Dorothy Must Die: Book Review
A student review of Danielle Paige’s dark twist on The Wizard of Oz, where Dorothy rules Oz and Amy Gumm must stop her.
Recently I finished reading the book Dorothy Must Die, written by Danielle Paige. This book focuses on the Wizard of Oz story; however, this story has a twist. In this book it shows Dorothy come back to Oz, though she isn’t the same Dorothy anymore. In this book Dorothy is evil. After returning to Oz, Dorothy becomes the Queen of Oz, though does she have what it takes to be the Queen?
Now, Dorothy is an important character; however, she isn’t the main character. Amy Gumm is the main character, but she isn’t this perfect, heroic character. I love Amy’s character development that the author did. I adore this character that she created because it’s relatable.
Amy lives a difficult home life. After her father leaves them, Amy’s mother over the years becomes a bad parent due to her husband leaving her. Amy also faces challenges at school; Amy is not the class pet or a favorite student. In fact most of the students and teachers dislike her and blame her for everything. When Amy thinks things couldn’t get worse, a tornado surprisingly takes her away to the foreign land of Oz.
When Amy is brought to Oz she realizes that it is no longer the fantasy Oz she saw in the movie. Not too long after she arrives in Oz she’s faced with battles, and it’s at that moment when she faces her biggest challenge: she has to join the Wicked and kill Dorothy.
If I could rate this book I would rate it more than 10 stars, because this book was so well written, and I loved the characters and their development. The book had excellent imagery and painted a beautiful picture in my mind. I am looking forward to reading the next book in the series and continuing this wonderful journey of words.
The rest of the series
The reviewer did have more books to look forward to. Dorothy Must Die first came out from HarperCollins on April 1, 2014. The second novel, The Wicked Will Rise, had appeared on March 30, 2015, a few months before this review, so the next book the reviewer was looking forward to was already on shelves. Yellow Brick War followed on March 15, 2016, and The End of Oz closed the main series on March 14, 2017.
Paige also wrote a set of prequel novellas between 2013 and 2017, starting with No Place Like Oz and ending with Dark Side of the Rainbow. In 2013 The CW was reported to be negotiating a television series based on the books, but no further details were ever announced.
Reviews like this one are a staple of school papers and English classes alike. The structure behind a review that does more than retell the plot is laid out in this guide on how to write an article review.
Questions people ask
How many books are in the Dorothy Must Die series?
The main series has four novels by Danielle Paige: Dorothy Must Die (2014), The Wicked Will Rise (2015), Yellow Brick War (2016) and The End of Oz (2017). There are also several prequel novellas, from No Place Like Oz (2013) to Dark Side of the Rainbow (2017), some later collected in paperback story volumes.
Is there a Dorothy Must Die TV show or movie?
Not so far. In 2013 The CW was reported to be negotiating a television series based on the books, but no further details were announced and no adaptation has been released. The series exists only as novels and novellas published by HarperCollins, so for now fans have only the books.
