What high school girl’s popularity is re-enforced by pregnancy? When does a principal suspend a student for fighting without asking for both sides of the story? What mother voices concern about a tornado and then leaves her child alone and unsafe in a trailer? So many of these details are obviously supposed to show the reader that Amy is alienated in her community, but they’re not presented well. The opening scenes of this book feel so staged, so transparent as a set-up for Amy’s unhappy life in Kansas that they come across as ridiculous. First, before our main character Amy goes to Oz, she’s a bullied high schooler, neglected by the adults in her life. Worst aspect: the over-simplified narration. It’s always been the Good versus the Wicked. It is original content full of familiar faces, though no one turns out as expected. Dorothy Must Die is not one of those retellings that’s basically the same story as the original with a modern twist–it’s a whole new story of what comes after the famous tale of Oz.
It was as if someone had drained out some of the Technicolor and introduced some serious darkness.”īest aspect: the intriguing plot. “If this was a fantasy, it was a strange one: this wasn’t the Oz I had read about or seen in the movie. In a land where everyone seems to be tied to villainy of some sort, who can Amy trust? She’ll have to decide, because even if she knew how to get home, she might not want to. Now the Wicked of Oz are fighting to remove Dorothy from power, but even if their plans are for the good of Oz, it’s still murder they’re considering, and they’re still Wicked. She turned ruthless, and took her famous friends with her. Everything in Oz is different than what she imagined because Dorothy’s defeat of the Wicked Witch of the West and return trip to Kansas was only half the story–now Amy is learning that Dorothy came back and took over Oz. So does everyone else Amy meets, for that matter. A strange boy gets her started on her way, but he leaves her with more questions than answers. Of course, Amy’s heard the traditional story of Oz, but when she wakes up on the roof of her upside-down trailer and scampers out just before it falls into a bottomless pit, Oz is unrecognizable. She’s bullied at school, friendless, and more than a little stuck in Dusty Acres. So when I started reading YA again a couple years ago and found out about Danielle Paige’s Dorothy Must Die, I had to pick it up.Ībout the book: Amy Gumm lives in a trailer home with her pill-popping mother, who seems to have tired of Amy and most everything else.
I watched it enough times that I could still tell you where all the commercial breaks came into the story. I’ve been a Wizard of Oz fan since I was a young child watching Judy Garland on a home-recorded VHS tape.
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