The Avid eReader (Archived)

So many things that need to be said about the author Danielle Paige. First off her writing is sublime, so much attention to detail, so much plot going on and there are things you will never see coming that when you re-read the book you have to wonder – how did I not see that coming?

Danielle does an amazing job of adapting and updating classics, especially the series "The Oz books", she takes them and makes them her own, while at the same time holding true to the original works. So far in the "Dorothy Must Die Series" we have 3 novels and 7 novellas. The novels are all told from the perspective of Amy Gumm who has left Kansas and gone to Oz and has been told that it is up to her to destroy Dorothy Gale. These three novels are of there own astounding! Add to those 3 novels the 7 (and more coming) novellas and we have a huge literary world that already exists but has now become so much more deeper and relevant to today's world – but also acts as a doorway to read all the classic L. Frank Baum novels/series.

Although these books are classified as teen fiction they are a bit above average in terms of their allegorical status and capabilities. These books are about the mean girl and the mean girl archetype and what it is that makes a mean girl – mean!

You will see the regular cast of characters that you know such as Glinda, Ozma, Tik Tok, The Scarecrow, The Lion, The Tin Man – but time has altered them as time tends to do and in this case time has not been their friend (well Dorothy has not been their friend and time has just been the thing that keeps moving along as it always does.

I cannot recommend these books enough and you can get them in print format or you can download and borrow them through Overdrive!