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A review by faeonyx
Dorothy Must Die by Danielle Paige
2.0
I will admit that I had high hopes going into this book, but those were quickly dashed once I started getting into the "meat" of it. Unfortunately, I found it to be lacking in substance and couldn't find any of the characters to be likable enough to warrant my interest. I finished reading it out of a need to simply finish it and call it done. The climax was quite anti-climactic and the ending left a lot to be desired.
I really liked the idea of revisiting a very different, warped Oz, but this book seems to only scratch the surface. I understand that there are more books in the series, but it seemed that this one wanted to touch on more and fell just short of that. It explained some things that seem not to matter all that much and left others to be questioned. I was left frustrated and confused in the end.
The characters were not particularly memorable either. Maybe Pete was okay, but the Ozma reveal at the end should have been held off to another book when it could have been dealt with in a more detailed way without leaving the reader hanging so much on that particular aspect. The Wizard is clearly untrustworthy, and the only character from the Order that I liked is dead. Well, assumed dead. If this book taught me anything it's that things are not quite what they seem.
Unfortunately, the main character that showed so much promise in the beginning fell flat pretty quickly. She clearly cares about certain things, but typically realizes that when it is too late to do anything about it. She is consistently falling short of everyone's expectations, even her own, and the only actual good thing she did throughout the book was rescue Maude for Ollie. Of course, in the process she exposed the only person that actually had her back in the castle and got her killed. Surprise, surprise.
On the other hand, I now feel as though I have to finish the other books, so I suppose this story succeeded in one goal, but I am not overly eager to go out and buy the remaining books in the series and it will become one of those back shelf readers for a while.
I really liked the idea of revisiting a very different, warped Oz, but this book seems to only scratch the surface. I understand that there are more books in the series, but it seemed that this one wanted to touch on more and fell just short of that. It explained some things that seem not to matter all that much and left others to be questioned. I was left frustrated and confused in the end.
The characters were not particularly memorable either. Maybe Pete was okay, but the Ozma reveal at the end should have been held off to another book when it could have been dealt with in a more detailed way without leaving the reader hanging so much on that particular aspect. The Wizard is clearly untrustworthy, and the only character from the Order that I liked is dead. Well, assumed dead. If this book taught me anything it's that things are not quite what they seem.
Unfortunately, the main character that showed so much promise in the beginning fell flat pretty quickly. She clearly cares about certain things, but typically realizes that when it is too late to do anything about it. She is consistently falling short of everyone's expectations, even her own, and the only actual good thing she did throughout the book was rescue Maude for Ollie. Of course, in the process she exposed the only person that actually had her back in the castle and got her killed. Surprise, surprise.
On the other hand, I now feel as though I have to finish the other books, so I suppose this story succeeded in one goal, but I am not overly eager to go out and buy the remaining books in the series and it will become one of those back shelf readers for a while.