Dorothy Must Die
Author: Danielle Paige
Series: Dorothy Must Die #1
Genre: Young Adult, Romance, Fantasy, Retelling
Release Date: April 1, 2014
Publisher: HarperTeen
Summary:
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.
First Sentence: 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 ballroom slippers instead of normal shoes.
My Review:
I originally wasn’t planning on reading Dorothy Must Die because of two main issues I automatically had with it: Dorothy Must Die is a packaged book (packaged books and I have an awful history) and it is a Full Fathom Five book, something I do not support at all. However, despite all these problems, I couldn’t help but read Dorothy Must Die anyways since one of my ultimate weaknesses are story retellings. If there is any kind of story retelling, I must get my hands on it and Dorothy Must Die is no expectation to this rule/temptation of mine. In the end, Dorothy Must Die didn’t impress me much, which is honestly what I had expected from a packaged book written by a Full Fathom Five author.
“You say Wicked like it’s a good thing,” I said.
“You’re getting the hang of it.” Glamora’s voice was glittering mischievously. “Down is up, up is down. Good is Wicked, Wicked is Good. The times are changing. This is what Oz has come to.” (132)
If you have a physical copy of Dorothy Must Die, look at the back cover of the book. If you don’t have a physical copy of Dorothy Must Die, the back cover of the book basically says this: “Your mission: Remove the Tin Woodman’s heart. Steal the scarecrow’s brain. Take the lion’s courage. And then – Dorothy must die. Only you can make Oz a free land again.” Okay, now for the ultimate reason why this book made me mad: NOTHING IN Dorothy Must Die TALKS ABOUT “THE MISSION” UNTIL THE VERY LAST EIGHT PAGES. That’s right, you guys read what I wrote correctly, nothing in the book had to do with “the mission” Amy has to go through like the back cover of the book says until the very last eight pages. Dorothy Must Die is 452 pages long and 444 pages of those pages is spent talking about something else useless. (I’ll be talking about the other 444 pages later on in my review.) No, just no. I honestly still can’t get over my disbelief over this.
That leads me to my next problem; apparently Dorothy Must Die is a series. I never knew that Dorothy Must Die is part of a series (I don’t count a novella and a book as a series, which is what Goodreads did). I repeat, I never knew that Dorothy Must Die is a part of a series. Judging by Dorothy Must Die alone, I also think that this will be a very long series. I mean, Amy only did ONE task out of the four tasks written on the back cover of the book. That pretty much means that there would be one book dedicated to one task, so overall, this series might be four books long. That’s just way too long for me, especially when you consider my next problem written below.
“The Scarecrow’s brains,” I said, thinking out loud.
…
“The Tin Man’s heart…”
…
“And the Lion’s courage,” I finished.
“Retrieve them and you’ll be three steps closer to accomplishing your mission.” (445)
Like I said earlier in my review, Dorothy Must Die has 452 pages. About 200 pages of Dorothy Must Die could be easily cut out. Let me explain: Dorothy Must Die started off great. It captured my attention asap, quickly got me engaged and invested in the story, and I couldn’t wait to read more. Flash forward six chapters later and I slowly got bored. Flash forward five chapters chapters after that and I got even more bored. Another three chapters later and I wanted to escape from reading Dorothy Must Die. I was even happier studying for my midterm than reading Dorothy Must Die. One of the biggest problems Dorothy Must Die has is that the middle and the end of the book, which is a lot and very long (we’re talking about 350 pages or so here), was so boring to read because it was very slowly paced. Most of the 350 pages is basically Amy getting some free therapy lessons in Oz for her issues. Parts will sometimes pickup somewhat in between, but fall flat once again. I’m here to warn you guys: don’t fall for the awesome beginning like I did guys. After that great start comes great boredom.
There is romance in Dorothy Must Die, which is honestly what I expected since 98% of young adult books have romance in it nowadays. There is one problem I had with the romance though: I’m not sold on it. In fact, I felt absolutely no chemistry between Amy and her love interest and no sparks flying between them. In fact, when they first kissed – randomly in my opinion – my jaw literally dropped in shock. That was how surprised I was by them kissing. The romance in Dorothy Must Die has also been done many times before; it is basically the story of an “average” girl who attracts the attention of a hot guy that every other girls also want. The other girls all tried to get him to like them that way, but of course failed, because he is only interested in the main character for some unknown reason.
He closed the gap between us without taking a step and his mouth closed over mine before I could speak. He was kissing me. I closed my eyes and let go of everything except him for a few seconds. (259-260)
In the end, all I have to say is that Dorothy Must Die is not worth the buy, especially considering its many problems and the fact that it’s part of the Full Fathom Five. If you really want to read it, I strongly recommend you to borrow it from your library first. If you like it then, buy it. All I’ll say is that I’ll definitely avoid the rest of the series – it’s not worth spending my time reading, especially with the uncertainly if the same author, “Danielle Paige,” would be really writing the book.
And if you’re confused about the terms I’m using like Full Fathom Five and a packaged book, this link will explain everything and explain it well.
I am excited to read this one, but now I am really glad I am waiting till it comes into the library!
Missie @ A Flurry of Ponderings
Missie recently posted…Week Recap
I hope you’ll like it more than I did Missie!
Kelly recently posted…This Is How Much I Love Twitter
Yes to all you said. The rave reviews reeled me in but this turned out to be such a disappointment. It’s not even ironic or subversive like I expected; do a bit of substitution, and it’s similar to the original story or lots of other fantasy stories. :/
Good point – Dorothy Must Die is similar to other fantasy stories I’ve read, even when it is a retelling of the Wizard of Oz. :l
Kelly recently posted…This Is How Much I Love Twitter
That doesn’t sound very good. I *hate* unnecessarily long books; such a waste of time. I’ll wait until more books in the series are released before I decide to pick it up. Thanks for your review!
Yes and Dorothy Must Die is an unnecessarily LONG one. It contains pages of pages of boredom and meaningless events.
Kelly recently posted…This Is How Much I Love Twitter
Oh no. Well, I never requested this one because of the whole Full Fathom thing. That just marks a book off my list for the most part. I’m surprised this is a series too! I thought it was a stand-alone. I’m sad you only gave it two stars. I’ve not been sure if I’d read it or not and I’ve been seeing really mixed reviews. I’ll probably skip it due to the full fathom aspect. Wonderful review Kelly!
Kristen@My Friends Are Fiction recently posted…Stacking the Shelves
The Full Fathom Five thing definitely made me not want to read this one, but it’s a retelling! Ugh, the FFF definitely knows how to exploit my weaknesses.
Yeah, apparently Dorothy Must Die is not a standalone. If I have to guess, I’ll say it’s 4 books or more. I mean, look at FFF’s I Am Number Four, what are we up to? The fifth book now?
Thanks Kristen! (:
Kelly recently posted…This Is How Much I Love Twitter
Could not agree more with what you said here about the packaging issue and Full Fathom Five. I snagged an ARC of this one, otherwise I definitely would not have bought it. I just can’t give money to FFF, but like you, I was drawn in by the retelling aspect. But even the beginning didn’t catch my interest (I only made it through the first 30% or so) – I didn’t feel like any of the characters were compelling or interesting, and I had a feeling the book would be a really slow one, just like you described. Can’t say I’m surprised either, since it’s a packaged/FFF book. :(
Nikki recently posted…Book Review: THE REPUBLIC OF THIEVES by Scott Lynch
If I had an ARC, I would definitely not buy Dorothy Must Die either. The sad thing is I had no ARC of it, so… ):
Whoa, if you weren’t impressed by the first 30% or so, definitely drop this one Nikki. The beginning of Dorothy Must Die is definitely the best part of it; if you didn’t like the beginning, there’s no point reading on.
Yep, when I read packaged books or an FFF book, I always expect myself to not like it. I couldn’t even read the second chapter of I Am Number Four!
Kelly recently posted…This Is How Much I Love Twitter
I gave up on I Am Number Four, too! I expected such good things (this was before I knew about FFF), but it was just BLAH! I found it really shallow and uninteresting. Like, certain elements were there, but it just Did Not Work.
Nikki recently posted…Waiting on Wednesday – Alias Hook
Oh, sorry this you didn’t like this one. I was so close to buying this one this week, but I bought another book instead. After that I started seeing a flood of reviews for this one. Some good, some bad, but the negative reviews outweigh the bad. Now I don’t think I’ll read this one, considering I wasn’t really that interested in it in the first place. I was going to buy it purely based on the cover.
Also what is a Full Fathom Five? I haven’t a clue what it is and since it was one of your issues with this book I am curious.
Great review :D sorry again that you didn’t like it :(
Kim @ Kimberly’s Novel Notes recently posted…Updated Mini Review: Amulet vol. 1: The Stonekeeper by Kazu Kibuishi
Ha ha, good choice on buying the other one! If you’re ever interested in this one again, I strongly recommend you borrow it from your library first.
The cover doesn’t really impress me much. o:
Details on the Full Fathom Five is located at my last paragraph or just click the link here.
Kelly recently posted…This Is How Much I Love Twitter
Wow, I actually had no idea what packaged books were and had to google it…super shocked that some of the bestselling books in YA lit are packaged! But anyways..onto the book. No chemistry? That makes me so sad! Nothing kills a book more than no chemistry between the main characters because that just leaves things super awkward and not at all engaging. And I’m not a big fan of books that are unnecessarily long…so I might have to skip this one. Thanks so much for the awesome review!
-Jessica (Peace Love Books)
Ha ha, I placed a link in the last paragraph of my review that describes what packaged books is and what the Full Fathom Five is.
Yes, exactly! I couldn’t cheer for the romance at all; neither could my friends.
Yep, Dorothy Must Die is definitely unnecessarily long. I had to trudge my way through it.
Kelly recently posted…This Is How Much I Love Twitter
You know, I was enjoying the book and about half way through I was sifting through reviews and learned what the FFF was. I had not heard about it, but I immensely dislike JF, so I wasn’t surprised he was in the middle of the mess. It kind of broke my heart that this book was apart of that mess and definitely tainted the rest of my reading experience. I had such high hopes for this book and was so darn excited about it for months. I am pretty sure I was reading the first half with rose colored glasses. So obviously, my entire reading experience of this book was never on a level playing field.
Also, the fact that the back cover ‘mission’ was at the very end was… odd. In fact, the whole end was odd. I’ll read book two, but I will NOT be spending my money on it. I am kind of glad that I used my e-book settlement money when I bought this one, at least I’m not out my own dollars.
I knew about the Full Fathom Five and Frey’s involvement with it before I read Dorothy Must Die and somehow managed to go in on neutral grounds. o:
I felt like the author realized at the end that OMG none of the missions at the back of the book was complete! and rushed everything.
At this rate, I don’t even know if I want to read book two. I’ll just read reviews of it. :P
Kelly recently posted…This Is How Much I Love Twitter
Agh a lot of people are disappointed by it, and it’s such a shame! I had such high hopes for this one. :(
Too bad it got less and less good as it went, books are usually the other way around!
And bad romance is the worst…
Thanks for honest review!
Ula @ Blog of Erised recently posted…London Book Fair recap – Part I
I lowered my expectations for this one because of the packaged book and the Full Fathom Five issue, but ugh, Dorothy Must Die still isn’t good. :l
The romance is guaranteed to make you cringe. It’s just so…random and sparkless.
Kelly recently posted…Book Review: Rebel Belle – Rachel Hawkins
I wasn’t too interested based on the cover, but a friend kept on pointing it out. I think I’ll need to send this link to her. I too have no idea what packaged books and FFF meant so thanks for the extra link too. Will be skipping this as there are retellings with nicer covers (at least!) and better reviews! Thanks for the honesty!
Definitely send the link to her – the more people who knows about this, the better.
And no problem! (:
Kelly recently posted…Book Review: Rebel Belle – Rachel Hawkins
Oh my goodness, I’d never heard of Full Fathom Five before and was actually very excited for this release, but now… well, from your review and from that information, which is really just peculiar and pretty awful, I don’t think this is for me at all. The fact that it’s not a standalone is a surprise to me, too, and since it’s so slow to get to the list of things on the back cover (a list that’s made me immensely interested in the book) I don’t think I’ll follow through with this, unfortunately.
Romi recently posted…The House of Cats by Maggie Pearson…
I wasn’t planning on reading Dorothy Must Die AT ALL because it’s a packaged book and part of the Full Fathom Five, but like you, the back cover of the book made me want to read it. So yeah, imagine my disappointment when I found out the list on the back cover of the book barely plays any part of the story. :l
Kelly recently posted…Book Review: Rebel Belle – Rachel Hawkins
I am actually quite excited to read this one, and I hope that it won’t bore me like it did you. Sometimes there really are unnecessary pages in a book. And I didn’t know this isn’t a stand alone! Ugh.
Dre @ Sporadic Reads recently posted…Review 157 : Life in the Palace by Catherine Green
I hope you’ll also enjoy this one better than I did Dre!
Yeah, Dorothy Must Die is DEFINITELY not a standalone. Why didn’t anyone tell us this beforehand? :l
Kelly recently posted…Book Review: A Mad, Wicked Folly – Sharon Biggs Waller
The “mission” aspect made me a bit mad – what kind of book puts something like that in the summary, only to mention it in the last pages? I mean, really. I kept wondering when it would show up, and I felt cheated when it finally appeared at the end. I did like the beginning and ending, but agree that pages could have been cut.
I didn’t even realize this was a packaged book / Full Fathom Five related. I might skip the sequel because of that, since I’m not very fond of that company.
Thanks for the review!
Lea @ YA Book Queen recently posted…Review: NIL by Lynne Matson
YES. It’s like they know people will want to read the book because of the mission aspect, which I understand, but to include one part of it in the last eight pages? No, just NO.
And yes, I felt completely cheated too. My notes are filled with “when will the mission part FINALLY play into the story?”
I’m definitely skipping the sequel now. Not only am I not a fan of packaged books or the Full Fathom Five, but Dorothy Must Die did not impress me at all.
Kelly recently posted…Book Review: A Mad, Wicked Folly – Sharon Biggs Waller
I was about to ask you about the Fanthom something and Package books until the end of the review, Lol
I had problems about this book as well. But I’m completely different. I’ve not read the book or even watched the movies or plays. (Sadly)
I don’t know, not one bit of the story. And I also don’t respond the blurp. I’m not really a big fan of it. Nor am I interested. And based on your review, it looks like my gut is right. Great review Kelly! :D
Jules @ Jules Bookshelf recently posted…Book Review: Pivot Point by Kasie West
Ha ha, the only things I remember about the Wizard of Oz is that there’s a tin man, Dorothy in a blue dress and two braids, a lion, and a scarecrow, that’s it. :P
Thanks Jules! :D
Kelly recently posted…Book Review: A Mad, Wicked Folly – Sharon Biggs Waller
I also felt that Amy completing her mission should be brought forward and the part where she trained and lived with the Revolutionary of the Wicked seemed redundant. I gave this book 4/5 stars though. Great review as I see it from different perspectives:)
Belinda @ Lil Book Owl recently posted…Waiting on Wednesday #16
Mostly, I think a huge part of Amy’s training can be cut out or shortened. :l
Thanks Belinda! (:
Kelly recently posted…Book Review: A Mad, Wicked Folly – Sharon Biggs Waller
Wow, I was not familiar with the term “packaged book” and actually googled it before reading your review, and I’m not sure how I feel about them now. I don’t think I’ve read many of them, but I’ll probably aware of them in the future and take it into consideration when deciding whether or not to read a certain title.
And then I got to the end of you post and clicked the link, and wow! I most definitely do not want to read anything that comes from Full Fathom Five! When I was growing up, my mom always referred to very popular movies and tv shows and books, ones that our family didn’t always care for, as having been “geared towards the masses”, and that’s what I thought of when reading about Full Fathom Five. Thanks for my lesson of the day!
octoberwoman recently posted…Fish Out of Water (Fred the Mermaid, Book 3)
Yeah, whether a book is packaged or not definitely influences me for whether or not I’ll read a certain book or not.
Hmm..I’ve never thought about this in terms of movies before, but that definitely applies too!
No problem, I’m glad to inform you! My goal is to spread the word about this. ;D
Kelly recently posted…Book Review: A Mad, Wicked Folly – Sharon Biggs Waller
oh no.. i hate hate hate it when the back of a book says something that only happens half way or at the end of the book =\ also the whole FFF thing.. i mean I’ve read packaged books before and they were amazing.. but none from FFF.. i want to support the authors but at the same time i can’t support what JF is doing =\. Still.. i will not buy the book and will probably borrow it from the library or something.
– Juhina @ Maji Bookshelf
Juhina recently posted…Review: The Geography of You and Me by Jennifer E. Smith
Oh man! I am so disappointed after reading your review for two reasons because this one had sounded like an interesting read. I had no idea that it was one of those packaged books, which are sad in themselves, and thus my wanting to read it has been diminished. Also because it it sounds, now that I’ve actually read a review on it, like it would drive me crazy from boredom.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts on this one. I probably will not being reading it now for those two reasons (boredom from lack of things happening and because it’s a packaged book).
Orchid @ The Haunting of Orchid Forsythia recently posted…All About Middle Grade Review: The Junction of Sunshine and Lucky
I read a few chapters before the book was released (as a part of their promotional campaign) and was SO underwhelmed by it. It’s really unfortunate because, like you, I really love retellings. Unfortunately, after reading the sample chapters I decided that this book was not for me. I guess everyone has different tastes, right? It seems like a lot of people love this book.
Karen M recently posted…Monday Musings | Book Trailers
I get your need to read fairy tale retellings “policy” too. I was looking forward to it, but I’m hesitating now because of how draggy it appears to be :\
Yikes! I was actually wanting to read this book. Lol, well I still will read it. Hopefully I will enjoy it. :\ Thanks for your honest review though.
I really want to read this. I have never read a retelling about Dorothy before so I can’t want to read this one.
I honestly want to read this one since I’m a big fan of re-tellings (when it comes to movies that is. I’ve never READ a re-telling before). I’m sorry that you didn’t really enjoy but I think I’d still give it a shot sometime :) Then I guess I shall see for myself but then again, I won’t actually buy the book. I’ll take your suggestion and see if a copy turns out somewhere for me to read :)
Ailla recently posted…Properly Scandalous: A Review :)
I was actually looking forward to reading Dorothy Must Die but reading some reviews I’m kind of at edge. Anyway, it would still be good to read it, in case…
Thanks for the wonderful, and insightful review
Jayvee De Castro recently posted…LIFE OF A BLOGGER: 101 Things I Love
Thanks for the wonderful review. I had already decided not to read this book (I read the prequel some time ago and hated it), but I was still curious, since so many people are raving about it. Thanks to this review I have decided 100% to avoid this series. Really a shame that the book turned out to be like this. :( The idea and the blurb and even the cover seemed so interesting (and I love Wizard of Oz stories).
Also double thanks for telling about and linking to that FFF stuff. Never knew, and I went on a searching spree to check out more articles on that FFF stuff. Really glad I know about it now.
Mehsi recently posted…Review for Denpa Kyoushi Vol.1
Wow I read the article you linked re Full Fathom Five and that is appalling, I can completely understand your hesitance for Dorothy Must Die. I want to read it but your advice was so great, I think I’ll find an ebook version before spending the big bucks on a hard copy. Thanks so much for sharing all of that. I don’t think enough people know about book packaging companies like FFF and the poor grad students who sign away their rights…
I saw rave reviews for this book but honestly never felt the need to read it. I don’t know how to feel about a Wizard of Oz remake/twist.
Chanpreet recently posted…Release Day Blitz and Giveaway: Perfectly Messy by Lizzy Charles
Haha, I love your reviewing style, I just smile when I read your comments for some reason~
I’d also heard that this was a Full Fathom Five book, but after some research I still cant quite understand what that even means. Oh well… I highly enjoyed The Wizard of Oz stories, and I was looking forward to reading this book! What a shame… I’ll probably still pick it up, though.
But not mentioning what’s displayed on the back cover of a book until the last eight pages is seriously not good xD