WRETCHED
By Emily McIntire
Series: Book 3 in the Never After series
Book Started: 09 April 26
Book completed: 22 April 26
Listening time: 8 hours & 25 minutes
Total pages: 282 pages
Own the whole series in harcopy and audio on Chirp.
I finally finished Wretched. Emily McIntire is one of my favorite authors, and I’m trying really hard this year to actually finish the series I’ve started (instead of starting five more… which is my usual). So, yes—check that box. Wretched is a dark, adult reimagining of The Wizard of Oz—but it’s not a straight retelling. Think: familiar pieces and vibes, just twisted into something grittier.
Key characters:
• Evelina (Evie) Westerly: Evie is the one I kept coming back to—she’s smart, guarded, and grieving, and you can tell she’s been in survival mode for a long time.• Vanessa (Nessa) Westerly: The oldest sister. She’s gone before the story really starts, but she’s the reason everyone is spiraling in their own way.• Dorothy Westerly: Dorothy is… a lot. She’s jealous, reckless, and constantly poking at Evie, and she does not grieve in a normal way.• Farrell Westerly: Their dad. Fresh out of prison, still dangerous, and still making choices that drag everyone down with him.• Nicholas Woodsworth: Undercover DEA, using the alias Brayden Walsh. He goes in to take the Westerlys down, and then feelings (and chemistry) show up and complicate everything.• Seth: Nicholas’s partner at the DEA.• Agent Galen: Nicholas’s supervisor.• Agent Cody Baum: A friend of Evie’s and another undercover agent—he’s basically the “Wizard” piece in this version.• Ezekiel O’Connor: Close to Evie and also the connection that helps Nicholas get inside the Westerly world.
The story begins at a memorial mass in Kinland, Illinois, for Vanessa “Nessa” Westerly. Evie is 17, sitting with her sister Dorothy and their dad Farrell—who just got released from prison after eight years for drug trafficking. Nessa was the oldest (and basically the one who kept everything together), so the energy at this funeral is… a lot. Nessa was ten years older than Evie and raised the girls after their dad went away and their mom bailed. And right there at the service, Dorothy does what Dorothy does: she steals Evie’s spot at the podium to give the eulogy—and she’s wearing Nessa’s shoes while she does it. It’s disrespectful, petty, and honestly sets the tone for the whole mess.
“What if evil isn’t born but shaped by trauma, power, and survival.”
One of my favorite things about the Never After books is that the “villains” aren’t just villains. In The Wizard of Oz, the Wicked Witch of the West is basically just bad, period. In Wretched, McIntire gives that Wicked Witch energy to Evie and turns her into someone complicated—hurt, angry, and honestly trying to survive in a world that never gave her much of a chance. If you’ve read Wicked, you’ll feel the difference right away. Wicked is more “big picture”—politics, society, propaganda, all of that—and it really leans into the question of what makes someone “evil.”
Wretched is more personal and more emotional. It’s grief, revenge, obsession, betrayal… and then romance right in the middle of all that. The big “what if” for me was: what if the villain isn’t born that way—what if she’s made? I’ll be real—I wanted a little more time with the wrap-up. Some of the healing/answers feel like they happen super late and then it’s over. And the whole thing with Nessa? I still have questions. You get hints, and jealousy seems like it’s sitting right under the surface, but I didn’t feel like everything was fully explained. Evie isn’t evil for fun—she’s hardened. She’s been controlled, used, underestimated, and then she loses Nessa on top of it. So yeah… she’s sharp. She takes power where she can get it, and she doesn’t apologize for it. That’s also what makes her interesting to read.
What if “evil” was just the side of the story no one told?
In The Wizard of Oz, it’s pretty simple: good witches, bad witches, sweet Dorothy.
In Wretched, everybody’s got dirt on their hands. People do messed-up things, and sometimes you still understand why. Survival and control matter more than being “good.” Also, Oz isn’t some shiny fantasy place here. McIntire swaps it out for Kinland, and it’s basically the underbelly—crime, corruption, and people making power moves. And the “Wizard” idea turns into more of a figurehead: someone who looks untouchable, but it’s really smoke and fear holding everything up. That mirrors the original Wizard of Oz in a fun way:
• In Baum’s story, the Wizard isn’t actually magical.• His “power” is mostly performance—smoke, mirrors, and intimidation.
The Oz references are there, but they’re darker and more grounded. The “yellow brick road” isn’t cute—it leads to that cottage in the woods that feels like home to Evie, while also being the site of some very illegal stuff. “Emerald City” energy becomes Kinland: gloomy, dangerous, and full of people you don’t want to cross. And the ruby slippers are basically weaponized at the funeral—Dorothy wearing Nessa’s shoes isn’t magic, it’s cruelty. Even the flying monkeys get translated into the Westerly’s’ enforcers. This book is gray-area reading, but it still pulls you toward Evie. You’re not sitting there thinking she’s perfect—you’re just seeing how she got here, and why she makes the choices she makes.
And just to be clear—I’m not saying Wretched is trying to do what Wicked did. Maguire’s Oz is huge and detailed, like a whole political/history lesson. McIntire’s version is more about the people and the power plays. In Wretched, the “Oz” side of things is modern and crime-heavy, and Cody fits that Wizard role. The setting is there to crank up tension and keep the story moving—it’s not trying to be a full fantasy world, and it doesn’t need to be.
“Was the Wicked Witch truly evil, or was she made that way?”
What are my final thoughts. For me, Wretched uses Oz like a backdrop—little symbols and character “echoes,” not a strict retelling. You don’t have to read The Wizard of Oz or Wicked first, but if you know them, it’s fun catching what she borrowed and how she flipped it. Overall, I loved that Emily McIntire didn’t try to recreate Oz scene for scene. She takes the stuff that’s iconic—the road, the “Wizard,” the slippers, the Wicked Witch vibe—and drops it into a story that’s darker, messier, and way more adult. It feels familiar enough to recognize, but still different enough to keep you guessing.
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