Dorothy Must Die | Danielle Paige

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.

Non-Spoiler Review

Dorothy Must Die is a kick-butt book about a girl named Amy who travels to Oz in a tornado and is given the task to kill Dorothy, who, from the famous story, isn't as much of a hero as everyone thinks. She's turned Oz into a place of misery and despair. 

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I love books with bad-butt female protagonists who have to overcome difficult odds to become successful. Amy was a great character and really enjoyed reading about her and her journey through Oz. 

If you enjoyed Rebel Belle by Rachel Hawkins, then you should definitely try Dorothy Must Die! 

Spoiler-Filled Review

The characters within this book were so well written. There were some characters I liked, some I hated and some I just didn't know how to feel about. We were really able to get inside of Amy's head and really feel what she felt, all the confusion and hesitation. 

I hated Madison from the beginning and completely hated how she dealt with the principal and how Amy got blamed for that entire fight. I hate when things like that happen in the books and the good guy is the one who gets in trouble. It makes me so mad. Gr. 

I loved the entire part when Amy was being trained just because even though Nox was there and even though it was quite obvious that they liked each other, neither strayed from the original plan and I love that. Generally, I'm also a huge fan of fighting/training scenes, when the protagonist is trained to fight. They're just epic and I love them. 

One thing that really blew my mind was that Pete was actually a girl. Halfway through the book I was spoiled, but it was still really weird and quite confusing, mostly since it was never fully explained. 

One thing I really really hate is that hesitation before killing Dorothy. Amy had at least three different chances to kill Dorothy but she always stopped just a little too long and her chance is gone. I understood why she stopped, but it was still frustrating since the book could have easily ended in the middle. 

This is the first book in a series and there are some things that I'm really looking forward to. I'm really hoping that Amy's real life and the life of Oz somehow get integrated. Maybe Dorothy escapes to the real world and gets involved with Madison and her mother and Amy has to control that situation and still kill Dorothy. I'm also looking for more progress in the relationship between Amy and Nox as well as an explanation to Pete and his/her disguise. 

Overall, I really did enjoy this book! I found it extremely similar to Rebel Belle, which was good considering I loved that book. What was your favorite scene in the book? Let me know in the comments below!