We’re Not In Oz Anymore . . . Or Are We?

Dorothy Must Die

You wouldn’t think the world needs another Wizard of Oz adaptation.  We already have movies, plays, Broadway musicals, comics, cartoons, games, merchandise . . . not to mention the thirteen additional Oz books by L. Frank Baum himself, the nineteen by Ruth Plumly Thomson, the three by Oz illustrator John R. Neill, and a host of others.  But we’ve got a new one -- Danielle Paige’s Dorothy Must Die.  And it’s not bad at all.

I’ll tear them apart.  I may not come out alive, but I’m going in there. 

– Cowardly Lion (MGM, 1939)

The conceit is this: a lonely teenager, Amy Gumm (wink-wink, nudge-nudge), rides a tornado from a Kansas trailer park to a grotesque, sinister Oz.  The Munchkins are enslaved, Glinda is a heartless overseer, the Tin Woodman leads death squads, the no-longer-cowardly Lion is a ravenous killer, and the Scarecrow is a mad scientist conducting infernal experiments on unfortunate Ozites.  Worst of all, Dorothy rules the realm with a conceited, amoral tyrant’s deft touch. 

Amy is recruited by ‘evil’ characters from the whole range of Oz books, notably old Mombi, a surviving wicked witch.  Amy’s mission?  To kill Dorothy.  To do this, she fights and connives her way out of various perils, and she trains with the witches in both magic and martial arts.  Part Katniss Everdeen and part Harry Potter, she’s a perfect Young Adult novel heroine – brave, smart, and moody enough to be a believable teenager – stranded in a typical Young Adult novel dystopia.

As is true with many Young Adult novels, Dorothy Must Die aims at both teens and their parents. In this case, not-so-young adults who have fond memories of the original Wizard of Oz books, and of course of the 1939 movie, will enjoy the creative twists on familiar characters and settings.  The sturdy prose, while not as cleverly sophisticated as J. K. Rowling’s, moves the plot along briskly without much of the dumbed-down syntax that can make this genre unbearable to anyone over twelve.

Of course, some people do go both ways.

– Scarecrow (MGM, 1939)

Showing the good side of a bad Oz character, or vice versa, isn’t a new gimmick (see, for instance, Gregory Maguire’s Wicked).  Danielle Paige, however, inverts almost every character while building in enough ambivalence and mystery that readers truly don’t have a clear ethical perspective or even a clear ‘side’ to root for.  Are Amy’s trainers dedicated to restoring Oz or to furthering their own dark designs?  Is the Wizard, who appears later in the novel, friend or foe?  Is Princess Ozma (readers of the full Baum canon know her well) brain-damaged or biding her time to regain power?  Is Glinda’s twin sister (who insists on good manners) a force for Ozite civility or a malevolent doppelganger?

Most of all, what are Amy Gumm’s motives?  First, of course, is survival.  But there are a lot of possible seconds, including understanding ‘home’ and reconciling herself with her dysfunctional mother . . . and personal empowerment in the face of a drab and sad life in Kansas.  In this sense, she plays against Paige’s to-this-point-despicable Dorothy, who also sees Oz as a compensatory stage on which to enact her ‘true self.’  Dorothy’s metastasizing narcissism is explored in No Place Like Oz, the ‘prequel’ to Dorothy Must Die (available only as an inexpensive e-novella); I don’t think it’s necessary to read the novella, though, to see that Amy and Dorothy are being set up as similar girls facing similar dilemmas but taking different paths.

 Going so soon?  I wouldn’t hear of it.  Why, my little party’s just beginning.

--Wicked Witch of the West (MGM, 1939)

Yet maybe they won’t take different paths.  Dorothy Must Die, which pointedly does not resolve the conflicts it sets up, is obviously the first book in what promises to be an endless stream of sequels (hey, it already has a prequel).  In fact, the next book in the series is scheduled for 2015 publication.  Moreover, the book (and/or its subsequent publications) is already under serious negotiation for a TV series.  Is a film far behind?  Or a graphic novel franchise?  Or a multi-platform video game?

Danielle Paige is in good company.  Due in no small part to Baum’s own efforts, The Wizard of Oz has become the quintessential American fairy tale, the ur-text of the contemporary U.S. Young Adult novel (Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn notwithstanding), and a prime example of how a singular work of the imagination can engender a cultural phenomenon that lasts for well over a century.  It’s hard to think that Dorothy Must Die and its forthcoming progeny will measure up to the magnificent 1939 film, to the captivating musical version of Wicked, or – for that matter – to Baum’s own continuations. 

But, again, as a series, it has promise, even in the problematic (but potentially lucrative) genre of the Young Adult novel.   As MGM’s Wicked Witch of the West wisely said:  “that’s not what’s worrying me.  It’s how to do it.  These things must be done delicately . . . or you hurt the spell.”

                     Dorothy Must Die.  Danielle Paige.  New York:  HarperCollins, 2014.

                                             Hardcover, paperback, electronic format.