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leslie_ann_thornton's review against another edition
adventurous
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
dolly_dearest's review against another edition
3.0
It was different than I initially expected. I really got into the first 2 novellas, the 3rd took a bit longer.
pato_myers's review against another edition
4.0
A very fun, but dark read. I'm happy that I found this series since I'm a Wizard of Oz fan and this series is well written and as original or new as it can be in the world of Oz.
makennarenee's review against another edition
3.0
Dorothy Must Die stories is a bindup of three novellas.
No Place Like Oz:4/5
The Witch Must Burn:4.5/5
THe Wizard Returns:3/5
No Place Like Oz:4/5
The Witch Must Burn:4.5/5
THe Wizard Returns:3/5
kay_slayerofbooks's review against another edition
4.0
Ok, so out of these 3 short stories my favorite was Dorothy's, in There's No Place Like Oz. Her desire to get back to Oz after her whole town looks at her like a laughing stock is understandable. But her transformation while in those shoes after she got back to Oz was freakin scary. It also shed some light on her character and explained why she was so terrible by the time book 1 (Dorothy Must Die) takes place. The other 2 stories were good too. The Wizard was still a prick, but Dorothy's story was definitely my favorite.
saroz162's review against another edition
4.0
'Tis a silly book, but I enjoyed it.
I admit that I don't read much YA literature, despite a love for a variety of genres and an academic specialization in literature for children (most specifically, mid-grade novels). I have a sort of image in my head that a lot of YA revolves around fairly unsubtle tropes: high school popularity, doomed first romances, witchcraft and demons, Harry Potter-lite wizards and witches in training. None of these topics interest me, particularly, and so I avoid them. I picked up Dorothy Must Die: Stories because of a display for the series in my local Barnes and Noble. As a lifelong fan of L. Frank Baum's (and others') Oz books, I'm always intrigued - and usually disappointed - by new takes and continuations of that magical world. Usually, though, new stories trade on the imagery and associations with the famous 1939 Judy Garland movie, not the book series (or, indeed, the original novel). I understand why: the film is far better known in popular culture. And I like the film a lot; it's a great classic of golden age American cinema. But I love the Oz books.
So it was with some surprise that I started flipping through Stories and discovered several names I didn't expect to be there. Ozma, Jellia Jamb, Polychrome, the Saw-Horse, Mombi: these are characters from the Baum books, and Ozma aside, not even the most obvious ones. On the basis of that alone, I was interested enough to buy the book and take it home. I really had to find out what Paige was up to and if she got it "right."
Truth be told, Paige's Oz is a mix of awkwardness and inventiveness. She is clearly very well-versed in the original novels; there's a reference to Sky Island, for crying out loud, which isn't even one of the regular Oz books. The characters from the books that she features are reasonably recognizable, if a little tweaked in personalities sometimes, and her Oz has the same basic geography and design as Baum's. It's definitely been retooled to appeal to a fantasy-reading audience, which is perfectly appropriate; instead of Baum's vast frontier lands, Paige has super-colorful fanciful vistas with, for instance, malevolent pixies the size of butterflies. It's very Hollywood Oz, and that's fine. It certainly works better than Gregory Maguire's Wicked series, where the most American of fairylands has been transformed into what feels like a series of European hamlets, with a St. Petersburg-esque Emerald City looming at the center.
Speaking of Wicked, like Maguire, Paige often has to tread the line between Baum's characters, the famous 1939 film characterizations, and something entirely new of her own creation - and that's where the book is probably most awkward. Dorothy is recognizably Judy Garland's Dorothy, telling us she originally visited Oz in a blue gingham dress when she was 14. She lives in a Kansas that seems reasonably 1930s in its landscape and culture, which is consistent with the film. Yet she doesn't talk like she comes from the 1930s. In fact, almost every "young" (or really, "not old") character in the book speaks in a modern, familiar vernacular that feels way, way too 21st century. At times, it's really quite jarring, and it can throw you out of the narrative when Oz personalities start talking like they're living in the world of The O.C.. I assume this is a concession to the teen reader, and it's really, really not necessary. Similarly, there are some bizarre half-concessions to the 1939 film - which, remember, Paige has no rights to reference directly (unlike the original Baum books, which are in the public domain). So Dorothy used Baum's Silver Shoes on her original journey, but she returns to Oz in magical sparkly red shoes - of course. Glinda, who is described as the vivacious young woman of the Baum stories, appears and disappears in a ball of glitter - rather like a bubble. You see where this is going, right? Occasionally, Paige uses these little inconsistencies to her benefit; Glinda's public persona, for instance, is familiar as the teeth-grating, simpery sweetness of the movie, but it turns out to be a mask for something very, very different. When it works, it works. But it does take getting used to.
Did I mention that Ozma has become a sort of juvenile Galadriel, capable of changing her stature and appearance during displays of power? Did I mention she has butterfly wings now? No? Well, you win some, you lose some.
Importantly, what I haven't discussed yet are the actual stories, and there's a reason: they're all setup, especially the final two of the three. The first, narrated by Dorothy (and nearly the combined length of the other two), brings the "Witchslayer," her Aunt Em and Uncle Henry back to Oz, where she quickly discovers that everything is not as it should be. This is easily the most interesting of the stories, not just because it's the most developed or because it features the most Baum elements, but because there's an underlying mystery for the reader to try and resolve. Oz seems pretty idyllic under Princess Ozma's reign, and Dorothy is quickly established as a self-absorbed little prat, so it's up to you to decide whether her perspective has any validity at all. Certainly by the second novella, Dorothy is established as the ultimate in Mean Girls, with her friends the Scarecrow, the Tin Woodman, and the Lion acting very against type. The narrator for this story is Ozma's young maid, Jellia, and while her perspective seems clear, there's again a question of just how these characters turned so wrong so quickly. The final, third-person story represents a slight step back in time (and probably should have been ordered as the second of the three). Here, the Wizard is introduced - oddly, clearly not an old man as depicted either in the original novel or the film - and set on his own destiny back to the broken world of Oz. By the end of the volume, the stage is set for three very different campaigns to try and wrest control of Oz. It's all pretty simple, plot-wise, but it's immensely easy to read and - frankly - 400 pages flew by. I would call that a pretty good success.
Now, where it goes from here is anybody's guess. Some of the machinations in this volume are absolutely ludicrous - one, right at the end of the first story, is manipulated to "book-end" the original Wizard of Oz so cutely that it almost defies belief. (Personally, I chose to simply set the book down and laugh out loud for a solid minute.) Some of Paige's inventions are also pretty trite or just plain boring, like the "mysterious" and "amoral" fairie folk who seem like emo elf rejects from The Lord of the Rings. Others, though, are kind of interesting, at least enough to deserve further investigation: the idea that Oz's magic users draw their power from the land itself, for instance, and that that magic can be mined like oil. In his one extended appearance, the Lion has become not just evil, but primal, and with no explanation given for that here, I'm intrigued to find out more. This may not end up being a great series, but I think Paige has enough creativity on display for it to be worth my time to keep on going.
Plus, she name-dropped Sky Island. I mean, what the hell?
I admit that I don't read much YA literature, despite a love for a variety of genres and an academic specialization in literature for children (most specifically, mid-grade novels). I have a sort of image in my head that a lot of YA revolves around fairly unsubtle tropes: high school popularity, doomed first romances, witchcraft and demons, Harry Potter-lite wizards and witches in training. None of these topics interest me, particularly, and so I avoid them. I picked up Dorothy Must Die: Stories because of a display for the series in my local Barnes and Noble. As a lifelong fan of L. Frank Baum's (and others') Oz books, I'm always intrigued - and usually disappointed - by new takes and continuations of that magical world. Usually, though, new stories trade on the imagery and associations with the famous 1939 Judy Garland movie, not the book series (or, indeed, the original novel). I understand why: the film is far better known in popular culture. And I like the film a lot; it's a great classic of golden age American cinema. But I love the Oz books.
So it was with some surprise that I started flipping through Stories and discovered several names I didn't expect to be there. Ozma, Jellia Jamb, Polychrome, the Saw-Horse, Mombi: these are characters from the Baum books, and Ozma aside, not even the most obvious ones. On the basis of that alone, I was interested enough to buy the book and take it home. I really had to find out what Paige was up to and if she got it "right."
Truth be told, Paige's Oz is a mix of awkwardness and inventiveness. She is clearly very well-versed in the original novels; there's a reference to Sky Island, for crying out loud, which isn't even one of the regular Oz books. The characters from the books that she features are reasonably recognizable, if a little tweaked in personalities sometimes, and her Oz has the same basic geography and design as Baum's. It's definitely been retooled to appeal to a fantasy-reading audience, which is perfectly appropriate; instead of Baum's vast frontier lands, Paige has super-colorful fanciful vistas with, for instance, malevolent pixies the size of butterflies. It's very Hollywood Oz, and that's fine. It certainly works better than Gregory Maguire's Wicked series, where the most American of fairylands has been transformed into what feels like a series of European hamlets, with a St. Petersburg-esque Emerald City looming at the center.
Speaking of Wicked, like Maguire, Paige often has to tread the line between Baum's characters, the famous 1939 film characterizations, and something entirely new of her own creation - and that's where the book is probably most awkward. Dorothy is recognizably Judy Garland's Dorothy, telling us she originally visited Oz in a blue gingham dress when she was 14. She lives in a Kansas that seems reasonably 1930s in its landscape and culture, which is consistent with the film. Yet she doesn't talk like she comes from the 1930s. In fact, almost every "young" (or really, "not old") character in the book speaks in a modern, familiar vernacular that feels way, way too 21st century. At times, it's really quite jarring, and it can throw you out of the narrative when Oz personalities start talking like they're living in the world of The O.C.. I assume this is a concession to the teen reader, and it's really, really not necessary. Similarly, there are some bizarre half-concessions to the 1939 film - which, remember, Paige has no rights to reference directly (unlike the original Baum books, which are in the public domain). So Dorothy used Baum's Silver Shoes on her original journey, but she returns to Oz in magical sparkly red shoes - of course. Glinda, who is described as the vivacious young woman of the Baum stories, appears and disappears in a ball of glitter - rather like a bubble. You see where this is going, right? Occasionally, Paige uses these little inconsistencies to her benefit; Glinda's public persona, for instance, is familiar as the teeth-grating, simpery sweetness of the movie, but it turns out to be a mask for something very, very different. When it works, it works. But it does take getting used to.
Did I mention that Ozma has become a sort of juvenile Galadriel, capable of changing her stature and appearance during displays of power? Did I mention she has butterfly wings now? No? Well, you win some, you lose some.
Importantly, what I haven't discussed yet are the actual stories, and there's a reason: they're all setup, especially the final two of the three. The first, narrated by Dorothy (and nearly the combined length of the other two), brings the "Witchslayer," her Aunt Em and Uncle Henry back to Oz, where she quickly discovers that everything is not as it should be. This is easily the most interesting of the stories, not just because it's the most developed or because it features the most Baum elements, but because there's an underlying mystery for the reader to try and resolve. Oz seems pretty idyllic under Princess Ozma's reign, and Dorothy is quickly established as a self-absorbed little prat, so it's up to you to decide whether her perspective has any validity at all. Certainly by the second novella, Dorothy is established as the ultimate in Mean Girls, with her friends the Scarecrow, the Tin Woodman, and the Lion acting very against type. The narrator for this story is Ozma's young maid, Jellia, and while her perspective seems clear, there's again a question of just how these characters turned so wrong so quickly. The final, third-person story represents a slight step back in time (and probably should have been ordered as the second of the three). Here, the Wizard is introduced - oddly, clearly not an old man as depicted either in the original novel or the film - and set on his own destiny back to the broken world of Oz. By the end of the volume, the stage is set for three very different campaigns to try and wrest control of Oz. It's all pretty simple, plot-wise, but it's immensely easy to read and - frankly - 400 pages flew by. I would call that a pretty good success.
Now, where it goes from here is anybody's guess. Some of the machinations in this volume are absolutely ludicrous - one, right at the end of the first story, is manipulated to "book-end" the original Wizard of Oz so cutely that it almost defies belief. (Personally, I chose to simply set the book down and laugh out loud for a solid minute.) Some of Paige's inventions are also pretty trite or just plain boring, like the "mysterious" and "amoral" fairie folk who seem like emo elf rejects from The Lord of the Rings. Others, though, are kind of interesting, at least enough to deserve further investigation: the idea that Oz's magic users draw their power from the land itself, for instance, and that that magic can be mined like oil. In his one extended appearance, the Lion has become not just evil, but primal, and with no explanation given for that here, I'm intrigued to find out more. This may not end up being a great series, but I think Paige has enough creativity on display for it to be worth my time to keep on going.
Plus, she name-dropped Sky Island. I mean, what the hell?
hitbooksnotgirlz's review against another edition
4.0
The first two of the three stories were great. In the first, I got to get to know Dorothy when she was still a wholesome girl from Kansas. I saw her return to Oz, grow more powerful and wretched and learned exactly who was responsible for it. In the second, I got the backstory on Jellia and understood more of the role she played in the Emerald Palace, her power and it’s origins, and how she came to work alongside the witches in the Order. Lastly, I learned some fucking bullshit about the Wizard that I could have done without. Boring. I strongly prefer a female MC, and the Wizard was nothing more than a lacklustre prick.