Book Review: Dorothy Must Die (Dorothy Must Die Series, #1) by Danielle Paige

When my mom raved about the first book in the Dorothy Must Die series by Danielle Paige, appropriately titled Dorothy Must Die, I was definitely intrigued and added it to my radar. At the time, though, my to be read pile was already out of control, so the book kept getting pushed aside. A few months later, I received one of BookBub’s emails featuring discounted ebooks, and Dorothy Must Die (Dorothy Must Die Series, #1) by Danielle Paige happened to be included. I decided to grab it while it was on sale, and when I finally sat down to read it, I was surprised to find that I wasn’t particularly enthralled with it at all ... at least not at first.

Going into Dorothy Must Die, I didn’t have many expectations beyond knowing it was a dark retelling of The Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum. I’ll start by saying that I’m not easily offended by foul language, but since this series is marketed toward teens, I was caught off guard by how much cursing there was. Yes, I know teenagers swear, and I understand that the author may have been trying to make the dialogue feel more realistic or relatable. Still, the amount of profanity felt excessive for the intended audience. While many parents are comfortable letting their kids read whatever they choose, I personally wouldn’t recommend this book for children under the age of eleven solely because of the language used throughout the story.

When Amy Gumm lands in the land of Oz after the tornado, I initially assumed she was dreaming. As the story went on, however, I became less and less convinced that this was the case. One reason I thought it was a dream early on was that her injuries seemed to heal themselves almost magically. Whether this is fully explained later in the series remains to be seen. 

Something that really bothered me, though, was what felt like an editing oversight. In the third chapter, Amy mentions how sore she is from her fall into Oz, but in the very next chapter she says she was “free of bruises, aches, and pains,” and then notes that her headache had faded. These contradictions pulled me out of the story and were frustrating enough to stand out.

“Wicked witches aren’t supposed to work together. But that was before Dorothy.” This line was easily one of my favorite quotes in the entire book, and it neatly sums up the core premise of the story. Dorothy has returned to Oz and became evil, while the wicked witches are now positioned as the “good” characters. I really disliked the choice to turn Dorothy into the villain. 

In fact, many of the heroes from the original story are portrayed as antagonists here, which cast a bit of a shadow over how I now think about The Wizard of Oz movie. I haven’t read Baum’s original books, but Dorothy Must Die has definitely renewed my interest in finally picking them up and experiencing the classic version of the story for myself.

One aspect I truly hated about this book was the amount of torture inflicted on several characters, particularly when animals were involved. Those scenes were disturbing, even for me as an adult, and they reinforced my feeling that this book may not be appropriate for younger readers, especially if they're sensitive. If those moments bothered me as much as they did, I can’t imagine how upsetting they might be for children.

At first, I wasn't all that enthralled with Dorothy Must Die, but the more I read, the more I wanted to know what happened. It definitely redeemed itself as it went along, and I now want to know what happens. For that reason, I bumped my score up to three out of five stars.

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