At the age of 19, it looks like Dorothy Noroît has her future all planned out, but then one day in 1994, everything changes.
Twenty-four years later, Montreal was in a state of shock following a brutal series of murders linked to a radical group.
As the body count rises, two detectives race against time to stop a killer before more lives are lost.
Publishing year:Â 2026
Page count:Â 320
The Reading Experience
I’ll be honest, I didn’t really know where to start with this one. It’s being sold as a retelling of The Wizard of Oz, but to me, it barely felt like it. Sure, there are a few familiar names, but that’s about where the similarities end. If anything, that expectation made the reading experience even more frustrating for me.
Dorothy’s supposed to be the main character, but I barely felt her presence in the story. She shows up briefly at the beginning and the end, and I have to admit, I really didn’t like her. I thought she was kind of snobby and hard to sympathize with, so I didn’t really care about her character.
My biggest struggle, though, was with the way the story is told. I felt like I was trying to keep up with the book instead of actually enjoying it. There are so many characters that I eventually lost track of who was who and what their purpose in the story was. I had to concentrate a lot just to follow the plot, and for me, that effort wasn’t really worth it.
By the time I reached the halfway point, I already had a pretty clear idea of where things were going, and unfortunately, I was right. That predictability made the second half feel even longer because I wasn’t discovering anything new.
I do think the idea behind the story had potential, though. I could see what the author was going for with the darker tone and the reinterpretation of certain elements. But for me, the execution just didn’t work.
I also felt a bit misled by the genre. It’s being sold as a horror novel, but I didn’t personally experience it that way at all. To me, it read more like a darker, slightly more brutal thriller than anything genuinely scary or unsettling.
Conclusion
In the end, I just didn’t like The Bloody Brick Road. I really wanted to like it because the idea sounded interesting, but the confusing story, the overwhelming number of characters, and the lack of actual horror elements made it hard to enjoy.
If you’re into a more chaotic storytelling style, you might still enjoy it. But if you’re expecting a retelling of the Wizard of Oz or a typical horror story, this one might not be for you.
