


Amy’s too busy running around Oz with the flying monkeys and rainbow people to bother going after Dorothy. Here’s my problem with those: technically, Dorothy finds her. Amy has to ‘Find Dorothy’, ‘Destroy the Road of Yellow Brick’ and ‘Save Her Home’. The Wizard then tells Amy, at the very end of the book, that she had to complete the tasks in that order, so that Dorothy could die, because it turns out, you can’t just stab her and hope for the best. The blurb’s logic was a lot better than the book’s. Surely, she should work her way up to Dorothy. But, killing Dorothy first would kind of defeat the point of doing the other missions. They’re teaching her how to control her witchy powers. They’ve got a plan to smuggle Amy into the castle. Instead, the ROOTW (great acronym?!) tell her to just dive right in there and try to kill Dorothy. So, I was expected her to be given all of these tasks, and for her to move her way down the list in a very structured manner. In the first, she has to ‘Steal the Lion’s Courage’, ‘Take the Scarecrow’s Brain’ and ‘Capture the Tin Woodman’s Heart’ (something along those lines) and only then may ‘Dorothy Must Die’. On the back of both books, there’s a list of Amy Gumm’s missions. If you like Percy Jackson, and where looking for that same humour, and same plot structure of misfortunate-kid-hates-their-human-life-and-then-realise-they’re-magical, then Dorothy Must Die is right there for you.

And, the why Danielle Paige writes about setting and the creatures of Oz was Riordan-esque. She had all these little tasks to complete, and then she’d kill Dorothy. I really liked the sound of the plot, because it reminded me of a Percy Jackson book.

Amy, unknowingly, joins a resistance group called The Revolutionary Order of the Wicked, and is given the mission to kill Dorothy and bring Oz back to it’s former, technicolour glory. She rules a totalitarian state, where the lion, scarecrow and tin man do her bidding and terrorise the citizens of Oz. Dorothy Gale has gone rogue, power hungry for all the magic Oz has to offer. Then a cyclone comes and takes her to Oz, which is looking a little different to how she remembers. Wanting to be away from her mother, wanting to not be harassed by the mean girl at school. At this point in the series, I think Wicked is a better retelling, and let me tell you why.Īmy Gumm is the next Dorothy. The Wizard of Oz is one of my grandparents’ favourite films, Wicked is my favourite musical, and I’ve actually read the original for once, so I was really looking forward to see what was done to Oz to make it so terrible. I don’t think I really need to explain why I wanted to read these books. Dorothy Must Die and The Wicked Will Rise by Danielle Paige
