The Emerald City Runs Red in Dorothy Must Die

So I just finished Dorothy Must Die by Danielle Paige. A dark tale of Oz that is not unlike American McGee's Alice. The novel is the first of a series and the first from the author. The story follows sixteen year old Amy, a poor, high school outcast, whose mother is a drunk pill addict and father has been out of the picture since she was young. Amy gets taken to Oz via the classic method of Tornado abduction and is dropped into an Oz of nightmare. It seems after Dorothy used the slipper express to return to Kansas she longed to return to Oz and after a time Glenda was able to do just that. Once back in the land Dorothy learned magic and took over the Emerald City. After learning magic she became greedy and wanted more and more. She enslaved the people of Oz and began harvesting the magic from the land. By the time Amy arrives she sees a barren landscape with giant fissures carved into the earth (in Oz magic comes from the ground apparently) with Glenda watching over munchkin slaves while they continue to gut the land. She eventually meets up with the resistance, led by a group of 'wicked' witches and is taught to fight and use magic. Her mission: to infiltrate Dorothy's Castle and assassinate her. All that is standing in her way is an army of brainwashed flying monkeys, a knives for fingers wielding Tin Man, The Fear eating Lion(he literally sucks the fear of his victims) and the Nazi doctor-esque human experimenting Scarecrow - should be easy.

For a young adult novel with a female protagonist this book wasn't that bad. The lead character actually considers the consequence of her actions before doing something and thus does not spend the entire story tangled in easily avoided confrontation and the slight amount of romance is grounded in reality and follows a logical progression. The other nice thing about Amy is she is just an ordinary 16 year old. She is self effacing, (admittedly) not coordinated or athletic and has no real skills. Too often the protagonist in these books are the most special kid in the world and have the exact skill needed to foil the evil set before them.


All in all I must say it wasn't bad for a Young Adult novel. The story flowed well, I enjoyed the characters and it delivered an interesting, new Oz to explore. The author doesn't waste time on repeating sentences and has a good grasp of the English language - or at least a good grasp on a thesaurus. Like I said before I was reminded of American McGee's Alice while proceeding through this tale. If you are a fan of dark, alternate fairy tales then this is something you might want to check out.