Book Review: Dorothy Must Die by Danielle Paige

Release Date: April 1, 2014

Publisher: Harper Collins

Pages: 452

Received: Amazon

Star Rating: ★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆








Summary:
                  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 blue birds. 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 the yellow brick road, though—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:
Remove the Tin Woodman's heart.
Steal the Scarecrow's brain.
Take the Lion's courage.
Then and only then—Dorothy must die!

My Thoughts:

-------------------------------------- minor spoilers

When I first heart of "Dorothy Must Die" in late Fall 2013, I knew it was going to be anticipated by many. The title and the cover has SO much potential, but the plot didn't sell me. Paige had an idea that was going places, but her delivery failed.

Amy lives in Kansas (oh what a surprise!!) with a mother who doesn't acknowledge her and a father who abandons her. She was an outcast in high school and in her home life. Then by a tornado, her life turns upside down and she enters OZ. Amy comes along to meet the characters. For instance, Glinda, Tin Man, Scarecrow, and the Cowardly Lion. Of course, they all turned evil too.

The rest of the plot seemed half interesting and half pointless. Amy meets Nox and she gets jealous of him, which annoys me (but not enough for me to put down the book). I notice that the characters need a lot of development and they're not my cuppa tea. The plot rolls along some more with training and magic. We also got to meet the Order, which was nice to see 2 perspectives of who's bad and who's not. Which everyone should agree that Dorothy is the antagonist. 

The blurb on the back of the book:

"Remove the Tin Woodman's heart.

Steal the Scarecrow's brain.
Take the Lion's courage.
Then and only then—Dorothy must die"

I knew almost the minute I saw there was about 25 pages left in the book, all of that blurb would not happen. I think the blurb was just to reel in readers to think it'd be about that type of adventure. BUT NO. It was only mentioned in the last few pages, so if you're going based on that blurb, I suggest you don't because it'll be Amy's journey in the sequel (hopefully??). 

It was not quite an epic read the media told us, but it was mediocre. Yes, I had problems, but I thought it was a- ok on entertaining. Nonetheless, the retelling was decent and I'm having second thoughts about picking up the sequel.

3/5 STARS