Dorothy Must Die

Review to follow on blog soon!

“A Wizard of Oz retelling???? SIGN ME UP” is what I said when I saw the title. But it’s not a retelling, it’s a continuation of the story/movie *whatevs* we all know and love…*cues “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” soundtrack*
Dorothy Must Die is about a girl who found her way to Oz. Amy

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Gumm lives with her mom in a rednecky trailer park in a trailer. She has a pregnant bully constantly on her back and her mom probably loves her pet rat more than her own daughter. Amy’s got it real good…One day after getting suspended her mom leaves for a night out in the middle of a wind storm. The wind picks up and a huge tornado takes Amy inside the trailer to a land far away from Kansas. After a bit of confusion and disbelief she accepts that she was just transported to Oz and has an impending audience with Dorothy Gale (yup that one). Dorothy just happens to be the princess of Oz, the good and beautiful and kind princess that everyone loves…only that’s too good to be true because the book is called Dorothy Must Die and soon we find out why it’s necessary to kill her.
I really truly wanted to love this book because I love Oz, I love Wicked, I love Frank and I love sexy guys with silver hair…it’s just…this was kind of a really amateur novel. It was a good premise and all but the execution was kind of poor. The book started off so well, the transition to Oz wasn’t so fast that it was jarring or anything but then it went to action too quickly then simmered down like an ice cube in lava and then confusion and then just so much that I was confused and decided to reread another book I had with me on the plane ride to New York City. Once I got back into it and far from the boring two chapters that made me stop reading it I was quite intrigued yet something just felt off.
Plot wise it was really good but organization was really wonky and it was just kind of a put off.
Amy is a decent protagonist that one could relate to but sometimes she gets on my nerves but there’s nothing I could do about that. The neat thing about the book is also that there isn’t really a definite good guy or bad guy. Dorothy sucks at being a princess but the people trying to take her down are pretty shady too. We get to choose who we want to root for. The romance is there but I couldn’t really get to it because of the sad organization of the plot. One minute Amy was with Nox (super hot guy in the secret let’s-take-down-Dorothy-and-her-minions services who trains Amy in this service to eventually kill Dorothy herself) and the next all of a sudden they have feelings for each other. I was so confused by the plot that I didn’t have time to register this romance.
It’s my understanding that this is going to be a series….so I forgive this lack of cohesiveness in the first book but we’ll just have to see if Amy succeeds.

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I give this a glowing review because first and foremost its Oz related! Fans of the Lunar Chronicles and A.G. Howard's 'Splintered' and 'Unhinged' will particularly like this book. The twist on the traditional Oz story is fun, fresh and edgy. Amy is a strong female protagonist. The story is full of

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snark, a bit of wistful romance, and some dark twists that breath 21st Century life into a 19th Century classic. I look forward to the next book!

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Amy Gumm has been named "Salvation Amy trailer trash" by her classmates at school. As if that is not enough, Amy's Dad left her and her mother when Amy was little. And for quite a few years Amy's mother has been mostly lost in her own world of alcohol and self-pity. They happen to live in a trailer

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in Dusty Acres, Kansas. When we read that a tornado develops and lifts Amy and her trailer into its funnel while twisting and turning them until they are dropped in the land of Oz we are reminded of another girl from Kansas by the name of Dorothy whose house also landed in Oz. But Oz is not a happy place now because Dorothy is the ruler and she is an evil and self-centered ruler. However, Amy's arrival seems to portend changes for the future of the land because there is hope that she will be the one to free all of Oz by killing Dorothy. This appears to be an insurmountable task but Amy finds that she has many allies who are willing to offer her their assistance.

Dorothy, the Scarecrow, the Tin Man, the Lion, the Wizard and all of the familiar characters from Baum's story of Oz appear in this book. But Danielle Paige has given them new dark personas and the land of the Yellow Brick Road is a scary one. I found the changes to be intriguing. Unfortunately there were a few parts of the book that got a little slow paced and the book ended rather abruptly. Even so, I will be waiting for the next book to learn if Amy is successful in freeing Oz from Dorothy's powerful rule. And will she somehow make it back to Kansas to be reunited with her mother.

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I love fairytale retellings, and I thought Dorothy Must Die was a homerun. In this novel, Dorothy returns to Oz and is now their Princess. Oz is now unrecognizable, with Dorothy hoarding all the magic and spreading fear throughout the land. Her companions the TinMan, Scarecrow, Lion, and Glinda

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have also gone through various transformations and are now evil, twisted versions of what they once were. It's up to Amy, another girl from Kansas who was brought to Oz by a tornado, to remove Dorothy from power and restore Oz to it's original state.
The acts of evil throughout the book are horrifying and you can't help but root for Amy in her quest. She still has lots to learn and I am looking forward to the next installment to see how she proceeds.

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If you are someone who treasures your image of Dorothy as a sweet innocent stay far away from this series because she’s turned into a power hungry, magic thieving tyrant, and it’s going to take another girl from Kansas to set things right in Oz. I often love classic tale updates and this

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eye-popping twist on the familiar story absolutely thrilled me.

Inspired by Baum’s inventive series and the iconic Judy Garland movie, author Danielle Paige has created a wonderful ironic humored, tough/vulnerable narrative voice in Amy Gumm, a teenager living in a trailer park with her formerly loving but increasingly checked out mother, who’s battling depression with the “help” of alcohol. Amy has been suspended from school because a pregnant popular girl tried to beat her up, but she’s used to being the brunt of bad jokes--cosmic and otherwise--so she’s more upset that her mother is heading to the town’s bar, leaving her alone in their trailer with a big storm is brewing. The resulting tornado sweeps Amy and her snippy pet rat Star over the rainbow and into an decimated Oz that looks nothing like the magical kingdom Dorothy saw on her first trip.

Towns have been destroyed, the landscape has been strip-mined for magic, and while no one Amy meets is willing to tell her what’s going on it soon becomes clear that Dorothy is behind the devastation. Magic confers power and after tasting it Dorothy has gotten greedy, a fate Amy must avoid if she hopes to help restore Oz to its former glory. But it’s a confusing situation because good and evil have flipped so the terms are now meaningless. Glinda, the Tinman, the Lion, and the Scarecrow have followed Dorothy down the yellow brick road of corruption and become truly terrifying--nightmare material--but Amy meets some intriguing potential allies including Indigo, a goth tattooed Munchkin, Pete, an enigmatic boy with wild green eyes, Ollie, a now wingless winged monkey, and an assortment of evil witches trying to put aside their natural animosity to work together. Sort of. And the Wizard is here too, but it’s unclear what side, if any, he’s on.

Everyone believes Amy has landed in Oz to kill Dorothy and remove her from Ozma’s throne, everyone that is except skeptical Amy herself, who is understandably reluctant to become assassin. Plus she’s a powerless nobody back in Kansas, nicknamed Salvation Amy because of her worn out clothing, so how can she be expected to play a major role in the Oz rebellion? But as Amy gets herself into increasing perilous situations she discovers her “crappy” upbringing and the independence it forced her to develop serve her well as she tries to develop her fighting skills and channel the Oz magic that is all around her. With a rich setting, great characters, zip-line paced suspense, and deft touches of humor Dorothy Must Die leaves me eager to read its sequels.

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Really liked the modern day take on Oz and how a Kansas teen named Amy Gumm goes from dealing with mean girls in the halls to a whole different reality. Paige does a great job setting up the story--Dorothy returned to Oz and aligned herself with Ozma, taking over the realm. I'm not familiar enough

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with the Baum Oz series to know if the way the lands are set up and how many of the characters are taken from the original, but I enjoyed the fast-paced read and will definitely be waiting to see how the rest of Amy's story plays out.

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So, if you know me then you know how much I’m a big fan a classics. In fact, when I was a little girl, I adored The Wizard Of Oz. I remember ABC even doing a special on it and how excited I was to watch it. Now, when this little pretty fell into my hands, I knew I was in for an adventure.

Plot:

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This plot is simple. This is based on The Wizard Of Oz. So if you know they classic, then this book will be easy to follow. I really enjoyed how the story had similar situations just like the classic did but with a twist. The plot twist in this book gives the story it uniqueness. Once I got a feel for the main character and the plot, it was so easy to fall into and enjoy.

Dorothy/Amy: One thing I love about this story is how well-rounded Amy is. Amy is not your typical gal either. She comes from this rough life of property and missing parents. To see her become herself with the story, to overcome many of her fears is amazing. The author does a great job in creating this weak…yet strong voice for Amy. She has a growth in the story that just pushes the reader to see more.

Ending: With all that is happening in the story, Amy has a lot to accomplish. I like that not every part of the story is given away at once. The reader is given pieces of it to revel in, yet it also makes the reader more intune with the characters. Make sense? The ending comes together beautifully and I can not wait to see what the next book has to offer.

Like many other re-tales, Dorothy Must Die begins with a bang. Lots of action and drama, Dorothy Must Die is an rousing adventure that is pleasing to the readers. Powered with a freshly written perspective, Dorothy Must Die is awesome!

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This book was better than I expected. I did read some of the other reviews on this book and had my doubts. Yet, I was still curious about this book and wanted to read it for myself. So again, I was happy that it was better then I hoped.

The world that Ms. Paige has built in Oz is a twisted one.

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Dorothy is evil. However I think one of the scariest characters in this book was the Tin Man. He is like something out of a horror movie. Than there is Maude the tattooed munkin. Oh and don't forget Glenda, who is not the good witch but the mean b''ch. It is her sister, Glinda that is the good one. Amy is the hero. Although in comparison with all the other characters of Oz, she was dull and a weakling. However again it is because of the world and the rest of the characters that I enjoyed this book. I am curious as to what will happen in the next book. I see it getting better and darker in the next book.

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I.......hmmmm.

I REALLY, REALLY wanted to like this book. And I didn't not like it, exactly. I found the premise to be extremely interesting, and the new characters the author introduced had a lot of potential. My problem is that by the end of the book, basically nothing that the author promised in

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the book description had actually happened.

That's not to say NOTHING happened. There were lots and lots of things going on, almost all the time. Every page had some new situation Amy had to extricate herself from. It just wasn't the situations I expected - this just wasn't quite the book I wanted it to be. So, probably, my bad.

But also, Amy never really became a character in her own right. She seemed like a girl who had a lot of things happen to her, but I never quite got to the point where I cared. As a character, she isn't the person I am actually interested in in this story, and as a reader that's concerning to me.

Now, as I said before, I didn't NOT like it. There were enough seeds that piqued my interest that I will be reading at least one more book in the series. I'm hoping for more depth, however, or I might never know if Dorothy does, indeed, die.

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Tornado? Yellow brick road? Flying monkeys? Count me in!

When I first saw this book I was a little hesitant. I'm not a big fan of fairy tale retelling's which is what I thought this was. Boy was I wrong. I downloaded Dorothy Must Die from Audible and from the first line I was hooked. Not only is it

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anything but a 'retelling' but the way that Danielle Paige weaves this story it feels like it's the way it was suppose to happen all along.

The Wizard of Oz was always a favorite movie of mine, ever since I was little I've loved Judy Garland, for me my favorite part of the movie was when the dull, black and white screen is suddenly filled with vibrant bursts of color. The road, the slippers the different colored horses all make up my favorite parts.

Now imagine Amy Gumm's life. Her life is less then note worthy. Her mother is a not so functioning alcoholic, her father is off with his new family, and Amy just got into a fight with a pregnant girl from her school. But when she is suddenly scooped up and dumped in the middle of Oz by a tornado she doesn't get the adventure that Dorothy got nor does she get the happy ending. The screen isn't filled with bright colors and the only place the yellow brick road leads is imminent death.

Along the way Amy runs into a handful of characters, some good, some bad, all completely unique.

Amy is quickly recruited to take down the person who has turned Oz into a, for lack of a better description, hell hole.

With the help of her pet rat, a wingless monkey and some wickedly unforgettable witches Amy must find herself in order to kill Dorothy and save Oz.

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I had a HUGE need to read this book; I mean it's a retelling of The Wizard of Oz! I really enjoyed that all characters were part of this story, but in a new and unique way. Amy having to save Oz by killing off the original characters who we all loved...the best! I recommend this story to those who

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are interested in modern versions of traditional stories. Definitely worth the read.

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One book that's getting a lot of buzz right now that I couldn't resist reading is Danielle Paige's Dorothy Must Die. And while I've never read or had any interest in Pride, Prejudice and Zombies or any comparative titles, I was surprised by how much I enjoyed reading this novel. It's still a great

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novel and I definitely recommend it for a fun weekend read!

Be warned that while it is categorized as YA fiction, it reads more on the adult side. Graphic violence, extreme language, death, sexual references, and disturbing scenes are peppered throughout the text. It's not slasher/horror fiction, and all of these things are used effectively, but younger readers may find some scenes frightening.

This book has sass, humour, action, suspense, a kick-ass heroine, and a fantastic satiric quality about it. I liked that this is a story where the lines of good and evil are blurred and we get to see characters in a new light, with a different ending to the story. Of course there's also a very bloodthirsty and fearless lion, a scarecrow whose thirst for knowledge has warped him into a psychopath on Leatherface's level, and a Tin woodman who would do anything—and kill anyone—to earn Dorothy's love. It's what happens when power, courage, knowledge, and love can turn you into something... wicked.

Dorothy Must Die already has a prequel novella, and I'll definitely be picking up a copy of the sequel when it comes out!

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Amy Gumm is just an average poor girl from Kansas. She lives in a trailer park, shops at the thrift store, and is bullied by the mean girl in her class. Her mom is an addict, hardly functional, so Amy has been acting as head of the household since she was 13. When a tornado sweeps through town and

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deposits Amy in Oz, there's a large part of her that doesn't want to look back -- no "there's no place like home" for her. But Oz isn't the cheery land of movie and storybook that Amy expects: towns have been reduced to vacant ruins, dangers are everywhere, and the few people Amy does meet are cryptic and unfriendly. The source of all of this misery is, of course, Dorothy Gale, the other girl from Kansas. Apparently, home wasn't all it was cracked up to be for Dorothy, either, because she has returned to Oz and now rules beside Ozma (who she's somehow reduced to a mere puppet-like figure) as a princess, demanding every good thing for herself (including the land's magic) and withholding it from everyone else. The Cowardly Lion leads an army of beasts to enforce her wishes, and the Tin Woodsman has a troupe of metal soldiers who protect her. Meanwhile, the Scarecrow bends his powerful brain to scientific experimentation, creating mutants and fiendish devices for Dorothy as she relishes her life of luxury. Obviously, something has to be done, but is Amy the one to do it? She may be from the same place as Dorothy, but she's equipped with neither magic nor fighting skills -- at least, not until she falls into the hands of the Order of the Wicked, a group of witches and fighters dedicated to one goal: Dorothy must die.

Now, I have to admit: I'm no Oz aficionado. I neither reverence the original nor adore the Wicked version (though, to be fair, I haven't seen the musical yet, so I suppose that could change). In terms of fantasy lands, give me Wonderland, give me the Enchanted Forest, give me Neverland, give me (please O please give me) Narnia, but Oz? Meh. I couldn't tell you the difference between a Quadling and a Gillikin if one came up and poked me in the nose. So I'm not fussed about any authorial depredations on Oz and its inhabitants, nor am I bothered by Dorothy coming back and being evil. What does bother me about this book, you may ask? Well, I'll tell you: the GINORMOUS CLIFFHANGER at the end of the book. That bothers me. Sure, there were times when I found the characterization a little flat, and the pacing, though generally good, lagged once or twice. But all of that pales in comparison with the GINORMOUS CLIFFHANGER. I did find the premise of a dystopian Oz interesting, and I think this book will appeal to teens (there's a hot guy or two and some fighting), but did I mention that it ends in a GINORMOUS CLIFFHANGER? Because anyone like me, going into the book not realizing it was the beginning of a series, might be a bit put out at that. But if you're fascinated by the concept and not bothered by books that end in a GINORMOUS CLIFFHANGER, you might want to give this a try.

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Amy Gumm (perfect name) endures. She endures her losses (father abandoned the family, mom is lost in a haze of drugs and alcohol, kids at school treat her like she's trailer trash), helps a popular boy because he wants to leave as much as she does, and hurts inside. When a tornado whisks her

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double-wide away, she and her pet rat, Star, land on the edge of a bottomless canyon and are rescued by Pete, a boy her age who has amazing eyes and won't tell her much.
Amy is in Oz, but things are completely different than we're used to. Dorothy is greedy, cruel and obsessed with gathering all the magic at the risk of destroying Oz in the process. Amy's first friend, Indigo, a tat-covered Munchkin is killed by Dorothy before Amy's eyes when they reach the Emerald City and Amy is imprisoned. Mysterious Pete appears twice in her cell, hinting that she's the one who can fix the mess that is Oz, but he can't really help her. Just before she's about to be hauled off to her trial, this ugly woman appears and offers her a chance to join the wicked side (which is now the good side, or so she's led to believe). Mombi, one of the original witches and Amy fight the Tin Man and his minions, but have to use magic to disappear.
Amy lands in a cavern where she meets Nox, a boy who is a bit older than she is and just as enigmatic as Pete. She's trained to fight and hone her own magic because she's going to have to kill Dorothy. Her training and infiltration of the palace staff after morphing into the exact image of one of Dorothy's maids, takes up most of the book.
There's a lot of violence and some profanity here, that while appropriate to the story line, will be problematic for some teens and libraries. There's a huge gotcha at the end of the book, leading to a cliffhanger, guaranteed to get readers salivating for the next book. I liked it, but was frustrated by the very elements (the gotcha and the cliffhanger) which had me reading late into the night.

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This turned out to be a better book than I expected. I was already intrigued by the title, with the unmistakable intimation of Dorothy of Oz, but immediately became involved with the premise. I am not one to reiterate the entire contents of a book when the twists and turns of this title are much

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more fun to discover on your own. I believe you will read this with a similar sense of enjoyment that I did. I am definitely looking forward to the second in this imaginative take on Dorothy and the Land of Oz.

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Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz has had herself named princess and is sucking all the magic out of Oz to support her lavish magical lifestyle. Her henchman, twisted versions of the Scarecrow, the Tinman and the Lion have also let power go to their heads and rule Oz under a reign of terror. A new girl

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blows in from Kansas, and it is up to her to put things right again. Her assignment: assassinate Dorothy.

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This is one of those books that you just don't want to end because you know you are going to have to wait a while to find out what happens next. I will be impatiently waiting for the next installment.

Amy Gumm is just another girl from Kansas. She lives in a trailer and her mom is either out partying with her loser friends or too deep in a depression to move. A tornado drops her trailer right into Oz, but it's not like the movies or the books. She expected vibrant colors, magic, and happiness.

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What's left is sorrow, enslaved munchkins, and a beaten down Oz. Dorothy returned to Oz, made herself queen, and is siphoning its magic for herself until there's none left. Dorothy's friends are also unrecognizable. The Scarecrow kills beings for their brain power and makes grotesque experiments out of the people of Oz. The Tin Woodman kills without a thought despite his heart and the Lion is a savage, monstrous beast. Amy joins forces with those previously considered evil to overthrow Dorothy's reign of terror.

I am a die hard Oz fan. I read all of the books as a kid; I was obsessed with the movie; and I read and watch every retelling and permutation out there. Most of them are bad and create mediocre stories out of nothing (looking at you Oz the Great and Powerful) rather than drawing on the very rich world of Oz that L. Frank Baum created over the course of fourteen books. Danielle Paige chose the latter route and wrote a unique story with many characters no one hears about and looking at Oz as it was in the books while expanding upon it. Some of these characters include Mombi, the Good Witch of the North (who didn't previously have a name), Jellia Jamb, and Ozma. I am so excited to see Ozma that I don't know what to do with myself. She's the ruler of Oz after the Wizard and the Scarecrow and she is never in any reimagining at all despite being a major character. I hope she has a major role in the next book. Anyway, I appreciate that Danielle Paige knows the world and doesn't just make up random stuff that wouldn't make sense.

I greatly enjoyed her twisted version of Oz with a healthy dose of horror. It was darker than I was expecting from a YA book, but for me, that's a plus. Dorothy is power hungry and cruel with a veneer of sickening sweetness and beauty. The Scarecrow readily sacrifices Ozites to keep his brain power up and to do sick and torturous experiments on. The Tin Woodman has made himself into a weapon and commands an army of cyborg weapon soldiers created by the Scarecrow. He's also hopelessly in love with Dorothy and will do absolutely everything and anything she asks. The Lion is a grotesquely huge beast who feeds on people's fear and attacks often for no reason. All of them serve Dorothy and work towards the destruction of Oz. What I would like to know is how it got this way. They all started out as wholesome, good creatures. I understand Dorothy is an addict who needs more and more magic to feel beautiful, special, and powerful, but why would the others, who have lived in Oz all their lives, condone and help her destroy their land?

The execution of the novel had a few problems. The pacing is really off in places. Parts that didn't need so much time went on for pages and pages while pivotal scenes were rushed through. The romance distracted from the story without really adding anything except for fitting into the typical YA book model. The description on the back cover doesn't even get addressed until the very end of the book and isn't yet completed. The book ends literally in the middle of a scene, which I hate. I understand leaving plot lines open for the next book, but abruptly cutting a book short is just annoying.

Dorothy Must Die makes my inner Oz fanatic very happy in that she addresses and acknowledges little known characters and the existence of the world as it was created by the original author. It's not a perfect novel, but the positives outweigh the negatives. Danielle Paige's writing really sucked me in and made me overlook some of the problems. I will definitely be reading the next book because I need to know what happens.

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Most people are aware of the reimagining of the classic The Wonderful Wizard of Oz in the form of the book entitled Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire and/or the musical by Winnie Holzman. However, Dorothy Must Die takes a completely different spin on the

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classic tale. In Paige's version, Dorothy has returned to Oz and she is the epitome of all things evil. The Tin Woodman, Scarecrow, Lion, and Glinda are her willing participants in turning Oz into a fearful, corrupt place devoid of any happiness (other than Dorothy's own). Amy Gumm (also from Kansas) has stumbled into this world and she is tasked with the ultimate mission: Kill Dorothy. This book is the first in a series (which I will HAVE to read just as soon as I can get my mitts on the prequel novellas) and the sequel has just come out entitled The Wicked Will Rise. I highly recommend this to anyone who is 1. A fan of the original Oz series by L. Frank Baum. 2. A fan of Wicked. 3. A fan of fairytales being turned on their head (think Once Upon a Time). Trust me, guys, this one is worth your while.

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I don't mean to be unkind to this book when rating it, because it was truly entertaining and it was easy to get lost in the characters and in the plot. However, I found a lot of places where it just seemed like the author forgot a lot of what she was writing as she wrote it. Something would be

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explained to the main character, Amy, and then not even a few paragraphs later it was as if she hadn't ever known it and was learning it (again) for the first time when a different character explained it to her. Events got the same treatment. I found this to be distracting and confusing, and I frequently had to wonder if, since this happened so often, was it by design or just sloppiness? I kept thinking that at some point it would all come together and I'd realize by the last page that it only LOOKED sloppy, even though I found it hard to figure out how in the world most of this forgetfulness could be explained. But, unfortunately, that didn't happen. Still, this is just the first book so maybe it will be explained in another book, after all.

As I said before, though, this book is entertaining and easy to get lost in, despite that. I was interested to see what was going to happen to Amy, or to her Oz acquaintances, next. And there was a twist at the end that I definitely did NOT see coming at all. When it happened, I had to reread the paragraph a few times!!

I liked Amy's upbringing, as well. Not because I think someone deserves that, but because I think it's very relatable to a lot of young people, especially today. A cheating father who walked out on the family so that he could start a new one, a mother who used to be a great mom but became so bogged down by stress and sadness, and possibly depression, over her circumstances that she essentially gave up and became an alcoholic and left Amy not only to basically raise herself but to take care of her mother, as well. Bullies at school, not popular. Having been accustomed to a much better life when her family was whole only to end up having to live in a trailer park. But, despite that, she still had goals she wanted to accomplish, even if they were just personal goals that were to get her from one place to more comfortable other place.

This is a character that a lot of people can relate to, and I'm glad that she has this background. I'm more used to characters who come from more conventional families with both parents present. And if they aren't, something tragic and unforeseen has happened to make that occur, or they're workaholics. Characters with backgrounds like this are also relatable and necessary, I don't mean to imply that they should be abandoned. But, when that's really all the variation you get most of the time, there are LOTS of kids out there who don't have home lives that look at all like that who aren't getting represented. I think Amy Gumm's character is great not just because I find her personality likable and relatable, but because I think her character's background comes from a place that a lot of kids will be able to see themselves in her in ways that they don't normally get to due to similar life experiences rather than just similar personalities.

I'm looking forward to the next book to find out what happens with Amy Gumm and her adventures in Oz! I really want to know! And I want to see more of Amy.

I'm also really interested to see what happened to cause Dorothy to become the way she is. There's a lot of speculation and hints in this book, but no concrete answers. So, I'm glad to find out that there is a digital novella that works as a prequel that will tell us this and I'm looking forward to reading that at some point soon, too. Throughout the entire book, you can't help but wonder. Amy wonders, too. It'll be great to get to see it play out.

Seriously, don't let my rating or my points about sloppy writing in places, deter you from this book. It's definitely worth reading!

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DNF. I probably shouldn't give it a rating but the fact that I could not finish it says something about the book. The reader was overwrought at points in the story that didn't need it.

The "heroes" were fine, but the "villains" were what bumped this up for me. Chilling and twisted! Hopefully the sequel will be less predictable...

As a huge Wizard of Oz fan, it was fun to revisit Baum's old world with a new twist.