Review of Dorothy Must Die by Danielle Paige

Release Date: April 1, 2014

Publisher: Harpercollins

Page Count: 432

Format: Hardcover

Genre: YA 

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!

I had been waiting for Dorothy Must Die for months, had already preordered a copy, and was super jealous of the people who received ARC's. When April 1 FINALLY came, I ran home, grabbed my Amazon box, and finally beheld Dorothy Must Die. This book was every bit as good as it was hyped up to be and I 100% thoroughly enjoyed it. Some parts were a bit slow but it was a dark and unique take on the Wizard of Oz and I was enthralled within the first few chapters. 

I wasn't the biggest fan of the Wizard of Oz, I didn't hate it but I also didn't enjoy or love it. The movies as well as the books of the Wizard of Oz were OK but I liked the story and world. Danielle Paige takes the Wizard of Oz and replaces it with a unique and dark version of what it was. In Dorothy Must Die, Dorothy and her friends (the Scarecrow, the Lion) have become evil and must be killed. The person entrusted with this task is Amy who is transported to Oz years after Dorothy returned there and took control. The book starts off kind of slow but builds momentum and just keeps getting better and better. I LOVED the description of this crumbling and ruined version of Oz. Danielle just described everything vividly, the yellow brick road, the villages of the Munchkins, and all the rest of Oz. The book was very intriguing and had one or two small twists to it. Additionally, it was much darker than the original Wizard of Oz and set in a different time period. All these elements came together and made Dorothy Must Die a VERY amazing and interesting read.

As for the characters, most of the main characters (Dorothy, Scarecrow, Lion, Tin Woodsman) from the Wizard of Oz were present as well as a whole host of new characters. The main character in Dorothy Must Die is Amy, she is the person who is trained by the Wicked witches (in Dorothy Must Die wicked it good and good is wicked) to kill Dorothy and free Oz. She faces obstacles along the way like Glinda and Dorothy's companions. Overall, she matures from the beginning of the book when she was in Kansas to the end when she was Oz. The secondary characters were really enjoyable to read and complimented the book nicely. The characters were so developed and the plot and story so well written that I liked Dorothy Must Die much more than the original Wizard of Oz.

I really liked the cover of Dorothy Must Die and the ARC packaging was so awesome that I was instantly jealous of everyone who had received one. The cover is a gingham dress (I'm guessing Dorothy's), a bow, and a pair of slippers. When you take off the dust jacket the same picture is on the book cover itself, only this time it's shiny. The ARC came in a box with the yellow brick road on it and an actual bow, best ARC packaging I've seen in a while. Part of a reason I read or even pick up a book is because of it's cover and Dorothy Must Die definitely has a cover that would have compelled me to pick it up if I hadn't seen it before.

Dorothy Must Die ended in a cliffhanger (at least in my opinion) just as things were getting super exciting, a ton of things happened in the last few chapters. The book ends with Amy getting the Tin Woodsman's heart and flying away with a monkey. Once I finished Dorothy Must Die, I literally closed the book, thought about it for a while, and then reread the last ten chapters. There will be two more books as it will be a trilogy and I cannot wait for the sequel, every day waiting has and will be torture. 

If you enjoyed the Wizard of Oz, like retellings, different worlds, or good YA books then Dorothy Must Die is the book for you. Even if you don't plan on reading it I still encourage you to at least check it out because it was AMAZING and I'm sure you will like it.

5/5 - Amazing book