The Yellow Brick Road Crumbles...
Dorothy Must Die
Danielle Paige
The Dorothy Must Die Series, Book 1
# Pgs: 464
_________________________________________________________________________________
Overview:
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:
Absolutely loved this book. I mean, it's not the best out of the best, but it's still become one of my favorites. The Wizard of Oz theme has been very "in", in the past couple of years; exploring with the world and the plot of the original story. This book isn't different.
The way I can best explain it, the main character-- Amy-- is living this terrible, purposeless life in Kansas. After having a brief confrontation with her dead-beat mother, she gets swept up in a tornado and ends up in Oz with her mother's pet rat, Star (I'm still a little concerned: who has a pet rat named Star?). Oz isn't at all what it's cracked up to be in the movies that Amy's seen. Concerned, she embarks on an adventure to the Emerald City in order to go home. Along the way, she gets swept up in the whirlwind drama and danger that Oz has become. Why? Answer: Dorothy.
Dorothy, in this story (though I know it's hard to imagine it if you've ever seen the movie) is the antagonist in this story; she's the main problem from which all the other complications stem. The main question that carries us through this story is "How is Dorothy taken down?" and "Will Amy ever go home to Kansas?"
At times, it was somewhat difficult to read this book in that my interest was lost. While the storyline itself was interesting and somewhat complex, the story seemed to drag on; the pace of the book was a little slow. Things happened perfectly at the beginning with Amy and her trailer getting thrown over to Oz in the tornado, but then the pace slows down a bit. I suspect part of the reason might be to give the reader examples of how terrible Oz has become. Glinda the "Good" witch isn't so good; the Cowardly Lion isn't so cuddly; the Scarecrow got his brains, and now performs mad-science, Frankenstein experiments in the name of Oz; the Tin Woodsman is the obsessed-with-Dorothy head of Oz's tin police force; Dorothy is the ruler conducting it all. Meanwhile, the "Wicked" might not be so wicked, and Amy's just the pawn being played across the board.
We see examples of these things throughout the story. When things slow down are when these "terrors" of Oz are emphasized and portrayed in this somewhat grotesque, macarbre way. When the pace of the book picks up usually begins an attempt to resolve one of the previous problems that happened in the "slow" and/or another conflict is introduced. When things slowed down, however, my interest was somewhat lost, though I usually picked the book back up a couple of hours or so later.
I'm kind of creeped out by this book, to be honest. There's a sense of horror here that really plays with the reader's mind, especially if they can recall the innocense that the movie or music or such portrayed. The innocense in this book was distorted and misconstrued. It gave me the feeling, as I read this, of madness and horror. Sometimes, though my interest was lost, I was nonetheless reluctant to put the book down. My curiosity remained, as did that thought of "What happened to Oz?"
I'm not quite so sure I relate to Amy completely. At the beginning of the book, her character is one that is all bark and no bite. She can dish out the snark to a degree, but she doesn't really stand up for herself beyond that, and she doesn't back up that snark at all with anything solid. Throughout the rest of the book though, we see her character grow and that inner fight in her come out. The innocense of Oz is lost, and whatever innocense might remain comes from Amy. This is kind of funny in the sense that even Amy's innocense is off. It's just, where there is death and grotesque figures about Oz, Amy's not touched that death yet, and for when she does or attempts to, even then it's done in a sort of righteousness or justice. Amy's the hero, the pawn; she's the other girl from Kansas.
There isn't really much romance in this book, though there is definitely a sort of supporting character with which Amy shares an interest. Mostly, this book is adventure and a fictional spin-off of the classic The Wizard of Oz. I flipped-flopped back and forth from two and three for the majority of the book before settling on a four out of five at the end of the book. In the end, I thoroughly enjoyed this book and highly anticipate the next book in the series. In fact, I'm nearly going insane with waiting. Like I said at the beginning of this review, it might not've been the best book ever, but it still was very interesting to read and I enjoyed it to a high degree.
Lots of death and destruction. The Lion kind of creeps me out. The Scarecrow really creeps me out. The Tin Woodsman is just evil and desperate. Dorothy is just spoiled in a childish way; when she doesn't get what she wants, she gets revenge.
All in all, fun to read. Be prepared to read. I finished this book in two days.
With all that said, thanks for reading. :)
