Dorothy Must Die by D. Paige

Authors

  • Rachelle Buch-Goncalves

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.20361/G2HS4R

Abstract

Paige, D. Dorothy Must Die.  Full Fathom Five: Harper Collins, 2014. Print.

Once you enter Oz there is no turning back.  Be Brave.  Be Angry.  Don’t trust anyone.  Trust yourself.  You’ll know what to do.  Danielle Paige takes the classic tale of the Wizard of Oz and twists the characters with evil to leave the reader anxiously waiting for the next magical revelation in her novel Dorothy Must Die.

As an average teen from a trailer park in Kansas, Amy Gumm believes that the realities of her mother’s addiction, an absent father and the bully at school are the worst scenario a girl could face.  She couldn’t be more wrong.  

The collision of a classic tale with the magic and horror that Amy requires to fulfill her destiny forms a novel that is a fast paced adventure along the yellow brick road.  Amy considers the storm rolling in on her life in the trailer park, and the possibility of life as someone other than Salvation Amy: Bring it on. There’s no place like anywhere but here.  When she is swept away in the tornado and lands in the Land of Oz she is met with something more sinister than she can imagine.  

It turns out that all Amy finds in this new version of Oz has been created by her predecessor Dorothy, the other girl from Kansas.  With acts of evil and desperation, Dorothy's attempt to harness all magic and power over the land have caused desolation.   With such a dismal reality for the Land of Oz, Amy is recruited by the Revolutionary Order of the Wicked with a single mission: Dorothy must die.

As Amy asks the question “Who am I supposed to be?” she deals with her haunting past back home, her identity as a teen, lessons in managing magic, and ultimately her role as an assassin.  But Dorothy has clearly declared that there can only be one, and both Amy and Dorothy intend for that one to be them.  

In Danielle Paige's debut as a YA writer she creates a tornado in its own right, carrying the reader up and away only to drop them on their head when the storm dies down.   Oz - Where all your worst nightmares can come true.

Highly Recommended: 4 out of 4 stars
Reviewer: Rachelle Buch-Goncalves

Rachelle is the Teacher Librarian at Southern Okanagan Secondary School in Oliver, BC.  She is currently completing her Masters degree in Teacher Librarianship and enjoys sharing her studies with her colleagues, students, and her two young daughters who are reading ‘just like mom’.

Published

2015-04-20

How to Cite

Buch-Goncalves, R. (2015). Dorothy Must Die by D. Paige. The Deakin Review of Children’s Literature, 4(4). https://doi.org/10.20361/G2HS4R

Issue

Vol. 4 No. 4 (2015)

Section

Book Reviews

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