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    Dorothy Must Die Stories
    Dorothy Must Die Stories
    Dorothy Must Die Stories
    Audiobook10 hours

    Dorothy Must Die Stories

    Written by Danielle Paige

    Narrated by Andi Arndt, Amy McFadden and Luke Daniels

    3.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    A collection of prequel novellas to the New York Times bestselling Dorothy Must Die series

    Long before Amy Gumm got swept away from a Kansas trailer park . . . Dorothy Gale received a package on the night of her 16th birthday: a pair of red high-heeled shoes. Dear Dorothy, the note read. I thought about silver to match the ones you lost, but in the end I decided that red was more your color. I think you know what to do with them.

    And with a knock of her heels, Dorothy returned to the magical land that made her a star—and Oz would never be the same again.

    This bind-up of three prequel novellas to the New York Times bestselling Dorothy Must Die series follows Dorothy Gale as she transforms from good girl to Wicked Witch. Kiss the land where troubles melt like lemon drops goodbye. Here there's danger around every corner, and magical shoes won't be able to save you.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateMay 12, 2015
    ISBN9780062422880
    Dorothy Must Die Stories
    Author

    Danielle Paige

    Danielle Paige is a graduate of Columbia University and the author of the New York Times bestselling Dorothy Must Die series. Before turning to young adult literature, she worked in the television industry, where she received a Writers Guild of America Award and was nominated for several Daytime Emmys. She currently lives in New York City.

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    Reviews for Dorothy Must Die Stories

    3.5/5

    571 ratings60 reviews

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    • 5/5
      Most people are aware of the reimagining of the classic The Wonderful Wizard of Oz in the form of the book entitled Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire and/or the musical by Winnie Holzman. However, Dorothy Must Die takes a completely different spin on the classic tale. In Paige's version, Dorothy has returned to Oz and she is the epitome of all things evil. The Tin Woodman, Scarecrow, Lion, and Glinda are her willing participants in turning Oz into a fearful, corrupt place devoid of any happiness (other than Dorothy's own). Amy Gumm (also from Kansas) has stumbled into this world and she is tasked with the ultimate mission: Kill Dorothy. This book is the first in a series (which I will HAVE to read just as soon as I can get my mitts on the prequel novellas) and the sequel has just come out entitled The Wicked Will Rise. I highly recommend this to anyone who is 1. A fan of the original Oz series by L. Frank Baum. 2. A fan of Wicked. 3. A fan of fairytales being turned on their head (think Once Upon a Time). Trust me, guys, this one is worth your while.
    • 5/5
      Love the imagination of taking the beloved story and creating something new and different to explore!
    • 5/5
      Well, this is certainly an unexpected surprise! To be honest, I wasn't sure what to expect going into this novella prequel to the upcoming Dorothy Must Die (see my previous post), but if that book is as good as this prequel is, I'm going to thoroughly enjoy it.It's been a couple of years since Dorothy returned from Oz, and life has slowly gone back to normal on the farm. Dorothy was the focus of a bit of celebrity status for a short time, but as all things, interest in her surviving the tornado waned. Aunt Em and Uncle Henry have told Dorothy to keep her stories of Oz to herself, as nobody likes a storyteller, since no one would believe her stories anyway. On the occasion of Dorothy's Sweet Sixteen birthday party, which turns into a disaster, she wishes nothing more than to be able to return to Oz. To her surprise, there is a birthday present waiting for her in her bedroom, a pair of dazzlingly red high heels...Knowing exactly what they are for, she quickly puts them on, just as Aunt Em and Uncle Henry come into her bedroom. As she takes several steps, Aunt Em and Uncle Henry are swept with her and Toto to Oz, realizing now that she wasn't telling a tall tale. However, things aren't as Dorothy left them in Oz. Time works differently in Oz than it does in our world, and many years have passed since she was there last and not everyone remembers her anymore. The Scarecrow isn't King of Oz, as Ozma has taken her rightful place on the thrown. Glinda has gone missing. And what's with the shoes?Seriously, I thoroughly enjoyed Danielle Paige's take on Oz. It's a wonderful place, but is equally dangerous as it is magical. She handles Aunt Em and Uncle Henry's amazement at Oz perfectly, and her version of Ozma is fantastic. Her writing is very visual, as I could clearly picture in my mind every moment of the book. I read this in one sitting (which for me these days says something) and while I vaguely had the ending predicted, it still played out perfectly. I'm highly anticipating the release of Dorothy Must Die and subsequent books in the series. I'm sure Oz purists will have a hard time enjoying this book, but for those that can handle a revisionist version of Oz, I'd highly recommend this series.
    • 5/5
      Holy Munchkins, Dorothy! I loved this book. Not just a little bit. Like, it's the best prequel. Ever. No two ways about it, this is by far, my absolute favorite novella ever written. I'm a big re-telling fan, but most of Alice In Wonderland and those types of books. But, Wizard Of Oz is one of my favorite all time movies, so, I wanted to try out Ms. Paige's work. I pre-ordered Dorothy Must Die like ages ago, and can't wait for the release. But, I was curious about the whole series so when I saw that there was a prequel I grabbed it. I didn't want it to end! Ms. Paige did a magnificent job of creating this story. Those that have watched Wizard Of Oz, know that there is a sequel to it called Return To Oz, starring Fairuza Balk. Reading Ms. Paige's No Place Like Oz, was like watching a movie of both those combined. There were details to the book that was like reading movie 1, and there were details to the book that was like reading movie 2. But, along the way, Ms. Paige added laughable moments, witty characters that you wouldn't see in the movies and an ending that is leaving me desperate for more. Right now. Not in April. For fans of Wizard Of Oz movies, you'll love this book. It's captivating, twisty, turny and full of Emerald, and witch-y goodness! I mean seriously. I was reading this on my Kindle Fire, I was reading this on my iPhone, I was reading this everywhere. Dorothy is an amazing character and I loved watching this book come to life for me! There is so much that I want to say about this novella but I'm holding back because I know it will turn to spoilers. All I will conclude with is this: Get.This.Book.Now. Not tomorrow. Not next week. Now. It's over-the-rainbow incredible, it's beyond Munchkin Land 5 star worthy and highest on my favorites list! Ms. Paige, you are a magnificent story teller and I can't wait for this series to continue, or for my book to arrive in April!! You are now on my favorites list!!! Well done!
    • 5/5
      I only have 2 words for this book, LOVED IT!!! Now it time for Dorothy must Die. :)
    • 5/5
      For anyone who wondered what happened after Dorothy went back to Kansas.....its definitely not what you thought!
    • 3/5
      * 5 stars for being entertaining (super pre-teen-young-adult, but still entertaining);
      * minus one star for complete insensitivity to world-building (a native munchkin calls something "magic 101", and everyone gets it);
      * minus one more star for an EXTREME case of plot hole / armor at the very end: one that was clearly added with a singular purpose of spinning the book into a sequel.

      But a fun book nevertheless!
    • 1/5
      DNF. I probably shouldn't give it a rating but the fact that I could not finish it says something about the book. The reader was overwrought at points in the story that didn't need it.
    • 4/5
      This book is clearly designed to capitalize on the recent interest in the darker side of children's fairy tales. I found it to be a very engaging twist on Baum's original universe and characters. She does an excellent job of casting Glinda and Dorothy as Oz's mean girls and the Scarecrow, Tin Man, and Lion as their twisted sidekicks. I'm really looking forward to reading the rest of the series.
    • 4/5
      I really liked Amy. She finds herself in an Oz that has been turned into a terrible place by a despotic Dorothy.Amy is in over her head. Everyone tells her - "You shouldn't trust anyone - not even me."This is the start of a series so of course things are not resolved.Loved that this includes characters from the books that are not in the classic Judy Garland movie.
    • 4/5
      I liked this book a lot. It definitely had problems and its wasn't my favorite book ever but I did really enjoy it. I loved the concept of having Dorothy return to OZ and seizing control. I loved the Oz books and the movie as a kid and the characters in this book brought back a lot of those memories. I didn't love the character of Amy at first. I didn't dislike her, but there were things she did and said that bothered me but as I read this book I came to really love her character. I think the author did a really good job of getting me to either love a character or hate a character and all the characters had really strong personalities. The only character I didn't love was Nox. I know some of this was part of his character, but he felt really insincere at times and I didn't care about him as much as the main character did which was a little frustrating. I really liked the world the author portrayed as well. Obviously some parts of the world were already established in the original Oz books but I liked the way the author adapted it. I also liked the way that the author explained the magic in Oz as well. There were some parts of the story where I felt like the pacing was a little off. At the beginning everything seemed to happen really, really fast. I never want too much exposition in stories but I would have liked a little more in this case. I know part of that is because Amy doesn't know any of what is going on so as the reader, we don't know whats going on but I felt like I was thrown into action right away and I could have used a bit of a breather just to figure out what I had just read. The ending had similar weird pacing. It didn't feel really like the ending of a book. The ending made it feel like I needed to read the next book right away. I guess that could be a good thing but I wish that this book had ended a little bit more neatly. I was also really confused by the fact that at the end (and I don't think this is a spoiler) the wizard told Amy that to defeat Dorothy she will need to take the Tin Woodman's heart, the Lion's courage, and the Scarecrow's brain like it was the major plot twist because 1) it is written on the back of the hardcover copy of the book and 2) it felt like to me that that bigger and more plot twisty things happened at the end. I honestly don't understand why they put that on the back of the book. Putting that on the back of the book made it seemed like the courage, brain, and heart stealing would happen in this book but really it wasn't even revealed to the main character that she needed to do those things until like the last 10 pages. I know that probably has nothing to do with the author but it was still very weird to me. besides those few things that are small mistakes in my mind I did really enjoy this book. I am very excited to read the next book in this series and see where Amy goes next and to see what happened to everyone that was in the order of the wicked. I would say if you liked the Oz stories or the concept of the books seemed interesting to you and you think you could ignore some weird pacing, I would recommend this book wholeheartedly.
    • 4/5
      Such a good book. After reading this I am not able to look at the characters in the original Wizard of Oz the same. I just love how twisted up everything becomes. This is not the Oz that you remember!
    • 3/5
      I'm giving this book 3 1/2 stars. It took me much longer to "get into" the story than I would prefer. The story itself (once really started) is inventive and intriguing. I was also pleasantly surprised when I guessed the "twist" ending incorrectly.

      I was disappointed in the number of grammatical errors within this book. There were also many poorly worded sentences. I had to reread a few passages to be sure I understood the intended meaning.

      Overall, I'd give the story 3.75 in rating (parts of the story --mostly of the main character's Kansas background-- irritatingly stereotypical, but the Oz story was enjoyable). I'd give the writing a 3.

      I tried to continue the story through the rest of the trilogy, but found myself too bored and reluctant to get past the first chapter.
    • 2/5
      Technically DNF at 72%. This book started out fun, if unexceptional, but then it was just unexceptional.
    • 4/5
      I don’t know what I was expecting, but this was a surprise. YA in a world most of us think we already know. At least, those of us who used to watch The Wizard of Oz every Thanksgiving.I do recommend for anybody who would like to read this 2-book series, go stream the movie before you read the book, if you haven’t seen it either recently or a lot. I would have given it 5 stars, but it’s just a bit bloody. Definitely NOT for younger kids. I think maybe teens and older. Characters die. But, the story is very good. Life lessons abound, but are well incorporated into the story. Well-written and good character development. Strongly recommend that you get BOTH books (The Wicked Will Rise.) it’s less a sequel than the completion of the story. I started the second book immediately after closing the first. Recommended!
    • 5/5
      A fantastic twist on the Wizard of Oz.After ousting the Wizard, Dorothy became a magic addicted dictator. Using munchkin slave labor to strip Oz of it's magic, she and her malevolent trio turned the land of Oz into something nightmares are made of. Now there's a new girl in town and, under the guidance of the remaining wicked witches, she has to kill Dorothy.Masterfully written, this novel swept me into the sinister and treacherous land of Oz alongside Amy Gumm. And I was completely immersed as each character came to life in this dark twisted world of secrets.This novel is very fast paced, I didn't realize it was 452 pages long. I devoured this book in two days! Although, I was a bit disappointed to find that it's the first in a series, and not a stand alone - it's still a five star read.
    • 3/5
      Amy, from Kansas, ends up in Oz. Yes – that Oz. Oh, and Dorothy is still there; it seems Kansas didn’t live up to the magic of Oz, so Dorothy came back. But Dorothy hasn’t been good for Oz, at all. The Order of the Wicked wants Amy to kill Dorothy, so things will go back to normal. Wow – what a spin. There are 15 original Oz stories by L. Frank Baum. Some of the characters in Dorothy Must Die are in those original stories. It’s not necessary to know them but it makes for fun Easter egg moments if you recognize the names. I’ve had a couple of students read this and the biggest complaint is they have to wait for a sequel. I agree it is definitely a cliff hanger ending. The next one comes out later this year and there are two novellas to tide you over until then.
    • 3/5
      Digital audio read by Devon SorvariAmy Gumm hates living in the trailer park in Kansas with her alcoholic mother. Suspended from school, she’s caught off guard by a tornado warning. The twister makes a direct hit on their trailer and she’s aware of a sensation of flying – then she wakes on the ceiling of the overturned structure. Rescued by a passerby, she’s puzzled by the changed terrain – until she notices the yellow brick road. This is an imaginative retelling … or perhaps sequel … to Frank L Baum’s The Wizard of Oz books. The characters are all here, but they aren’t as they were portrayed in Baum’s classic books, or the much beloved movie. Dorothy has become power hungry, convinced she needs ALL the magic in Oz to maintain her hold on the populace. Amy is drafted into the rebellion and tasked with killing Dorothy so Oz can return to the “good” place it once was. I did think that Amy was a decent heroine – self-reliant, principled, tenacious, willing to sacrifice for the greater good. She’s helped by a cast of supporting characters, from a formerly flying monkey to a couple of good witches. And I liked the nod to Judy Garland by giving Amy the last name Gumm (Judy Garland’s birth name). However, the “mean girl” theme was a little heavy-handed for my tastes (and my stage of life). So my final verdict is “average” – fast-moving plot, interesting twist on a well-known tale, but nothing extraordinary. Also, I have a pet peeve about cliff-hanger endings, which this one has. Well, it won’t work in my case. I have no intention of reading more of this series. Devon Sorvari does a find job of voicing the audiobook. She sets a good pace and has the skill needed to differentiate the many characters.
    • 4/5
      Let's start with, lately I have seriously had a knack for picking stories told in first person...which I hate. This was an interesting enough story that it was pretty easy to ignore. This book was dark, very dark and a teeny bit gruesome.Amy is a teenager from Kansas. She lives in a trailer, her dad walked out on them, her mom has turned into a junkie that blames Amy for every bad thing in her life. Her school life is terrible, she's been bullied for years, has no friends and no means of escaping her craptastic life. That is until a tornado hits and sweeps her away to Oz. Yup, just like in the movie she'd seen bunches of times as a child.However, she doesn't find herself in the Oz of the movie or storybook. This Oz is desolate and decaying. As it turns out, Dorothy, who had gotta a taste for magic, found her way back to Oz and took over. Now she and Glinda are mining it for it's magic and killing it an it's inhabitants in the process.Amy, who has her pet rat, Star as a companion meets people who (somewhat) explain to her what has been going on and eventually she falls in with the Order. Which is led...by...the...wicked...witches? Yeah, things have gotten so bad that the wicked have joined forces to stop Dorothy, and Amy is their weapon of choice. She is trained by them in combat and in the use of magic before being sent to the palace in disguise. She's meant to be a spy to gather information that will help with their plan, only Amy is never given the details of the plan or a way to relay any information she may have discovers. She has to wing it and in doing so learns that there is more than one faction that is trying to rise up and take Dorothy out of power... and she gets herself into trouble.I like Amy, but she's too full of doubt and indecision. Which, considering her circumstances is totally understandable. My thoughts are that she can't really trust any of the factions, and she knows that, but hasn't exactly accepted it. While these groups may be operating under the guise of making Oz great again--and yes that is an actual phrase from the book and it made me cringe reading it--I think they all want Dorothy out of power because she's a monster who is destroying their world, but also because they want to be in power themselves.Amy has a tough road ahead because her mission is to kill Dorothy, and she royally botched it in this book. Dorothy has managed to escape and no one knows where. Now Amy's been thrown together with a different resistance group and who knows what they will tell her in order to get her to do what they want. All she knows is that before she can kill Dorothy, she must stop her first companions in Oz. That means, taking the heart of the Tin Woodman, the brain of the Scarecrow, and the courage of the Lion. And then, hopefully, Dorothy will finally die.
    • 3/5
      I was kind of disappointed in this book. I felt like parts were a little drug out but the concept is good.
    • 3/5
      This was ... not good. It's a classic example of a really interesting idea married to mediocre plotting and pedestrian writing. Other than that, it's great!No, but seriously: Amy Gumm is a teenage girl living in Kansas (remind you of anyone else in literary history)? She's got the usual angsty teenage girl troubles — a dysfunctional mother, an absent father, mean girls at school — but all of that pales in comparison to what awaits her when a tornado blows her trailer home off its foundations and brings it down in Oz. Yep, that Oz.Despite the author's fondness for refusing to share information with either her protagonist or her readers, we and Amy eventually learn that something or someone has brought her to Oz because it needs saving. It seems Dorothy, having first decided there was no place like home, took one look around the flatlands of Kansas and decided she was better off in Munchkinland. So she returned to Oz, where through some convoluted shenanigans that I still don't understand managed to overthrow the reigning princess and take control. Now she rules with an iron fist, in the form of a tyrannical Tin Woodman, along with a no-longer-cowardly Lion and a mad-scientist Scarecrow. Oh, and Glinda the Good Witch is now a bitch. The Revolutionary Order of the Wicked (as in Witches, among others) trains Amy to infiltrate the Emerald City and snuff out her fellow Kansan so that Oz can return to the magical wonderland it was always meant to be.So the concept is intriguing but the execution is a mess. Amy is a whiny teenage girl (to be honest, not my favorite category of human being, and I say that as someone who was one) who is forever haring off and getting herself into trouble. The witches who are grooming her to be an assassin are more cryptic than a British crossword, and there's a painfully strained attempt at a love triangle that is just stupid. And if all that was not enough, the book ends on a damned cliffhanger and it turns out there are four or five more books in the series.A few caveats to my negativity: I am assuredly not the target audience for a YA novel, though I have read and enjoyed many. Also, having never read L. Frank Baum's original Wizard of Oz books nor ever having seen the movie, I suspect some references may have gone over my head. And finally, I listened to the audiobook, narrated by Devon Sorvari, and I thought it was pretty terrible. It got better once the action moved to Oz but she still had that snotty teenager voice going that sets my teeth on edge.One-tenth of a star upgrade for the name of the main character; the birth name of Judy Garland, who played Dorothy in the classic movie, was Frances Gumm.
    • 4/5
      a strong 3.5 of 5 for me. I love the world and the concept. had me hooked in that respect right away. Amy is a likeable heroine as well. but it lost me in the middle with its slower pace. it took a longer time to get exciting again.
    • 4/5
      Amy Gumm, another young woman from Kansas whose home life is not pleasant, gets swept to Oz by a tornado. But Oz is not the place of the stories she has read, but a dark and nasty land ruled over by Dorothy. The Wicked get hold of Amy, and train her for assassination.If you like your reading dark and gritty, if you like seeing how the happy stories of your childhood can go wrong, then this is a good story for you. I didn't find it as absorbing as Christina Henry's 'Alice', but it does some similar things with bringing in many of the details of an existing story.
    • 3/5
      Bored. Boring. Bored. I REALLY hope The Wizard of Oz doesn't become the new "zombie" or "teens save the dystopian world." There is way too much Wizard of Oz re-imaginings and sequals out there already. Please don't let this become the new literary fad.
    • 4/5
      I LOVED the concept of the book!!!! The characters were amazing! I loved how it spawned from the original story. The one thing that I didn't like is that *SPOILERS*The last 75 pages are so really bored me
    • 3/5
      This was a very new and inventive take on the what happens after the happily ever after. I was intrigued by all the new characters and the spin put on the old favorites. I was somewhat surprised to see the raw, truthful grittiness with which the author brutally killed and maimed new friends to classics. Of course it is a series so it ended on a cliff hanger that makes you feel ready to turn the page. We'll see if I can fit the continuing saga of Oz into my future reading schedule.
    • 3/5
      The "heroes" were fine, but the "villains" were what bumped this up for me. Chilling and twisted! Hopefully the sequel will be less predictable...
    • 2/5
      I don't mean to be unkind to this book when rating it, because it was truly entertaining and it was easy to get lost in the characters and in the plot. However, I found a lot of places where it just seemed like the author forgot a lot of what she was writing as she wrote it. Something would be explained to the main character, Amy, and then not even a few paragraphs later it was as if she hadn't ever known it and was learning it (again) for the first time when a different character explained it to her. Events got the same treatment. I found this to be distracting and confusing, and I frequently had to wonder if, since this happened so often, was it by design or just sloppiness? I kept thinking that at some point it would all come together and I'd realize by the last page that it only LOOKED sloppy, even though I found it hard to figure out how in the world most of this forgetfulness could be explained. But, unfortunately, that didn't happen. Still, this is just the first book so maybe it will be explained in another book, after all.

      As I said before, though, this book is entertaining and easy to get lost in, despite that. I was interested to see what was going to happen to Amy, or to her Oz acquaintances, next. And there was a twist at the end that I definitely did NOT see coming at all. When it happened, I had to reread the paragraph a few times!!

      I liked Amy's upbringing, as well. Not because I think someone deserves that, but because I think it's very relatable to a lot of young people, especially today. A cheating father who walked out on the family so that he could start a new one, a mother who used to be a great mom but became so bogged down by stress and sadness, and possibly depression, over her circumstances that she essentially gave up and became an alcoholic and left Amy not only to basically raise herself but to take care of her mother, as well. Bullies at school, not popular. Having been accustomed to a much better life when her family was whole only to end up having to live in a trailer park. But, despite that, she still had goals she wanted to accomplish, even if they were just personal goals that were to get her from one place to more comfortable other place.

      This is a character that a lot of people can relate to, and I'm glad that she has this background. I'm more used to characters who come from more conventional families with both parents present. And if they aren't, something tragic and unforeseen has happened to make that occur, or they're workaholics. Characters with backgrounds like this are also relatable and necessary, I don't mean to imply that they should be abandoned. But, when that's really all the variation you get most of the time, there are LOTS of kids out there who don't have home lives that look at all like that who aren't getting represented. I think Amy Gumm's character is great not just because I find her personality likable and relatable, but because I think her character's background comes from a place that a lot of kids will be able to see themselves in her in ways that they don't normally get to due to similar life experiences rather than just similar personalities.

      I'm looking forward to the next book to find out what happens with Amy Gumm and her adventures in Oz! I really want to know! And I want to see more of Amy.

      I'm also really interested to see what happened to cause Dorothy to become the way she is. There's a lot of speculation and hints in this book, but no concrete answers. So, I'm glad to find out that there is a digital novella that works as a prequel that will tell us this and I'm looking forward to reading that at some point soon, too. Throughout the entire book, you can't help but wonder. Amy wonders, too. It'll be great to get to see it play out.

      Seriously, don't let my rating or my points about sloppy writing in places, deter you from this book. It's definitely worth reading!
    • 5/5
      I am a total Wizard of Oz fan. I've read the original, I've read adaptations. I've seen Wicked on stage. I own the original movie. I love it! And I'm also a huge fan of twisted fairytales! So when I came across this book, I was more than a little excited. And Danielle Paige didn't disappointment me!I have to admit I was skeptical a few pages in. The main character, Amy Gumm, bears little resemblance to Dorothy from the original WOO movie or book. And the start of the novel really is like a realistic YA book. So I was confused. And then the tornado hit ... and I couldn't put the book down.The characters are so well developed and the protagonist is a girl I couldn't help loving. The witches are good, Dorothy is bad ... or are they? Paige keeps you guessing. I truly galloped through this read, eager to see how it all turned out for Amy and the characters of Oz.The book ends with a great climax and left me with more questions than answers. But I'm relieved ... Book 2 (Wicked Will Rise) comes out this March and I will definitely be reading it! And apparently there is a prequel as well (No Place Like Oz).A great new series to discover for the holidays. Be sure to check it out!
    • 2/5
      This is a YA novel offered as a Barnes & Noble Serial Read. The premise is that Amy, a girl from Kansas, is sucked up in a tornado and delivered to Oz; but an Oz devoid of the Technicolor and charm of the movie. The idea of it is great; but Paige never really fully committed to developing the characters or the relationships. Superficial treatments of the settings and action lines, plus a lack of complex vocabulary, plus a lame ending, all added up to a light, forgettable, and non-compelling story.