Book Review: Dorothy Must Die

NOTE: I read this as an ARC but it was published on April 1st.

Dorothy Must Die is the start of a trilogy by Danielle Paige. It's about Amy Gumm, a Kansas girl who is whisked away to a dystopian Oz and roped into a dangerous, mysterious plot to murder Dorothy, who's gone mad with magic and power.

This book was badass. Allow me to explain:

*WITH MINIMAL SPOILERS*

The characters: With quirky names, traits, and back stories, the Ozians were fun companions to Amy's story. I really liked that everyone was flawed and "wicked" because, for a fantasy involving a girl being taken from the "real" world to a crumbling, famous one, they were fairly relatable. I really liked how I ended up feeling about the characters, like how I rooted for the witches, flying monkeys, and the munchkins...

YOU GO, GUYS! 

And rooting against Dorothy, the Tin Man, Scarecrow, and the Lion.

GO AWAY AND LOSE, DAMMIT

The realm: The Wizard of Oz was one of my favorite stories and movies when I was younger, and I had the twisted pleasure of seeing it morph into something terrible that needed to be fix by a seemingly run-of-the-mill "trailer trash" girl. It's an awesome world to get sucked into, and the aesthetics of it are awesome.

The premise: Everyone knows that there are no "original" ideas anymore, but we could at least have interesting twists on the old ones. I'm sick of the same reboots being done over and over and over. We should do more stuff like this. I think Paige did a great job taking the conventions of the original story and putting them in a fucked-up world with ideas and new conventions that our current world can offer.

Fancy phrasing aside, this book made me feel badass reading and hopefully you'll feel that as well when you read it. *cough cough*

9 Demented Dorothys out of 10. Yay!

Sincerely,

Owyn