Review: Dorothy Must Die

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Title: Dorothy Must Die
Author: Danielle Paige
Publisher: HarperCollins
Source: Loaned by a friend
Synopsis:
I didn't ask for any of this. I didn't ask to be some kind of hero. But when your whole life gets swept up by a tornado - taking you with it - you have no choice but to go along, you know?

Sure, I've read the books. I've seen the movies. I know the song about the rainbow and the happy little bluebirds. But I never expected Oz to look like this. To be a place where Good Witches can't be trusted, Wicked Witches may just be the good guys, and winged monkeys can be executed for acts of rebellion. There's still a yellow brick road - but even that's crumbling.

What happened? Dorothy. They say she found a way to come back to Oz. They say she seized power and the power went to her head. And now no one is safe.

My name is Amy Gumm - and I'm the other girl from Kansas. I've been recruited by the Revolutionary Order of the Wicked. I've been trained to fight. And I have a mission.

Review: ⋆⋆

** spoiler alert ** 

The Wizard of Oz wasn't part of my childhood. I knew the story, but didn't read the book when I was in high school and only watched the movie fully last year when it was on TV. So I'm not at all attached to (or, really, remember most of) the original world of Oz. It's possible that contributed to my detachment from this book, but I don't think it should. After all, I knew little about actual Trojan mythology but I loved Song of Achilles anyway. 

So with that in mind -- I thought the world building in this book was impressive, and the plot is fascinating. Once Amy gets to the Emerald Palace, I stopped feeling like I had to drag myself to the end. Part of this is because I was intrigued by The Wizard and Ozma and the plight of the monkeys. 

Now, the first of my biggest issues with this book: the summary on the back of this book made me think that Amy was going to have a mission with four steps right away - remove the Tin Woodman's heart, steal the Scarecrow's brain, take the Lion's courage, -then- kill Dorothy - but no. The first three weren't even brought up until around 12 pages away from the end. That (and how the phrase 'Dorothy must die' was repeated a ridiculous amount of time) annoyed me. The other issue was that I felt nothing for Amy. I never felt Amy's emotions, and certainly never thought Nox was a compelling love interest (a dark, hot, and powerful boy who'll probably break her heart - really? It could certainly work, but not here, not for me). Also, Dorothy feels like a caricature. She's over-the-top sexy, dishes punishment left and right, and while greed is an absolutely valid motivation for a villain, I felt that there should be more to make me fear her. I disliked her a lot, but I was never afraid. 


All in all, this book was just okay for me. I know others who have enjoyed it, however, so whether or not you enjoy it may depend on what you're looking for in a book. Though I'm curious about Amy's missions, I probably won't read the sequel.