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 bluebirds. 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 a yellow brick road—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.
Review:
Dorothy Must Die was a very anticipated read for me so deciding to DNF it was a difficult decision. If I had to choose just one word to describe this book it would be “boring”. I got 57% through, which was no easy feat, and I just didn’t care about what was going on. This was nothing like I expected and the whole thing felt like poorly written fan fiction.
Even though there was a lot of world building and action, it felt like nothing was happening. The characters felt disposable so I felt no need to really care or want to get to know them and the fact that Amy is being treated like this book’s version of the Lisan al-Gaib was crazy. She’s literally just a random girl. I do hate the ‘chosen one’ trope sometimes.
Don’t even get me started on Nox. As soon as he was introduced he was all Amy thought about. There’s even the introduction of a side character just to make her jealous. I thought she was interested in Pete, the first boy she meets who pops up every now and then, but apparently not. I literally stopped reading at the point Nox kissed her. I’d had enough.
I liked the idea of this Oz, it makes sense that it would be far more corrupt than the original film shows, but the world building was clunky. You’re thrown from one place to the next and introduced to a lot of characters. The ‘wicked’ witches were probably my favourite group of people but I don’t understand why they’d trust Amy with their plans.
Maybe if I’d read Dorothy Must Die back in 2014 I would have enjoyed it, but 2026 me really didn’t like this.
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