Review: Dorothy Must Die by Danielle Paige

Dorothy Must Die by Danielle Paige

HarperCollins, April 2014

I loved the idea of this book – it sounded really different. Kind of scary, too, which I don’t often find in YA books I choose to read. Like a lot of kids from my generation, I grew up watching The Wizard of Oz over and over and over again. We even watched the second film a lot, too – the one with the pumpkin head, Mombi and a young Fairuza Balk.

Amy – a young girl from Kansas – lands in Oz only to find out that Dorothy did come back – and afterwards, became a terrifying dictator, stealing of Oz’s magic for herself. It will be up to Amy to take down each of Dorothy’s  henchmen (Tin Woodman, Scarecrow, Lion) before killing Dorothy herself.

When I got a copy to take home from work, I quickly read the first page, and the writing definitely had me hooked, I liked Amy’s voice – it felt natural (and similar, I suppose, to a lot of the other contemporary YA narrators that I’ve read and liked). Before I had a chance to officially start the book, however, I came across this article from someone’s Goodreads’ review. I hadn’t heard of Full Fathom Five until then, but I’m pretty sure I didn’t want to support it – I  consoled myself that it was at least a library copy, not something I personally had chosen to spend money on.

The beginning of the book was great – I was really into it when Amy’s trailer lands in Oz due to a tornado (she is not oblivious to this irony or coincidence, either, which is good). I liked meeting the green-eyed boy, as well as Indigo the goth munchkin and Ollie the wingless-winged monkey. It was exciting to see Oz again, reimagined and darker – the corruption was frightening. The Tin Woodman leads the Tin Soldiers – Oz’s new found pseudo police force enforcing Dorothy’s rule, physically. They were terrifying (frightening humans melded with machinery – there is, I kid you not, a bicycle with a human head attached it – creeeepy).

I started to get bored during Amy’s training scenes on the mountain – I am occasionally annoyed at the single montage leading towards superhero-like powers as anyone else, but  there were chapters in the middle of the book where Amy meets the Order of the Wicked, and then is trained on how to fight, use magic, and be a lady so that she can infiltrate the Emerald Palace in order to get close to Dorothy for her assassination. Okay – I’ll give you, that last sentence sounded pretty bad ass. But I just didn’t believe it or feel it, and therefore it felt like these scenes went on too long.

Not to mention – there was her blossoming relationship with Nox. I had read in a Goodreads review that it was refreshing not to have any love-triangles – to which I agreed. But the whole book – I kept thinking – okay – so she met the beautiful green eyed boy first …. So if there isn’t a love triangle – what is all this Nox junk? I just couldn’t get into him. I was thinking maybe he’d die … lol. I was hoping for it at one scene. Spoiler alert – it doesn’t happen (well, in this book anyway). But the un-love-triangle is resolved, and the end will explain all. I sort of laughed at myself for not guessing it sooner.

Once Amy gets to the castle to start her undercover work as a part of Dorothy’s plethora of maids, things get interesting again. All I have to say is – that last Jellia scene? Gave me goosebumps. Very powerful (oh, but that last-last Jellia scene was just scary and terrifying … talk to me after you read the book).

There was a significant amount of action at the end of the book to keep me going. I think I’ll try to read the second one in the series once it comes out (library copy again, though, I wouldn’t spend money on it even if it hadn’t been Fathom Five). I am definitely intrigued to see how it all plays out.

Overall, I think the story was stronger in concept than it actually was on page. A lot of ideas felt surface level or superficial. There were powerful moments, but there was also a decent amount of fluff.  Overall, I gave it 4 stars on Goodreads, because it did surprise me at the end – and that Jellia scene was awesome – if a book gives me goosebumps, I have to give it a little more credit.  I will also casually try and check out the second book in the series – which is more than I can say for some of the other YA trilogies I’ve started.

I’m trying to think of read-alikes for this book, but I’m coming up blank. I’d love to say something fantastical yet scary, like, the Hunger Games, but it was nowhere near as terrifying, exciting, or deep, so I don’t want to even put them in the same sentence. I’m going to go with Cinder by Marissa Meyer – another fractured fairy tale (Oz, was, I believe, considered to be the first American fairy tale). I’d also recommend reading this book if you’ve read or watched The Wizard of Oz, likewise if you’ve read Wicked by Gregory Maguire.

Review: Since You've Been Gone by Morgan Matson

Since You've Been Gone by Morgan Matson

Simon & Schuster, May 2014

I’ve wanted to read Since You’ve Been Gone by Morgan Matson since I saw the gorgeous cover photo and 4+ star rating on Goodreads a few months ago.  The blurb sounded exciting too, of course (I guess I’m not that superficial).

Sloane and Emily are best friends, joined at the hip – but when Sloane disappears just before the start of their would-be epic summer before senior year, Emily feels lost. Sloane had always been the more adventurous one, trying to get Emily to come out of her shell, so when Emily finds the list of “brave things to do” Sloane has left behind, she tentatively starts thinking of ways to accomplish them – with the unexpected help of the outwardly perfect class president, Frank Porter (swoon!).

Alright. Let’s do this. I was hooked on the writing style from the first page. I sat down last night and thought I’d start reading it – I think it was around 9 PM (on a Saturday no less, yes, I have a wild social life!). I could not put the book down.  There was a point at around 5AM in the morning that my eyes were getting heavy and I was just pushing myself to finish because I didn’t want to pause the magic. I also didn’t want it to be over, but I hate being caught up in a good magical book groove, only to pause – come back to it later, and it doesn’t feel as exciting. I did sleep for about four hours when there were about 3 chapters left, though. This didn’t spoil my excitement for the book when I woke up, though, so, no harm done!

Something really hit me in the beginning when Emily goes to the party in the orchard and has no one to talk to – as an adult reader of YA, I feel like a lot of us in our post-university days know that feeling of what it’s like to go from having a great best friend by your side (or multiple), to having people grow up and move across the country, suddenly out of reach. Matson did a great job at expressing Emily’s feelings about this without coming off as too angsty.

It was certainly painful to watch her first dealings with Frank – Emily is terribly shy and simply confused by his open and gentlemanly behavior. As they become friends, you can see her crush coming from a mile away. The fact the Frank has a girlfriend makes him just ever more unreachable in that way, though, so their friendship continues along platonically for the first half of the book. While the romance was well written and really exciting, it’s not the only plot line of the book.

It’s a story of best friends; reading the flashbacks of Sloane and Emily’s friendship were always fun  - although I kept wondering how Sloane would ever redeem herself of just up and leaving the way she did. I kept thinking that the book would end in some sort of tragic revelation (sent away with child? Rehab? Hospital? On the run from the law for their house shenanigans?) but without spoiling it, the reason turned out to be a lot simpler and more realistic than any of those things. I think I could have forgiven Sloane too, had she been my best friend like that for the two years prior, too.

Matson did a great job at fleshing out her characters – I loved reading about Emily’s new friendships with Dawn and Collins (although, again, having read a million and one Sarah Dessen novels, I saw these friendships coming from a mile away – but it was a good, comforting expectation). Since You’ve Been Gone isn’t only about the Frank friendship/romance or the Sloane debacle, but it’s also a story about Emily growing up and becoming her own person now that she’s free from Sloane’s shadow (as much as she may have loved it). With her new-found free time she spends her summer working on bravely accomplishing the list, making new friends, and spending more time with family (well, her brother, certainly not her messed up theatre parents, yikes!). It was heartwarming to see her become her own person – it was nice to finally see her stand up for herself in front of Sloane near the end, too.

I’m giving this book 5 stars on Goodreads – it had me laughing and giggling and squeeing like a school girl. I may have also cried a couple times, which, come to think of it, might just mean I’m an emotional person – there weren’t really any terribly sad-sad parts.

All in all, I’d definitely recommend this to any lovers of contemporary YA novels. If you liked Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins, The Moon and More by Sarah Dessen, or even HowTo Love by Kaite Cotungo I think you’ll like this book. I’ve heard great things about Amy and Roger's Epic Detour, too (Matson’s debut novel from 2010), which I’ve definitely added to by TBR list.  

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I’m still sad that no one (minor spoiler) ever managed to steal the “Sloane Loves Ferris” sign from the drive in, though. What’s up with that?