Maybe it's unfair for me to rate this book because I couldn't finish it, any of the three times I tried to read it. It was horrible every time, and the farthest I ever got was about halfway through. I couldn't stand the characters (most of whom didn't really seem to DO anything at any point), the narration style was bizarre and meandering to the point of frustration, and nothing about the story was compelling in any way. I've been told it's more in the style of the book version about the Wizard of Oz, rather than the film, and people who've read that book seem to like it more than people who haven't. 
 Still, bottom line, a good book is a good book. Especially since this was not part of a series and should be readable independent of the other one. I would only recommend this novel to someone I wanted to see suffer.