Review: Dorothy Must Die by Danielle Paige

Title: Dorothy Must Die
Author: Danielle Paige
Publisher: HarperTeen
Pub. Date: April 1, 2014
Genre: Young Adult
Rec. Age Level: 14+

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When a tornado tears through Amy Gumm's Kansas trailer park and transports her to the magical land of Oz, she expects to find brightly colored landscape populated happy munchkins and be greeted by the good witch Glinda, but Oz isn't the place it was when Dorothy found it. Amy discovers that, after Dorothy helped save Oz with the help of the Scarecrow, Tin Man, and Cowardly Lion, she returned to Oz. Drunk on power, Dorothy destroyed Oz in her insatiable quest for magic, usurping the rightful queen, Ozma, and ruling by fear and violence. Amy Gumm is an unlikely heroine, but those who take up the fight against Dorothy - The Revolutionary Order of the Wicked - believe that Amy is their only hope to free Oz. 

When I heard about Dorothy Must Die couldn't wait to read it. The Wizard of Oz was my favorite movie for years and I still haven't reached my limit on dystopian novels yet, so this book should have been a match made in book heaven, but, alas, it wasn't meant to be.

I will say that I loved this premise. An evil Dorothy, Scarecrow, Tin Man, and Lion and an unsuspecting teen-turned-assassin is an awesome idea. There is so much potential here, but, for me, the execution was lacking.

Dorothy Must Die has starts slow and never really picks up speed. Couple that with shallow and predictable plot twists and we have a problem. As much as I wanted it to be able to, this book just couldn't hold my attention. It didn't help that I  didn't like Amy very much... Actually, that's not it. It's more like I just didn't care about her which is, arguably, infinitely worse. 

I don't think you should count Dorothy Must Die out because, to me, retellings are always worth a try and this book really does feature a compelling premise. I could tell from the first couple chapters that this one wasn't going to work for me... So, with that in mind, I recommend reading the first few chapters online before committing to buying/borrowing the book!