Magic, murder, mayhem = this book has it all

Dorothy Must Die by Danielle Paige

* Book read via the publisher for review.

4 gnomes and a gnome hat out of 5 gnomes

This book is one heck of a great fractured fairy tale. I can see the tagline for the hopefully future movie now, “Not your Mama’s Wizard of Oz.” I loved this book but I highly recommend reading the prequel first so you can ease yourself into this crazy world.

I like the Wizard of Oz movie but I loved the books by L. Frank Baum about Ozma and all the other characters in Oz (I don’t think I’ve read all of them but it has been a while.) If you too read the old Oz books about Oz like then you’ll definitely figure out one of the twists. This author is a master at mixing characters from the Oz books and movie and twisting everything into something new.

In this Oz don’t be surprised by the f-bombs getting dropped and other assorted curse words, it’s a much darker place but it’s also intriguing to see how much everything has changed. Also, beware if you are prone to getting very attached to all the characters in the story.

Amy’s story starts off showing how her life isn’t exactly easy and how she gets to Oz is fitting to the original story. She’s a strong character who needs to get even stronger if she’s going to survive in this warped version of Oz. Amy is quick at making friends and enemies and you can’t help but hope for the best for her.

Through the story you’ll have no doubt that Dorothy does indeed need to die. Dorothy is one evil witchy woman. She’s not the only witch out there though which makes things extremely interesting.

Be prepared to look at Good and Wicked in a new way in this book that’s kind of like what I imagine would happen if The Wizard of Oz and Kill Bill had a baby. I’m looking forward to whatever happens next.