Book Review: 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 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.

+++

To be honest, I can barely recall how the original book goes so I plunged on this a little blind. A little because I've read the prequel and it's so good. The next good thing was, I didn't feel lost somewhere since the story spun around an incredibly different twisted Oz. Far from what I have really imagined, which is amazing. When I first read about this book, I'm a little scared for Danielle. For what I perceived, fairytale adaptation or retelling can either make or break a writer. I can easily say that this book actually made her. I love this so much.

The plot is somehow complicated and short of resolution, but Danielle managed to have it wrapped up on something that you'll notice you're nodding along with. I say it's short of resolution because of the fact that this is the first installment of the series so world building, character and plot development are mostly what the book is all about. Answers to questions are not yet included. Somehow. Yeah. Hints. Yes. The book is so unpredictable. I was totally blown away. There are heartaches, painful things that crushed me. Things that made me want to spew like literally. I love the fact that the book is so dark and twisted; I can't even count how many times I cringed on some pages. That's a good thing by the way. For a book to make me cringe is something. I'm a weirdo like that.

As depicted, Oz is not what you have read before. Everything is twisted in a way that would make you wish a tornado won't drop you anywhere near it. The magic has been greedily sucked out. A wasteland really and Dorothy is to blame. Dorothy has gone sinister, power greedy and a total bitch. Together with her creepy and equally evil old friends of course, they have ruled Oz with an iron fist. The Scarecrow is like a mad scientist complete with a lab where he's having gruesome operations to make convicted Ozians useful for them. Useful as in for the benefit of Tin Woodman's Tin Soldiers. The Tin Soldiers is not a group someone would want to belong, especially if they will replace some of your body parts with tin, scissors, even bicycle parts for you to look as creepy and as evil as possible. The Lion turned into a vicious beast who could just eat you whole or feed into your fear and suck you dead. Last, but not the least is Glinda. I love her from the original book and she's far from that. I hate her Permasmile. End of discussion. Amidst all the chaos, Amy Gumm is one lucky soul who's been dropped by a tornado. I love her. She's brave and somehow naive, but really love her willingness to help selflessly. I also love the fact that she's not perfect. She made mistakes and learned from them. Apparently, everybody thought that she's the only one who can save Oz from Dorothy and her minions because she was from the same place where Dorothy came from. Partly vague, but yeah. Okay. Her training with the Order is actually realistic. The transformation from the Trailer Girl to an ass-kicking magical witch is not instantaneous. I love it. I love how she gradually learns everything that she needed to know to make her mission as close as possible. That's to kill Dorothy by the way. What I hate about all this is the way the Order hid things from her. I feel so annoyed like Amy when everybody is not answering her questions and told her things to be more confuse instead. Yeah I know. They told her things that she needed to know, but a little help to figure things out more clearly won't hurt I guess. When you're tossed half blind in the ocean is where complications usually arises and that's what happened. Plus I'm also a bit bothered that Amy can't trust anyone. The romance part is not forced. The book didn't actually pay so much attention on this part, but I think that's okay. For a start that would suffice. I'm quite annoyed with some books I've read that clearly says "No Plot. All Romance." so I can say that I love the book for not being like that. I've even realized that the love triangle I'm imagining is really not there. You've been warned. Ha! Ha! Anyway, how they came up with their plan is really creative. It just saddened me that it didn't turn out well or as they expected. The twist at the end is not what I'm expecting either. Incredibly exciting and intense. I love it.

Over all, I truly love the book and I'm highly recommending it. I love Danielle. She just knows how to end a book. I would definitely wait for the second installment of this series. So much to expect and to watch out for.

If you want to read my review for the prequel. Click this link:

No Place Like Oz (Dorothy Must Die 0.5)