Dorothy Must Die

April 14, 2014
A former writer for television, Paige makes her YA debut with this edgy update of Baum's classic series. When Kansas teenager Amy Gumm is carried away by a tornado, she arrives in a nightmarish version of Oz. The Scarecrow is a mad scientist, the Tin Woodman a sadistic military commander, the Cowardly Lion a ravenous beast, and Dorothy a vainglorious tyrant obsessed with stealing the land's magic and enslaving its people. After being thrown in prison for breaking the rules, Amy is rescued by the witches of the Revolutionary Order of the Wicked, who train her in magic and combat, and charge her with a singular mission: kill Dorothyâa near-suicidal task requiring her to go undercover in the Emerald City. While Oz purists may howl with outrage over the subversion of a childhood favoriteâwith some characters meeting gruesome endsâPaige delivers a solid, intense, and strange narrative that draws deeply on its source material. However, the lengthy buildup and abrupt ending make this installment feel like setup for the planned subsequent novels. A Full Fathom Five property. Ages 14âup.

April 1, 2014

Gr 9 Up-In this edgy update of Frank L. Baum's Wizard of Oz, Kansas teen Amy Gumm gets sucked into a complex assassination plot to dethrone the megalomaniac and magic addict Dorothy. Oz is no longer the cheerful Technicolor world made popular by the Judy Garland-starring film, and it has been drained of its fairy-tale glimmer by the red shoe-wearing despot and her crew of twisted friends. The Scarecrow, the Tin Man, Glinda, and the Lion all make horrific appearances, and characters from Baum's original are also highlighted in this grim and gory take. Roles are reversed as good and evil witches band together in the revolutionary group of the Wicked to train Amy to kill Dorothy. Debut author Paige doesn't hold back in this fast-paced action novel, and the body count mounts as the tale progresses. Leaps of logic distract from the overall story, and choppy language overwhelms at times, but teens will identify with the heroine's insecurities and feelings of abandonment caused by her parents' divorce and her mother's subsequent drug abuse. The tentative relationship that begins with one of her tutors seems a bit tacked on but will hopefully be developed more in future installments. Plot twists will keep readers guessing, and Amy's affinity to her pet mouse Star will garner some chuckles. Give this cinematic upper-YA novel to fans of A. G. Howard's Splintered (Abrams, 2012), Frank Beddor's Looking Glass Wars (Dial, 2006), and TV shows such as Once Upon a Time and Grimm.-Shelley Diaz, School Library Journal

Copyright 2014 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

March 15, 2014
When a cyclone deposits a 21st-century Kansas teen in Oz, she and readers discover there've been some changes made. Dirt-poor "Salvation Amy" Gumm lives in a trailer park, effectively parenting her alcoholic mom (her dad ran off years ago), who seems to care more about her pet rat, Star, than her daughter. That doesn't mean Amy is eager to be in Oz, particularly this Oz. Tyrannized by a megalomaniacal Dorothy and mined of its magic, it's a dystopian distortion of the paradise Baum and MGM depicted. In short order, Amy breaks the wholly capricious laws and is thrown into a cell in the Emerald City with only Star for company. There, she's visited first by the mysterious but sympathetic Pete and then by the witch Mombi, who breaks her out and takes her to the Revolutionary Order of the Wicked (among whom is the very hot Nox). Amy may well be the salvation of Oz--only someone from the Other Place can take Dorothy down. Paige has clearly had the time of her life with this reboot, taking a dystopian-romance template and laying it over Oz. Readers of Baum's books will take special delight in seeing new twists on the old characters, and they will greet the surprise climactic turnabout with the smugness of insiders. In the end, it's just another violent dystopian series opener for all its yellow-brick veneer, but it's a whole lot more fun than many of its ilk. (Dystopian fantasy. 14 & up)

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May 15, 2014
Grades 8-10 Amy Gumm thought life was tough in the trailer park with her druggie, depressed mother and the mean girls in school. But that was beforebefore she was carried to Oz by a tornado, before she was rescued by a series of strange individuals, and before she was instructed, Dorothy must die. Sweet Dorothy returned to Oz only to rule it with an evil, greedy hand, gradually stealing all its magic for herself. Amy, also from Kansas and arriving on a tornado, has to reverse the earthling's power by killing her. Paige has spirited readers back to The Wizard of Oz, fracturing the already strange classic by having good and wicked witches exchange places, amputating the flying monkeys' wings, and creating a fear-eating lion, a nefarious Dr. Jekyll scarecrow, and a vicious tin soldier. Amy's assignment? Navigate through magical defenses, while struggling with her own values of good and evil, to get to Dorothy. It's a classic made more sinister and will be continued in a subsequent volume.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)

July 1, 2014
A tornado deposits misfit teen Amy Gumm's Kansas trailer home in Oz, but this is not the storybook Oz. Dorothy has become a power-hungry, magic-stealing evil princess, and, according to the Revolutionary Order of the Wicked, only Amy can stop her. Amy's believable character development and the inventive spin on Baum's famous world propel this entertaining first series installment.

(Copyright 2014 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)