Dororthy Must Die: Book Review
When the Harry Potter series ended, I felt a huge void in my reading heart. Then I discovered the Hunger Games but it too eventually came to an end as well. I love book series and when I find a great one I become extremely immersed in that particular world. After going through series after series, I was recommended the “Dorothy Must Die” series by a fellow book addict that became captivated by Danielle Paige’s interpretation of Oz. She has put a unique spin on Dorothy’s tale and the girl from Kansas we all know and love. She has been transformed into a ruthless megalomaniac that’s not as wholesome as we all believed. Her merry cohorts, the Tin Man, Scarecrow, and the Lion are no better. They too have been twisted into perverted versions of their true heart’s desire.
The series follows Amy Gumm, a pink haired teenager that is also from, you guessed it, Kansas. Her life isn’t the most pleasant. Amy is the loner kid in school that everyone picks on. She is the neglected and abandoned child. As a reader, you want things to work out for her. You want her to have a better life than the one she is living. Amy lives in a trailer in the most depressing part of town. Her father abandoned her and her mother to eventually create another family that Amy isn’t a part of. Her mother is a neglectful parent that finds comfort in the bottle. She is bullied by the school’s social elite and is labeled an outsider…(FYI When you read the last book you will be in for a HUGE surprise when it comes to Amy and her bully Madison Pendleton!) Amy believes life can’t get any worst. That all changes when she’s swept up in a tornado and taken to the land of Oz. Sounds a bit familiar right? This series is all about similarities and differences. Everything thing you knew about the story of Dorothy and Oz will be completely flipped upside down.
The fairy tale image of Oz as we all know-bright colors, magic everywhere, happiness, gumballs, and rainbows-forget about it. In this series, Oz has been ransacked of all its glory and is now a shell of what it used to be. Dorothy-the EVIL queen, has been imposing a tyrannical reign over the citizens of Oz. She’s been draining this world of its magic and allowing her accomplices (the Scarecrow, Tin man, and Lion) to terrorize the people. The rest of the series takes us through Amy’s adventure as she attempts to complete her mission of killing Dorothy and restoring Oz to its rightful state. With 4 novels and 8 novellas, you will get your fill of romance, adventure, and above all REVENGE. The concluding novel is filled with the familiar twists and turns we have all come to expect from Danielle Paige. She gave us the proper ending I feel this series’ fan base deserved. I recommend this series to anybody looking for a new spin on a classic tale that appeals to our modern sensibility.
