Title: Dorothy
Must Die
Author: Danielle
Paige
Publisher: HarperTeen
Publication Date:
4.1.2014
Pages: 432
Genre: Retelling
Series: Dorothy Must Die #1
Source: ARC
from ALA MW
Rating: 3
Stars
Summary (from Goodreads):
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:
Remove the Tin Woodman's heart.
Steal the Scarecrow's brain.
Take the Lion's courage.
Then and only then—Dorothy must die!
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:
Remove the Tin Woodman's heart.
Steal the Scarecrow's brain.
Take the Lion's courage.
Then and only then—Dorothy must die!
Review:
I’m
not exactly sure where this book went wrong. Don’t get me wrong, DOROTHY MUST
DIE is a brilliant idea. And Danielle
Paige is a pretty good writer (still kind of green, but that’s expected). But
despite all my excitement and flailing over this book, once I started it was
like sinking on the Titanic. A slow
demise into oblivion.
Amy.
Amy is the biggest problem with this book. Snark is fun. Snark is awesome.
Mindless whiny bitching is annoying. Amy quickly went from amusingly
snarkilicious to this irritatingly annoying brat. I get it, honey. You’re from
a trailer park. You get made fun of. No one understands you. Do you want a
freaking medal? Maybe if you were less of a bitch you would have a couple more
friends.
Truth
hurts.
Amy
was by far my biggest problem with this book, and since the book is told
entirely from her perspective, it’s hard to escape her. She had a few brief
moments of win, but she was a horribly blah character.
The
supporting cast of characters, however, was great. I loved them. From the
munchkin to the monkey, they kept me giggling. And Paige does a great job of
setting the scene and bringing Oz to life.
Just
a shame she couldn’t breathe that same beauty and life into her heroine.
Buy: Amazon
I didn't like this book either. I wasn't a huge fan of Amy for the same reasons you are. But I also just felt a lack of originality. I know it's a retelling, but to me it just felt like the same old Oz with a few characters shuffled around. I was pretty bummed about this one.
ReplyDeleteI'm about half way through and, while I like it, I can definitely see where you're coming from about Amy. She isn't frustrating me quite as much as she did you (yet...maybe) so we'll see how the second half goes.
ReplyDeleteI've not been eager to read this one because something about it strikes me wrong. Perhaps, it is because the idea is so wonderful? I just expected it would be disappointing. I'm sad that you didn't love this more. I was hoping I'd be horribly wrong and would be regretting not requesting the arc. I can't stand it when I can't connect with the MC. :-(
ReplyDeleteBah, it's always hard to love a book when the heroine is so awful. I'm still going to give this one a shot, because I'm a sucker for re-imaginings, but I'll definitely go in knowing that Amy is less than stellar.
ReplyDelete:( That's a bummer. I featured this as my WoW a couple of weeks ago. I was so excited to get a Oz retelling. So disappointing that the MC is no where as awesome as I expected. Ahhhh such a waste of idea.
ReplyDeleteAngel @ Spare Reads