You MUST Read "Dorothy Must Die"

Dorothy Must Die by Danielle Paige is a continuation of the story The Wizard of Oz. In this story, the main character, Amy is a modern girl from Kansas, trapped in her mobile home when a tornado sweeps through. This storm brings her and her pet rat, Star, into Oz where things have gone horribly wrong. Dorothy has returned and become a tyrant, robbing the people of Oz of their rights. A resistance force of Wicked Witches believes that Amy is the only person who can kill Dorothy and restore Oz to its former magic. This novel is a great take on the Land of Oz, and Paige really creates her own story in this established world. Paige creates a fascinating spin on this classic story by creating an evil Dorothy, creating a theme about the gray area of good versus evil, and features strong female characters.

Dorothy is portrayed as the archetypical “Mean Girl”: rude and heartless with a smile, and very accustomed to getting everything she wants. “If I hadn’t read the story, I wouldn’t believe that she had ever lived on a farm. She had shed that girl long ago and replaced it with a poised, haughty princess. Her neck stretched upward as if she were searching for the perfect light. Her voice was perky, but there was a threat lurking somewhere in there too” (Paige 89). Paige erases the Dorothy that we have come to know, and replaced her with our childhood bully. Paige also puts her in a very – Regina George – package. We all know someone in our lives like this, so it adds to the overall theme of the book when Paige gets us to think about the people we have encountered ourselves in life.

This novel really brings into question what good and evil is, and creates characters that are both. It can be difficult to read because, at times it is unclear what the protagonist is, as well as other characters present in the novel. Especially when we first meet all the characters and learn that, “‘Down is up, up is down. Good is Wicked, Wicked is Good. The times are changing. This is what Oz has come to’” (Paige 132). This inability to determine who is a “good guy” or a “bad guy” speaks to a very real truth that must be confronted in our lives. There is a constant question for Amy about who is on her side, and there are times where she questions what her side is. I think that this is something we all must confront. Paige integrates this theme seamlessly into her novel, and really makes the reader think. So it is not only a lesson for Amy to learn about how broken this person is, but for the reader to look back on their past or what is happening now, to consider how evil people are more than that.

Finally, if this book were made into a movie, it would hands-down pass the Bechdel test. An overwhelming majority of this novel is female characters, and with only a handful of men to speak of, it is absolutely refreshing. The women in this novel are the ones taking the action, creating the problems and fixing them. Their personalities and strengths are diverse and equally important to the overall story. Which is very different from a majority of mainstream media. Paige has not only created a thought-provoking novel, but an empowering one.

This story adds a lot to our understanding of Oz and the characters we know so well. There is an extra layer of depth that Paige has given them, so that they are not only these relatively flat characters that we get in the films. She has also created a story that is incredibly empowering for young women because it shows women at the forefront of everything. I absolutely recommend this book to anyone who likes a story with magic, action, thought, and female empowerment.

Works Cited

Paige, D. M. Dorothy Must Die. N.p.: Harper Collins, 2014. Print.

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