Look, I have a crippling weakness and its name is Wizard of Oz retellings. Growing up, I read almost every single Oz related book my library had, knew every bit of obscure L. Frank Baum and movie related Oz trivia an 8 year old could know... the Land of Oz was my first major obsession. So of course I find out that a YA series exists that posits that Dorothy returned to Oz and overthrew Ozma so she could rule over the land as an evil despot? Yeah, I'm going to read this. I'm going to read this entire series even though this book didn't impress me all that much. 
 Dorothy Must Die follows newcomer to Oz from Kansas, Amy Gumm, who instead of having the idyllic farm life Dorothy had, grew up in poverty, with a drug addicted mother who doesn't care about her, in a trailer park. Upon getting to Oz via tornado, she discovers that not all is well in the land of magic and yellow brick roads, that Dorothy has corrupted the land and is ruling over it, subjugating its people to gather her more and more magic, all with the help of her 3 traveling companions and Glinda. 
 There's a lot I didn't think worked very well in this book, but the worldbuilding and references to the Oz books were excellent. Most Oz retellings focus almost entirely on the Judy Garland movie, which baffles me when there's so many great things waiting for you in the books. Hearing about what happened to the Quadlings, or the Gilikins, or the Winkies made me smile in nerdy glee, even if what was happening to them was horrific. It didn't matter, the author had clearly read all the same books I did, and that made me extremely happy. There were also some plot events I was able to call way in advance due to reading the books (primarily, who Pete is) and the fact that the reference was included was amazing. That is why I'll keep reading these, for the world and references to the books I love, because everything else was kinda meh. 
 This book is EXTREMELY YA. Look, I like YA. One Dark Throne might be my favorite book of the year and it's also YA. But the category has developed a certain number of tropes over the years and unfortunately, this book follows a lot of them. Although I like Amy, a lot of times her characterization felt forced and stereotypical teenager-y. I get that I wasn't a very interesting or boy obsessed teenager, but when she consistently comments on how cute boy #1 is or says stuff like "of course someone as beautiful as him would never notice someone like me" or bitterly comments on how much more pretty other girls are, I have to roll my eyes. There's also a love interest who feels extremely forced. If it wasn't for a single brief scene, I'd say he wants nothing to do with her, but I guess he also likes her for unknown reasons. Every other scene he is disappointed in her or prattling on about how it is his life's duty to achieve Vengeance TM and kill Dorothy, while she yo-yos back and forth between staring at his overwhemling cuteness and hating his guts. It wasn't believable and I don't care about them. Maybe in later books it'll get better. 
 The pacing also felt odd at times. Amy would be in the middle of a dramatic, action intense moment, and then the narration would come to a screeching halt to have her internally monologue about who she truly is, and whether or not she can inflict violence, and what brought certain people along the path they are currently on. Those moments are fine and are interesting, but I'd rather that introspection come not in the middle of Amy stabbing someone, breaking all action and tension. The middle training section also killed the pacing for me. I understand not everything can be high stakes all the time, but the prolonged nature of the training section comboed with the focus on love interest central left me extremely bored until the plot to infiltrate Dorothy's Castle came underway. 
 I didn't hate the book. I didn't even truly dislike it. Book 2 is queued up on my phone and I'm going to start listening to it on my car ride home. But it's primarily due to the world and my love of all things Oz instead of my love of these characters. I have high hopes for the future books. Maybe now that the pathway of Amy's quest is clear, the pacing issues will resolve themselves. And maybe also Nox can be an actual person with emotions and caring and not a robotic version of Batman screaming VENGEANCE all the time.