Ranking The Land of Stories

I have finally finished my fractured fairytale TBR pile! Yay me!! And this one took awhile because damn this series is popular, someone was always checking it out. But I finished and now it’s time to rank em.

1. The Enchantress Returns: The second book in the series really ramped things up with a magical quest. Which okay, the first one was also a magical quest but this took the Bailey twins across the kingdoms into supervillainess’ layers like the Snow Queen, and the Sea Witch, introduced Enzmia whose story would become a dark forshadow of the finale, introduced Bob, introduced Mother Goose (which tbh is the main reason it got number one) and had a tearjerking conclusion that showed Colfer wasn’t afraid to change up the status quo of the world. Also Red accidentally adopting a wolf was hilarious.
2. The Author’s Odyssy: While Colfer has been primarily having fun in mixing up fairytales, he shows more of his imaginative chops through Conner who has fully embraced his authorial destiny to create galaxies, pirates, 1920s archeologists and superheroes, bending and mixing eveyr genre to create amazing stories I’d totally want to read if they were real. They’re not only fun but each story reveals a piece of Connor (as authors always put a piece of themselves, their feelings, and their experiences into characters) and fuel moving conversations within the Bailey family. Also Connor’s characters interacting with the Land of Stories characters is never not funny and Uncle Llyod got what he deserved.
3. Worlds Collide: The epic finale was truly epic and I cannot overstate how impressed I was in Colfer juggling thirty plus characters but divided them into five groups with five separate battle plans, three groups of villains all trying to backstab one another and an emotional climax of a seemingly unbreakable curse. Guy, sure knows how to create a cliffhanger. The reason it’s third is because in its overambitiousness, Colfer a few minor characters that makes the conclusion feel unfufilled as it rushes through its frame story.
4. The Wishing Spell: The first book was wonderful in displaying its humor, adventurousness and genuine earnest love for fairytales and what they mean to those who read them. They’re like your best friends even though they’re fictional. But as usual, the introduction is only a slice of what’s to come and doesn’t hold a candle to the grand scope Colfer writes later on. Still it’s an enjoyable time capsule to the Bailey journey and its optimistic tone fits the atmosphere of the series and the genre.
5. A Grimm Warning: The turning point of the series introduces more new characters and the gorgeousness of Nuschwanstein Castle (seriously, look it up), blending history and fantasy when the Grand Arme breaks a 200 long curse to invade the kingdoms. It’s a race against time within the fairytale world and the real world as the twins struggle in their separation from each other. It has tons of great emotional beats like Connor’s first crush, The dying Fairy Godmother facing a dragon, the beginning of the Book Hugger’s conspiracy club, Alex’s tragic first romance, Jack and Goldilock’s wedding and Red losing her kingdom but it’s definately a “set-up” book, setting the foundation for the rest of the series and future villains for the kids to face.
6. Beyond the Kingdoms: While this is incredibly fun as Connor and Alex venture through Oz, Wonderland, Camelot, the Sherwood Forest and others of literature’s greatest kingdoms, it is yet another filler that allows the twins to find out the real identity of the Masked Man and gather up their own literary army for the final battle. Also it reminds me of Buckley’s eighth book in the Sisters Grimm series where Sabrina and Daphne also get to portal through Oz, Neverland, Sherwood, Camelot etc. I’m not saying it’s plagerism but I’ve seen the story before and so much demote this to bottom of the ranking.