Okay, so I haven't updated in a really long time.
I just finished reading a book over the weekend that I wanted to hate but actually ended up loving. It's "Dorothy Must Die" by Danielle Paige. I read the prequel last year and enjoyed it (No place like Oz) but I was to be honest, put off by the whole dark Oz thing that's so popular.
But after reading this book, I just couldn't hate it.
In this new series (which is being made into a TV series too, by the way) Dorothy has returned to Oz (this is Baum's Oz, by the way, kudos to Miss Paige for taking the Oz from the books and making it mainstream.) but she has gone power mad after obtaining a new pair of magical shoes.
After ousting Princess Ozma, she corrupts her three famous friends into evil versions of themselves over time and rules Oz with an iron fist. She has been draining the magic of Oz for many years when in drops a new girl from Kansas in her mobile home, Amy Gumm. (big fans of the MGM movie will get the name.)
Amy is a depressed teenager who can't catch a break and when she finds her self in the Land of Oz she realizes Kansas might not have been so bad.
After run ins with the enemies, Amy joins an order of "Wicked" witches which holds a few familiar faces from the Baum Oz books.
The pacing of this book is awesome and the action and character plots are too. I could not put this book down.
I am most impressed though that this is Baum's Oz distorted, not some alternate Oz like in Wicked. This is an Oz where many of the evnts from Baum's books did take place, but after the second book (The Marvelous Land of Oz), Dorothy really changed things with her evil attitude.
It's an Oz where Polychrome, Shaggy Man, Scraps and all the rest still exist but avoid the dangers of the still beautiful Emerald City.(at least those who survived Dorothy's wrath...given her attitude towards Amy, if Trot and Betsy ever made it to Oz they are no longer around).
I was not a fan of the language in the book though, even though it is supposed to be a YA novel, I don't like F-bombs in my Oz, even if they were very few and far between.
The blood and gore is very extreme. If that sort of thing is offensive to you, I would avoid the book. Some of it is shocking. We're talking bloody eye sockets, dismemberment....come to think of it, the old Oz books had quite a bit of this as well, it just wasn't so graphically stated as it is here.
There is not really any sexual material here though, there's a mention of a pregnant teen and some short maid skirts, that's about it really.
It's a fast paced read and the prequel novella is where you should start as it sets everything up. I'd recommend it to Oz fans as well as YA, Fantasy and horror fans over 16.
This could help Oz become more mainstream if the series really takes off. I look forward to the new TV show (if it doesn't get cancelled) www.deadline.com/2013/09/cw-wi… as well as the new NBC series,"Emerald City" which takes stories from the original fourteen Oz books and creates an Oz drama. www.deadline.com/2013/08/nbc-b…
They can keep Warriors of Oz though, that show sounds stupid...who am I kidding, I'll probably watch it too.
P.S.
Anyone interested in a contest? I don't know any details yet, but I might have some soon if there's enough interest.
I fail at marketing putting this at the bottom of a book review...



























