Current Obsession Wednesday: Dorothy Must Die

What: Do you remember that time that Dorothy went to Oz and wouldn't shut up about wanting to go home? Well then, in the other books by L. Frank Baum, she comes back to Oz and is besties with Ozma (the transgender princess of Oz you probably don't know about). This book is about what happens after that. What happens when people from our boring world get sucked into a magical technicolor world and are give all the magic they could dream of. I’ll just let you know, it’s not good. But Amy Gumm is the new girl from Kansas in Oz. She is a freaking badass, she just doesn’t know it yet, and she is quickly drafted to kill off the person sucking all the magic out of this once perfect little world, Dorothy. This series asks “What would you do if you got sucked into Oz?” and Amy fares much better than I think I would. But I’m from Connecticut, not Kansas, so that’s probably why.

Why: Amy Gumm is such an interesting character. She comes from a life where there is just about no one who cares about her, to a world where she is in the middle of all the drama. I love the way they develop her over the course of the series. She starts off thinking she is unlovable, and a not really good for anything, and by the end she is a fighter. She fights for justice, to protect the people she loves, for a world that isn’t hers, and for herself.
The way that magic is written about in the series is another of my favorite things. It is almost as if the author found a way to write magic in a realistic way. It is logical, but still, well, magical. it is complex, not easy, but at the same time natural.
But most importantly If you are a fan of the original books you will enjoy how this series just builds on the foundation of the original stories. It is certain a modern perspective of Oz, but is also a bit of a commentary on the real world today, just as the original books were.