"I first discovered I was trash three days before my ninth birthday -- one year after my father lost his job and moved to Secaucus to live with a woman named Crystal and four years before my mother had the car accident, started taking pills, and began exclusively wearing bedroom slippers instead of normal shoes."
Review: I think this will probably be the one post where I will appreciate having put the first sentence of this book before you read my review. Hopefully it will serve to explain why I didn't like it. I have nothing against the story which I think is a pretty good idea and twist on an already great fairytale. I also didn't mind the "romantic" elements of the book, which I normally find a story could do without. What bothered me tremendously was the sentence structure and all around dialogue of the book.
I felt her sentences were disjointed and confusing to follow at times. Hence that first line to echo that sentiment. I also found the cursing a bit unnecessary. Unless it helps to further along a story I feel it is more of a filler than a character trait. In this case Dorothy and Amy (the main characters) both appear to be angry girls (women) who feel the need to curse in order to get their point across. Again, I don't think the story needed it.
I do like the sort of hat tip to Judy Garland having portrayed Dorothy Gale in the classic movie The Wizard of Oz. I mean the fact that the main character Amy's last name is Gumm. If you know the story of Judy Garland you know that her real name was Frances Ethel Gumm. I'm assuming that is why Danielle went with that name?
The basic story is that Amy is a girl who feels like the whole world is against her and doesn't want her, including her mother who is an alcoholic, who'd rather go out clubbing with her girlfriend than stay at home and be a mother. The proverbial tornado strikes Kansas. To be more specific, the trailer park where Amy lives with her mother and her mothers pet rat Star (the "next" Toto).
Obviously the tornado drops Amy, Star, and their trailer into Oz and hence the real story begins to unfold. As she travels the yellow brick road she learns that Oz is not what she's seen in the movie but instead Dorothy returned and has become a real mean S.O.B. to all it's inhabitants. She stealing magic all to herself with the help of Glinda and the other usual suspects; the Tin Woodman, the Lion, & the Scarecrow.
Basically, those who we all thought were good are now wicked and those who we all knew were wicked have banded together to do a "good" thing, i.e. working together to destroy the damage Dorothy has done in Oz.
All throughout the story everyone "looks to be Amy's age" and they all tell her not to trust them or anyone else for that matter. She gets frustrated and uses that anger to learn magic as well as how to fight. She is recruited by force to join the Order of the Wicked Witches (I think that's what they're called) to kill Dorothy.
This is clearly a Trilogy so don't be too surprised when I tell you the story ends without Dorothy having been killed. There is a cliff hanger though, as all purported trilogies must have. It was good enough and left enough unanswered questions to get me interested in reading the next book. However, I hope some questions are answered otherwise reading the third book, at this point, is definitely NOT a guarantee.
Synopsis: 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!
Dorothy Must Die
by Danielle Paige
452 pages
Harper Teen, 2014
Young Adult Fiction
Read in 5 days
Rating: ★★★
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