never given pronouns or identifiers; physical descriptions are likewise scant, leaving readers to fill in the gaps.

A page-turner that handles mental health with grace.