This review originally posted at More Than Just Magic 
 Amy lives a pretty lacklustre life in Kansas. She's an outcast at school, lives in a trailer with her alcoholic mom and doesn't seem to have a friend in the world. Life is boring and horrible and she can't wait to get out of town. Although a tornado to Oz wasn't what she had in mind. 
 The Oz Amy lands in is very different from the one we all remember from the movie. Dorothy has returned and she has become drunk on the power of her reputation and the magic she mines from the soil. The Tin Man now controls an army to enforce all of Dorothy's rules, the Scarecrow has become something of a mad scientist and the Lion is a gang leader, roaming the towns and destroying everything he comes across. It's heart breaking when you think about how magical and inspiring Oz was. 
 I love the premise of this book. I liked the idea of Dorothy not starting out "bad" but being corrupted by fame and power. I thought this was a realistic way for Paige to twist the idea of Oz and the values we associate with it. I also liked the way she corrupted the other's gifts in similar ways. I think it showed it's not the gift/quality - it's how we use it and that's an important message. 
 However, despite its excellent premise I thought this book suffered from having too much going on. There were a lot of characters and some of them seemed extraneous. That combined with the sheer amount of subplots and minor conflicts made the whole experience feel a little chaotic. I think Paige could have trimmed down some of the extra details to make things more streamlined and improve the flow of the story. On the other hand I think there wasn't enough of the right details. Some explanations were simply glossed over and I was left with more questions than I started with. It's possible some of them will be answered in the next instalment(s) but I'm a strong believer that each book of a series should have a fully formed arc. 
 Overall I did like Dorothy Must Die. I thought Amy was a protagonist you could cheer for - she was tough, and imperfect but also sarcastic and willing to fight for what she believed in. The Wizard of Oz is one of my favourite movies so I also loved returning to that setting (no matter how twisted it had become). But the writing could have been stronger and the story could have flowed better. It was a good read but not as great as the hype had led me to believe.