Did you long to travel over the rainbow when you were young? Did you wish to visit the Emerald City and meet the Tin Man, the Scarecrow, the Lion, and Glinda? If you’re a fan of The Wizard of Oz, you should read Danielle Paige’s Dorothy Must Die.
Dorothy Must Die is another retelling of a classic story; a practice that has become common these days. Instead of following sweet Dorothy Gale from Kansas, however, the story details Amy Gumm’s journey through Oz. Amy is also a teenage girl from Kansas who longs for more, although the similarities between her and Dorothy stop there. In fact, when Amy arrives in Oz, it is nothing like the place Dorothy knew; Good is Wicked and Wicked is Good, and the villain is Dorothy herself.
This story is nothing like its happy-go-lucky predecessor. It dives deep into the grim realities of the fictional world and explores many of the questions left from Dorothy’s original story, including “what makes the slippers special?” I won’t give anything else away, but if you’re interested in learning more about the land of Oz, check out Dorothy Must Die.