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    Dorothy Must Die
    Dorothy Must Die
    Dorothy Must Die
    Ebook430 pages6 hours

    Dorothy Must Die

    By Danielle Paige

    4/5

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    About this ebook

    The New York Times bestselling first book in a dark series that reimagines the Oz saga, from debut author Danielle Paige. Start at the beginning and discover your new series to binge!

    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. And—Dorothy must die.

    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 a road of yellow brick—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.

    Editor's Note

    Stunning series debut…

    What could be scarier than screeching flying monkeys? This riveting, dark reimagining of Oz, where Dorothy’s return proves nothing to sing about. Follow Amy as she tries to take down Dorothy in this stunning series debut.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateApr 1, 2014
    ISBN9780062280695
    Author

    Danielle Paige

    Danielle Paige is the New York Times bestselling author of the Dorothy Must Die series and Stealing Snow, as well as an upcoming Fairy Godmother origin story series, and the graphic novel Mera: Tidebreaker for DC. In addition to writing young adult books, she works in the television industry, where she received a Writers Guild of America Award and was nominated for several Daytime Emmys. She is a graduate of Columbia University. Danielle lives in New York City.   daniellepaigebooks.com Twitter: daniellempaige Instagram: daniellempaige  

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    Reviews for Dorothy Must Die

    4/5

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    • 5/5
      Review to follow on blog soon!
    • 5/5
      Tornado? Yellow brick road? Flying monkeys? Count me in! When I first saw this book I was a little hesitant. I'm not a big fan of fairy tale retelling's which is what I thought this was. Boy was I wrong. I downloaded Dorothy Must Die from Audible and from the first line I was hooked. Not only is it anything but a 'retelling' but the way that Danielle Paige weaves this story it feels like it's the way it was suppose to happen all along. The Wizard of Oz was always a favorite movie of mine, ever since I was little I've loved Judy Garland, for me my favorite part of the movie was when the dull, black and white screen is suddenly filled with vibrant bursts of color. The road, the slippers the different colored horses all make up my favorite parts. Now imagine Amy Gumm's life. Her life is less then note worthy. Her mother is a not so functioning alcoholic, her father is off with his new family, and Amy just got into a fight with a pregnant girl from her school. But when she is suddenly scooped up and dumped in the middle of Oz by a tornado she doesn't get the adventure that Dorothy got nor does she get the happy ending. The screen isn't filled with bright colors and the only place the yellow brick road leads is imminent death.Along the way Amy runs into a handful of characters, some good, some bad, all completely unique. Amy is quickly recruited to take down the person who has turned Oz into a, for lack of a better description, hell hole. With the help of her pet rat, a wingless monkey and some wickedly unforgettable witches Amy must find herself in order to kill Dorothy and save Oz.
    • 4/5
      Amy Gumm (perfect name) endures. She endures her losses (father abandoned the family, mom is lost in a haze of drugs and alcohol, kids at school treat her like she's trailer trash), helps a popular boy because he wants to leave as much as she does, and hurts inside. When a tornado whisks her double-wide away, she and her pet rat, Star, land on the edge of a bottomless canyon and are rescued by Pete, a boy her age who has amazing eyes and won't tell her much.Amy is in Oz, but things are completely different than we're used to. Dorothy is greedy, cruel and obsessed with gathering all the magic at the risk of destroying Oz in the process. Amy's first friend, Indigo, a tat-covered Munchkin is killed by Dorothy before Amy's eyes when they reach the Emerald City and Amy is imprisoned. Mysterious Pete appears twice in her cell, hinting that she's the one who can fix the mess that is Oz, but he can't really help her. Just before she's about to be hauled off to her trial, this ugly woman appears and offers her a chance to join the wicked side (which is now the good side, or so she's led to believe). Mombi, one of the original witches and Amy fight the Tin Man and his minions, but have to use magic to disappear.Amy lands in a cavern where she meets Nox, a boy who is a bit older than she is and just as enigmatic as Pete. She's trained to fight and hone her own magic because she's going to have to kill Dorothy. Her training and infiltration of the palace staff after morphing into the exact image of one of Dorothy's maids, takes up most of the book.There's a lot of violence and some profanity here, that while appropriate to the story line, will be problematic for some teens and libraries. There's a huge gotcha at the end of the book, leading to a cliffhanger, guaranteed to get readers salivating for the next book. I liked it, but was frustrated by the very elements (the gotcha and the cliffhanger) which had me reading late into the night.
    • 4/5
      Really liked the modern day take on Oz and how a Kansas teen named Amy Gumm goes from dealing with mean girls in the halls to a whole different reality. Paige does a great job setting up the story--Dorothy returned to Oz and aligned herself with Ozma, taking over the realm. I'm not familiar enough with the Baum Oz series to know if the way the lands are set up and how many of the characters are taken from the original, but I enjoyed the fast-paced read and will definitely be waiting to see how the rest of Amy's story plays out.
    • 4/5
      a strong 3.5 of 5 for me. I love the world and the concept. had me hooked in that respect right away. Amy is a likeable heroine as well. but it lost me in the middle with its slower pace. it took a longer time to get exciting again.
    • 3/5
      This book was better than I expected. I did read some of the other reviews on this book and had my doubts. Yet, I was still curious about this book and wanted to read it for myself. So again, I was happy that it was better then I hoped. The world that Ms. Paige has built in Oz is a twisted one. Dorothy is evil. However I think one of the scariest characters in this book was the Tin Man. He is like something out of a horror movie. Than there is Maude the tattooed munkin. Oh and don't forget Glenda, who is not the good witch but the mean b''ch. It is her sister, Glinda that is the good one. Amy is the hero. Although in comparison with all the other characters of Oz, she was dull and a weakling. However again it is because of the world and the rest of the characters that I enjoyed this book. I am curious as to what will happen in the next book. I see it getting better and darker in the next book.
    • 4/5
      Amy Gumm is just another girl from Kansas. She lives in a trailer and her mom is either out partying with her loser friends or too deep in a depression to move. A tornado drops her trailer right into Oz, but it's not like the movies or the books. She expected vibrant colors, magic, and happiness. What's left is sorrow, enslaved munchkins, and a beaten down Oz. Dorothy returned to Oz, made herself queen, and is siphoning its magic for herself until there's none left. Dorothy's friends are also unrecognizable. The Scarecrow kills beings for their brain power and makes grotesque experiments out of the people of Oz. The Tin Woodman kills without a thought despite his heart and the Lion is a savage, monstrous beast. Amy joins forces with those previously considered evil to overthrow Dorothy's reign of terror.I am a die hard Oz fan. I read all of the books as a kid; I was obsessed with the movie; and I read and watch every retelling and permutation out there. Most of them are bad and create mediocre stories out of nothing (looking at you Oz the Great and Powerful) rather than drawing on the very rich world of Oz that L. Frank Baum created over the course of fourteen books. Danielle Paige chose the latter route and wrote a unique story with many characters no one hears about and looking at Oz as it was in the books while expanding upon it. Some of these characters include Mombi, the Good Witch of the North (who didn't previously have a name), Jellia Jamb, and Ozma. I am so excited to see Ozma that I don't know what to do with myself. She's the ruler of Oz after the Wizard and the Scarecrow and she is never in any reimagining at all despite being a major character. I hope she has a major role in the next book. Anyway, I appreciate that Danielle Paige knows the world and doesn't just make up random stuff that wouldn't make sense. I greatly enjoyed her twisted version of Oz with a healthy dose of horror. It was darker than I was expecting from a YA book, but for me, that's a plus. Dorothy is power hungry and cruel with a veneer of sickening sweetness and beauty. The Scarecrow readily sacrifices Ozites to keep his brain power up and to do sick and torturous experiments on. The Tin Woodman has made himself into a weapon and commands an army of cyborg weapon soldiers created by the Scarecrow. He's also hopelessly in love with Dorothy and will do absolutely everything and anything she asks. The Lion is a grotesquely huge beast who feeds on people's fear and attacks often for no reason. All of them serve Dorothy and work towards the destruction of Oz. What I would like to know is how it got this way. They all started out as wholesome, good creatures. I understand Dorothy is an addict who needs more and more magic to feel beautiful, special, and powerful, but why would the others, who have lived in Oz all their lives, condone and help her destroy their land?The execution of the novel had a few problems. The pacing is really off in places. Parts that didn't need so much time went on for pages and pages while pivotal scenes were rushed through. The romance distracted from the story without really adding anything except for fitting into the typical YA book model. The description on the back cover doesn't even get addressed until the very end of the book and isn't yet completed. The book ends literally in the middle of a scene, which I hate. I understand leaving plot lines open for the next book, but abruptly cutting a book short is just annoying. Dorothy Must Die makes my inner Oz fanatic very happy in that she addresses and acknowledges little known characters and the existence of the world as it was created by the original author. It's not a perfect novel, but the positives outweigh the negatives. Danielle Paige's writing really sucked me in and made me overlook some of the problems. I will definitely be reading the next book because I need to know what happens.
    • 4/5
      I read this for book club and the overall consensus is that it was wonderful. Very exciting and fun. I enjoyed 'The Wizard of Oz' by Baum as a teenager so I was wonderful to have a new continuation to read. While some of the character portrayals bothered me, I realized how much they made sense for those characters to turn into what they are now. By far the hardest one for me to deal with was the Scarecrow, who was my favorite original Baum character. While we are introduced to so many new characters it's not hard to follow their individual stories as Paige is a very thorough writer. I love that the underlining 'love story' is not overwhelming and the story itself focuses so much and the development of the main character, Amy Gumm. I am very excited to read Paige's prequels as I am very curious about how these characters got to where they are. A great story full of sass and magic and wonderful so many different audiences.
    • 4/5
      Amy Gumm is just an average poor girl from Kansas. She lives in a trailer park, shops at the thrift store, and is bullied by the mean girl in her class. Her mom is an addict, hardly functional, so Amy has been acting as head of the household since she was 13. When a tornado sweeps through town and deposits Amy in Oz, there's a large part of her that doesn't want to look back -- no "there's no place like home" for her. But Oz isn't the cheery land of movie and storybook that Amy expects: towns have been reduced to vacant ruins, dangers are everywhere, and the few people Amy does meet are cryptic and unfriendly. The source of all of this misery is, of course, Dorothy Gale, the other girl from Kansas. Apparently, home wasn't all it was cracked up to be for Dorothy, either, because she has returned to Oz and now rules beside Ozma (who she's somehow reduced to a mere puppet-like figure) as a princess, demanding every good thing for herself (including the land's magic) and withholding it from everyone else. The Cowardly Lion leads an army of beasts to enforce her wishes, and the Tin Woodsman has a troupe of metal soldiers who protect her. Meanwhile, the Scarecrow bends his powerful brain to scientific experimentation, creating mutants and fiendish devices for Dorothy as she relishes her life of luxury. Obviously, something has to be done, but is Amy the one to do it? She may be from the same place as Dorothy, but she's equipped with neither magic nor fighting skills -- at least, not until she falls into the hands of the Order of the Wicked, a group of witches and fighters dedicated to one goal: Dorothy must die.Now, I have to admit: I'm no Oz aficionado. I neither reverence the original nor adore the Wicked version (though, to be fair, I haven't seen the musical yet, so I suppose that could change). In terms of fantasy lands, give me Wonderland, give me the Enchanted Forest, give me Neverland, give me (please O please give me) Narnia, but Oz? Meh. I couldn't tell you the difference between a Quadling and a Gillikin if one came up and poked me in the nose. So I'm not fussed about any authorial depredations on Oz and its inhabitants, nor am I bothered by Dorothy coming back and being evil. What does bother me about this book, you may ask? Well, I'll tell you: the GINORMOUS CLIFFHANGER at the end of the book. That bothers me. Sure, there were times when I found the characterization a little flat, and the pacing, though generally good, lagged once or twice. But all of that pales in comparison with the GINORMOUS CLIFFHANGER. I did find the premise of a dystopian Oz interesting, and I think this book will appeal to teens (there's a hot guy or two and some fighting), but did I mention that it ends in a GINORMOUS CLIFFHANGER? Because anyone like me, going into the book not realizing it was the beginning of a series, might be a bit put out at that. But if you're fascinated by the concept and not bothered by books that end in a GINORMOUS CLIFFHANGER, you might want to give this a try.
    • 5/5
      Most people are aware of the reimagining of the classic The Wonderful Wizard of Oz in the form of the book entitled Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire and/or the musical by Winnie Holzman. However, Dorothy Must Die takes a completely different spin on the classic tale. In Paige's version, Dorothy has returned to Oz and she is the epitome of all things evil. The Tin Woodman, Scarecrow, Lion, and Glinda are her willing participants in turning Oz into a fearful, corrupt place devoid of any happiness (other than Dorothy's own). Amy Gumm (also from Kansas) has stumbled into this world and she is tasked with the ultimate mission: Kill Dorothy. This book is the first in a series (which I will HAVE to read just as soon as I can get my mitts on the prequel novellas) and the sequel has just come out entitled The Wicked Will Rise. I highly recommend this to anyone who is 1. A fan of the original Oz series by L. Frank Baum. 2. A fan of Wicked. 3. A fan of fairytales being turned on their head (think Once Upon a Time). Trust me, guys, this one is worth your while.
    • 3/5
      Random Thoughts Really liked the intro, it hooked you in right away and left you not wanting to put the book down Fabulous idea for a storyline, but felt this might have worked wonderfully as a standalone book rather than series material Pleasantly surprised by a plot point near the end - really didn't see that one coming Amy is a likeable character that you cheer for. She is tough, yet flawed and very realistic. With all of the things I didn't love about the book, at least it kept me interested till the end Great title and intriguing cover will get plenty to pick up the book Story drags a lot and we are not really given a lot of clues as to why everything went to pot in Oz - or at least that makes a lot of sense Intrigued me enough that I will read the rest of the series - unless the next book goes nowhere too. Pacing was off. It was very slow, than really fast paced. Just felt out of synch Honestly I felt a little disgusted by making all the loveable characters from the Wizard of Oz into such horrible characters - just a little though, since it in a unique idea I think this book has a lot of potential, just needed more work and again, this would have probably worked better as a standalone Intriguing descriptions of the physical changes in the Tinman, Lion and Scarecrow - felt like something Tim Burton might have come up withMemorable Passages/Quotes"They were always predicting disaster around here, but although nearby towns had been hit a few times, Dusty Acres had always been spared. It was like we had cliche to shild us -- Tornado Sweeps Through Trailer Park, Leaves Only and Overturned Barbeque. That's something that happens in a movie, not in real life." "Girl gets whisked away to fairyland and all she can think about is going home? Sure, she missed her auntie Em. But you'd think her aunt would be happy for her to have gotten out of Kansas. Personally, I'd always thought Dorothy should have clicked her heels together and wished for something better than a trip back to Nowheresville.""The top was clingy and it had some sort of bra thing built in that made my flat chest look a little less flat. Say what you will about these witches, but they valued style."3 Dewey'sI received this as part of the Indigo Insiders program and am in no way required to read, review or try to sell
    • 3/5
      Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz has had herself named princess and is sucking all the magic out of Oz to support her lavish magical lifestyle. Her henchman, twisted versions of the Scarecrow, the Tinman and the Lion have also let power go to their heads and rule Oz under a reign of terror. A new girl blows in from Kansas, and it is up to her to put things right again. Her assignment: assassinate Dorothy.
    • 3/5
      Bored. Boring. Bored. I REALLY hope The Wizard of Oz doesn't become the new "zombie" or "teens save the dystopian world." There is way too much Wizard of Oz re-imaginings and sequals out there already. Please don't let this become the new literary fad.
    • 4/5
      Overall I enjoyed this book. I found some parts to be a bit juvenile, but at the same time some parts were super gory, so it was kind of like whiplash? But overall I did like it and I like how she brought in the lesser known characters from the original series. The style of writing is easy to read and does go quickly. The story line is good and I am looking forward to reading the next book. I would recommend this book. 4.5 out of 5 stars.
    • 4/5
      "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.
      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." (from the book jacket)
      This version of Oz is nothing like the one we all remember. It is a darker, scarier Oz and it really works. We discover the strangeness of it along with Amy and we understand her confusion. Where are the munchkins? Where are the poppy fields and all the beautiful colors? And Glinda is bad? It's like the world has been turned upside down.

      As it turns out, Dorothy came back and apparently became obsessed with power. She is draining all the magic from Oz and in the process, turning it into a barren wasteland. And the Wicked Witches have banded together in a secret rebellion. They believe Amy is there for a reason and she can stop Dorothy and kill her. They believe that is the only way to bring back the magical Oz we all remember.

      But, can Amy commit murder, even if it means saving Oz and maybe her own life?

      As you may have noticed from my previous reviews, I enjoy reading books that take a familiar story and twist it into something new. This book is no exception. I LOVED it. And I can't wait for the sequel. There is a prequel novella as well that I am going to look into (No Place Like Oz).

      Recommended to:
      Fans of fractured fairy tales or anyone who likes classic stories told with a new twist. Also fans of magical adventure stories. This is a "young adult" novel, but keep in mind it contains a lot of violence and gory details. :)
    • 5/5
      As a huge Wizard of Oz fan, it was fun to revisit Baum's old world with a new twist.
    • 3/5
      The "heroes" were fine, but the "villains" were what bumped this up for me. Chilling and twisted! Hopefully the sequel will be less predictable...
    • 3/5
      This was ... not good. It's a classic example of a really interesting idea married to mediocre plotting and pedestrian writing. Other than that, it's great!No, but seriously: Amy Gumm is a teenage girl living in Kansas (remind you of anyone else in literary history)? She's got the usual angsty teenage girl troubles — a dysfunctional mother, an absent father, mean girls at school — but all of that pales in comparison to what awaits her when a tornado blows her trailer home off its foundations and brings it down in Oz. Yep, that Oz.Despite the author's fondness for refusing to share information with either her protagonist or her readers, we and Amy eventually learn that something or someone has brought her to Oz because it needs saving. It seems Dorothy, having first decided there was no place like home, took one look around the flatlands of Kansas and decided she was better off in Munchkinland. So she returned to Oz, where through some convoluted shenanigans that I still don't understand managed to overthrow the reigning princess and take control. Now she rules with an iron fist, in the form of a tyrannical Tin Woodman, along with a no-longer-cowardly Lion and a mad-scientist Scarecrow. Oh, and Glinda the Good Witch is now a bitch. The Revolutionary Order of the Wicked (as in Witches, among others) trains Amy to infiltrate the Emerald City and snuff out her fellow Kansan so that Oz can return to the magical wonderland it was always meant to be.So the concept is intriguing but the execution is a mess. Amy is a whiny teenage girl (to be honest, not my favorite category of human being, and I say that as someone who was one) who is forever haring off and getting herself into trouble. The witches who are grooming her to be an assassin are more cryptic than a British crossword, and there's a painfully strained attempt at a love triangle that is just stupid. And if all that was not enough, the book ends on a damned cliffhanger and it turns out there are four or five more books in the series.A few caveats to my negativity: I am assuredly not the target audience for a YA novel, though I have read and enjoyed many. Also, having never read L. Frank Baum's original Wizard of Oz books nor ever having seen the movie, I suspect some references may have gone over my head. And finally, I listened to the audiobook, narrated by Devon Sorvari, and I thought it was pretty terrible. It got better once the action moved to Oz but she still had that snotty teenager voice going that sets my teeth on edge.One-tenth of a star upgrade for the name of the main character; the birth name of Judy Garland, who played Dorothy in the classic movie, was Frances Gumm.
    • 4/5
      “A Wizard of Oz retelling???? SIGN ME UP” is what I said when I saw the title. But it’s not a retelling, it’s a continuation of the story/movie *whatevs* we all know and love…*cues “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” soundtrack* Dorothy Must Die is about a girl who found her way to Oz. Amy Gumm lives with her mom in a rednecky trailer park in a trailer. She has a pregnant bully constantly on her back and her mom probably loves her pet rat more than her own daughter. Amy’s got it real good…One day after getting suspended her mom leaves for a night out in the middle of a wind storm. The wind picks up and a huge tornado takes Amy inside the trailer to a land far away from Kansas. After a bit of confusion and disbelief she accepts that she was just transported to Oz and has an impending audience with Dorothy Gale (yup that one). Dorothy just happens to be the princess of Oz, the good and beautiful and kind princess that everyone loves…only that’s too good to be true because the book is called Dorothy Must Die and soon we find out why it’s necessary to kill her.I really truly wanted to love this book because I love Oz, I love Wicked, I love Frank and I love sexy guys with silver hair…it’s just…this was kind of a really amateur novel. It was a good premise and all but the execution was kind of poor. The book started off so well, the transition to Oz wasn’t so fast that it was jarring or anything but then it went to action too quickly then simmered down like an ice cube in lava and then confusion and then just so much that I was confused and decided to reread another book I had with me on the plane ride to New York City. Once I got back into it and far from the boring two chapters that made me stop reading it I was quite intrigued yet something just felt off. Plot wise it was really good but organization was really wonky and it was just kind of a put off. Amy is a decent protagonist that one could relate to but sometimes she gets on my nerves but there’s nothing I could do about that. The neat thing about the book is also that there isn’t really a definite good guy or bad guy. Dorothy sucks at being a princess but the people trying to take her down are pretty shady too. We get to choose who we want to root for. The romance is there but I couldn’t really get to it because of the sad organization of the plot. One minute Amy was with Nox (super hot guy in the secret let’s-take-down-Dorothy-and-her-minions services who trains Amy in this service to eventually kill Dorothy herself) and the next all of a sudden they have feelings for each other. I was so confused by the plot that I didn’t have time to register this romance. It’s my understanding that this is going to be a series….so I forgive this lack of cohesiveness in the first book but we’ll just have to see if Amy succeeds.
    • 4/5
      I would imagine that a real fan of the Oz movies and books would find affront by this book but I am not that fan. Amy Gumm lives in a trailer park in Kansas. Her mother has been on a downward spiral of alcohol and pills after a car accident so it is no surprise when she leaves Amy and her pet rat during a tornado warning to go drinking with her gal pals. The trailer is picked up by the tornado and comes down, not on top of a wicked witch, but at the edge of a pit dug into the earth. Amy is rescued by a young man who gives Amy her first introduction to Oz. But it is not the Oz of the movie. It is a desolate and bare landscape. The yellow brick road practically forces her to start on her journey to the Emerald City and along the way she meets new characters that are twists of the traditional story. Basically, Dorothy came back to Oz and is maniacally stripping all the magic from the land and leaving the inhabitants in fear for their lives.An interesting twist on a hallowed children's story.
    • 5/5
      I really enjoyed this! (more later)
    • 2/5
      This is a YA novel offered as a Barnes & Noble Serial Read. The premise is that Amy, a girl from Kansas, is sucked up in a tornado and delivered to Oz; but an Oz devoid of the Technicolor and charm of the movie. The idea of it is great; but Paige never really fully committed to developing the characters or the relationships. Superficial treatments of the settings and action lines, plus a lack of complex vocabulary, plus a lame ending, all added up to a light, forgettable, and non-compelling story.
    • 4/5
      Amy Gumm has been named "Salvation Amy trailer trash" by her classmates at school. As if that is not enough, Amy's Dad left her and her mother when Amy was little. And for quite a few years Amy's mother has been mostly lost in her own world of alcohol and self-pity. They happen to live in a trailer in Dusty Acres, Kansas. When we read that a tornado develops and lifts Amy and her trailer into its funnel while twisting and turning them until they are dropped in the land of Oz we are reminded of another girl from Kansas by the name of Dorothy whose house also landed in Oz. But Oz is not a happy place now because Dorothy is the ruler and she is an evil and self-centered ruler. However, Amy's arrival seems to portend changes for the future of the land because there is hope that she will be the one to free all of Oz by killing Dorothy. This appears to be an insurmountable task but Amy finds that she has many allies who are willing to offer her their assistance.Dorothy, the Scarecrow, the Tin Man, the Lion, the Wizard and all of the familiar characters from Baum's story of Oz appear in this book. But Danielle Paige has given them new dark personas and the land of the Yellow Brick Road is a scary one. I found the changes to be intriguing. Unfortunately there were a few parts of the book that got a little slow paced and the book ended rather abruptly. Even so, I will be waiting for the next book to learn if Amy is successful in freeing Oz from Dorothy's powerful rule. And will she somehow make it back to Kansas to be reunited with her mother.
    • 5/5
      This is one of those books that you just don't want to end because you know you are going to have to wait a while to find out what happens next. I will be impatiently waiting for the next installment.
    • 4/5
      So, if you know me then you know how much I’m a big fan a classics. In fact, when I was a little girl, I adored The Wizard Of Oz. I remember ABC even doing a special on it and how excited I was to watch it. Now, when this little pretty fell into my hands, I knew I was in for an adventure.Plot: This plot is simple. This is based on The Wizard Of Oz. So if you know they classic, then this book will be easy to follow. I really enjoyed how the story had similar situations just like the classic did but with a twist. The plot twist in this book gives the story it uniqueness. Once I got a feel for the main character and the plot, it was so easy to fall into and enjoy.Dorothy/Amy: One thing I love about this story is how well-rounded Amy is. Amy is not your typical gal either. She comes from this rough life of property and missing parents. To see her become herself with the story, to overcome many of her fears is amazing. The author does a great job in creating this weak…yet strong voice for Amy. She has a growth in the story that just pushes the reader to see more.Ending: With all that is happening in the story, Amy has a lot to accomplish. I like that not every part of the story is given away at once. The reader is given pieces of it to revel in, yet it also makes the reader more intune with the characters. Make sense? The ending comes together beautifully and I can not wait to see what the next book has to offer.Like many other re-tales, Dorothy Must Die begins with a bang. Lots of action and drama, Dorothy Must Die is an rousing adventure that is pleasing to the readers. Powered with a freshly written perspective, Dorothy Must Die is awesome!
    • 4/5
      I love fairytale retellings, and I thought Dorothy Must Die was a homerun. In this novel, Dorothy returns to Oz and is now their Princess. Oz is now unrecognizable, with Dorothy hoarding all the magic and spreading fear throughout the land. Her companions the TinMan, Scarecrow, Lion, and Glinda have also gone through various transformations and are now evil, twisted versions of what they once were. It's up to Amy, another girl from Kansas who was brought to Oz by a tornado, to remove Dorothy from power and restore Oz to it's original state. The acts of evil throughout the book are horrifying and you can't help but root for Amy in her quest. She still has lots to learn and I am looking forward to the next installment to see how she proceeds.
    • 5/5
      I give this a glowing review because first and foremost its Oz related! Fans of the Lunar Chronicles and A.G. Howard's 'Splintered' and 'Unhinged' will particularly like this book. The twist on the traditional Oz story is fun, fresh and edgy. Amy is a strong female protagonist. The story is full of snark, a bit of wistful romance, and some dark twists that breath 21st Century life into a 19th Century classic. I look forward to the next book!
    • 3/5
      This was a very new and inventive take on the what happens after the happily ever after. I was intrigued by all the new characters and the spin put on the old favorites. I was somewhat surprised to see the raw, truthful grittiness with which the author brutally killed and maimed new friends to classics. Of course it is a series so it ended on a cliff hanger that makes you feel ready to turn the page. We'll see if I can fit the continuing saga of Oz into my future reading schedule.
    • 2/5
      I don't mean to be unkind to this book when rating it, because it was truly entertaining and it was easy to get lost in the characters and in the plot. However, I found a lot of places where it just seemed like the author forgot a lot of what she was writing as she wrote it. Something would be explained to the main character, Amy, and then not even a few paragraphs later it was as if she hadn't ever known it and was learning it (again) for the first time when a different character explained it to her. Events got the same treatment. I found this to be distracting and confusing, and I frequently had to wonder if, since this happened so often, was it by design or just sloppiness? I kept thinking that at some point it would all come together and I'd realize by the last page that it only LOOKED sloppy, even though I found it hard to figure out how in the world most of this forgetfulness could be explained. But, unfortunately, that didn't happen. Still, this is just the first book so maybe it will be explained in another book, after all.

      As I said before, though, this book is entertaining and easy to get lost in, despite that. I was interested to see what was going to happen to Amy, or to her Oz acquaintances, next. And there was a twist at the end that I definitely did NOT see coming at all. When it happened, I had to reread the paragraph a few times!!

      I liked Amy's upbringing, as well. Not because I think someone deserves that, but because I think it's very relatable to a lot of young people, especially today. A cheating father who walked out on the family so that he could start a new one, a mother who used to be a great mom but became so bogged down by stress and sadness, and possibly depression, over her circumstances that she essentially gave up and became an alcoholic and left Amy not only to basically raise herself but to take care of her mother, as well. Bullies at school, not popular. Having been accustomed to a much better life when her family was whole only to end up having to live in a trailer park. But, despite that, she still had goals she wanted to accomplish, even if they were just personal goals that were to get her from one place to more comfortable other place.

      This is a character that a lot of people can relate to, and I'm glad that she has this background. I'm more used to characters who come from more conventional families with both parents present. And if they aren't, something tragic and unforeseen has happened to make that occur, or they're workaholics. Characters with backgrounds like this are also relatable and necessary, I don't mean to imply that they should be abandoned. But, when that's really all the variation you get most of the time, there are LOTS of kids out there who don't have home lives that look at all like that who aren't getting represented. I think Amy Gumm's character is great not just because I find her personality likable and relatable, but because I think her character's background comes from a place that a lot of kids will be able to see themselves in her in ways that they don't normally get to due to similar life experiences rather than just similar personalities.

      I'm looking forward to the next book to find out what happens with Amy Gumm and her adventures in Oz! I really want to know! And I want to see more of Amy.

      I'm also really interested to see what happened to cause Dorothy to become the way she is. There's a lot of speculation and hints in this book, but no concrete answers. So, I'm glad to find out that there is a digital novella that works as a prequel that will tell us this and I'm looking forward to reading that at some point soon, too. Throughout the entire book, you can't help but wonder. Amy wonders, too. It'll be great to get to see it play out.

      Seriously, don't let my rating or my points about sloppy writing in places, deter you from this book. It's definitely worth reading!
    • 4/5
      Let's start with, lately I have seriously had a knack for picking stories told in first person...which I hate. This was an interesting enough story that it was pretty easy to ignore. This book was dark, very dark and a teeny bit gruesome.Amy is a teenager from Kansas. She lives in a trailer, her dad walked out on them, her mom has turned into a junkie that blames Amy for every bad thing in her life. Her school life is terrible, she's been bullied for years, has no friends and no means of escaping her craptastic life. That is until a tornado hits and sweeps her away to Oz. Yup, just like in the movie she'd seen bunches of times as a child.However, she doesn't find herself in the Oz of the movie or storybook. This Oz is desolate and decaying. As it turns out, Dorothy, who had gotta a taste for magic, found her way back to Oz and took over. Now she and Glinda are mining it for it's magic and killing it an it's inhabitants in the process.Amy, who has her pet rat, Star as a companion meets people who (somewhat) explain to her what has been going on and eventually she falls in with the Order. Which is led...by...the...wicked...witches? Yeah, things have gotten so bad that the wicked have joined forces to stop Dorothy, and Amy is their weapon of choice. She is trained by them in combat and in the use of magic before being sent to the palace in disguise. She's meant to be a spy to gather information that will help with their plan, only Amy is never given the details of the plan or a way to relay any information she may have discovers. She has to wing it and in doing so learns that there is more than one faction that is trying to rise up and take Dorothy out of power... and she gets herself into trouble.I like Amy, but she's too full of doubt and indecision. Which, considering her circumstances is totally understandable. My thoughts are that she can't really trust any of the factions, and she knows that, but hasn't exactly accepted it. While these groups may be operating under the guise of making Oz great again--and yes that is an actual phrase from the book and it made me cringe reading it--I think they all want Dorothy out of power because she's a monster who is destroying their world, but also because they want to be in power themselves.Amy has a tough road ahead because her mission is to kill Dorothy, and she royally botched it in this book. Dorothy has managed to escape and no one knows where. Now Amy's been thrown together with a different resistance group and who knows what they will tell her in order to get her to do what they want. All she knows is that before she can kill Dorothy, she must stop her first companions in Oz. That means, taking the heart of the Tin Woodman, the brain of the Scarecrow, and the courage of the Lion. And then, hopefully, Dorothy will finally die.

    Book preview

    Dorothy Must Die - Danielle Paige

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