Dorothy Must Die

So, that was different. Amy Gumm is different. She's not exactly angsty. She's angry. She's had a hard life. She's not some family-loving, idyllic, country girl. She's lived through bullying, abandonment and poverty. Anger fuels her, but deep down, I think she's a good person. Being a good person is something she's clung to even in her most depressing times, living in her trailer with no wheels.

Once Amy met Ozma, I totally called what was going to happen with them. However, Dorothy Must Die has many surprising moments. Deaths I didn't see coming, the question of loyalty, hearts being cut out. Author Danielle Paige puts Amy though a lot, creating situations I don't if another author would for their main character. There's a lot of knives and bloods. Also, magic fuelled by anger. I wonder what fuels all the magic users we've encountered.

My only qualm is that Amy seemed to accept everything a little too quickly. Though, I imagine if you wake up in a strange place after a tornado, Oz probably would seem like a good guess. Maybe I just read the book too fast. If I put a little more time between chapters, would everything seem to have taken longer for Amy? Maybe, but that's not going to slow me down.

I'm also wondering if I should be reading the Oz books now. I've seen the movie, I know the story, but Paige seems to take a lot of things from the original texts. I've been meaning to read L. Frank Baum's stories for a while, maybe now is finally the time.

I'm excited to read The Wicked Will Rise and Yellow Brick War was recently released. There are also a lot of novellas to read before I read the end of the series, two paperbacks' worth. I'm intrigued by the stories, based on these crazy characters (the Tin Woodman, Lion and Scarecrow are nuts) and I wonder how they became who they are in Paige's story. Danielle Paige's Dorothy Must Die is a unique twist on an old tale.