Not in Kansas Anymore, Thank God – (Dorothy Must Die)

Dorothy Must Die (Dorothy Must Die #1)

Author: Danielle Paige

Published: 2014

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My Rating:

Rated W for some wicked crazy witch bitches with a smidge of addiction to magic. This isn’t Oz anymore.

 

I didn’t ask for any of this.

I didn’t ask to be some kind of hero.

Amy Gumm, the other girl from Kansas, didn’t ask to be brought to Oz, via tornado no less. Sure, her life in Dusty Acres sucks. Her mom is a junkie and a drunk who could care less about her existence. The girls at school bully her.

Landing in Oz, this magical land Amy grew up believing was make-believe, she’s shocked that it’s not all yellow brick road and munchkins. There’s a dark wickedness over the land. And her name is Dorothy. Shocking, right? She’s supposed to be good. She destroyed the wicked witch of the freaking west.

She’s twisted Oz with her magic and selfish bratty ways. Munchkins are slaves. Her friends: Tin Man, Scarecrow, and the Cowardly Lion are now horrifying monsters. Everybody must follow Dorothy’s crazy rules or else worse things than torture will happen to them.

Brought into the Order of the Wicked, she’ll be trained to be wicked by some of the baddest witches of Oz for one important purpose. To kill Dorothy. Easier said than done.

 

The Dorothy Must Die series is one of the series on my New Year’s resolution and this is book 1 of 4.

 

I’ve read some twisted fairy tales before and I find them to be very interesting. I’ve never read a twisted tale on The Wizard of Oz. This wasn’t a read that had me hopelessly addicted. It didn’t, but damn was I entertained. This was wild and shocked me a bit a few times. And let me tell you, nobody is safe.

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So much originality added to a good tale. Everything is flipped upside down and all around. I couldn’t put this down because I honestly just wanted to see how much crazier this would get. LOL. Was there an emotional attachment? Nah. Sometimes it’s about the fun of a story. That and seeing what happens at the end.

Amy is so spunky. Pink hair, loads of disgruntled commentary, and really hates secrets and being left in the dark about important info. She’s not the common protagonist. In fact, she didn’t even want to be the protagonist. It’s quite hilarious. Her allies, because they do not seem like much of friends, Ollie, the wingless monkey, Nox, a wicked, as well as a few other witches, are pretty salty ones too. I couldn’t get enough of the banter with all of the characters. It’s bold and snappy.

Tenor

Oz is exactly as I would’ve imagined it. A sugar high with a side of acid. Acid, the drug, not the skin peeling chemical. With Dorothy, it’s freaking creepy, reminding me—and if you folks have ever played PC games, yes, the ones that required CDS then you might know this one…possibly—of McGee’s Alice. Twisted landscapes with twisted characters, which you have to fix. LOL. Pretty wicked. Nostalgic with old Oz touches, but also new and horrifying. Who knew eh?

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Overall

I really enjoy how this story feels like a parallel universe, yet not. It’s like a sequel nobody ever realized. It doesn’t quite make the favorites, but it’s fun and unexpected and certainly has a spot on my bookshelves. Worth the read guys.

 

Quotables:

“I first discovered I was trash three days before my ninth birthday…” (Amy, p. 1)

“I didn’t know what was worse: to have your shot and screw it up, or to never have had a shot in the first place.” (Amy, p. 5)

“No rest for the wicked, is there, Amy.” (Glamora, p. 129)

“It’s not magic that makes you who you are. It’s the choices that you make. Look at Dorothy.” (Nox to Dorothy, p. 155)

“Those who have sacrificed always have the most to lose.” (The Wizard to Amy, p. 298)

“Doing Good had been uglier than I’d expected it to be. And the price…the price now was feeling like I needed to always be looking over my shoulder.” (Amy, p. 365)

 

More to come soon…

  -K.

 

 P. S. Song today? All These Things That I Have Done by The Killers.

 

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