REVIEW: Before Dorothy by Hazel Gaynor

 

Synopsis

The greatest journey is the one you least expect…Kansas 1932

When news reaches Kansas that her beloved sister has tragically died, Emily Gale must become a mother overnight. Her sister’s orphaned child, Dorothy, desperately needs a home.

But Emily doubts her ability to fill her sister’s shoes; her life on the barren Kansas prairies is no place for a child.

On the unforgiving plains, Emily's courage is endlessly tested. The prolonged drought and relentless dust storms threaten to destroy everything – including her home and her marriage.

Can Emily overcome her grief and let Dorothy heal her heart?

From the promise of Chicago in the 1920s to the harsh beauty of the Kansas prairie during the dust bowl of the 1930s, this is a story of family, duty and one woman’s journey of self-discovery.

Format 352 pages, Paperback
Published June 17, 2025 by Berkley
ISBN 9780593440339

About the Author

Hazel Gaynor is an award-winning New York Times and internationally bestselling author of historical novels which explore the defining events of the 20th century. A recipient of the 2015 RNA Historical Novel award and the 2024 Audie award for Best Fiction Narrator, she was also shortlisted for the 2019 HWA Gold Crown, and the Irish Book Awards in 2017, 2020 and 2023.

Hazel’s co-written historical novels with Heather Webb have all been published to critical acclaim, winning or being shortlisted for several international awards.

She is a regular speaker at literary festivals, co-founder of The Inspiration Project, and programmed and hosted a series of Historia Live events in association with Dublin UNESCO City of Literature in 2024. Her work is translated into 20 languages and published in twenty-seven territories to date. Her latest novel, Before Dorothy, the imagine life story of Dorothy’s Aunt Em from The Wizard of Oz, will be published in June 2025.

Hazel lives in Ireland with her family.

For more information, visit www.hazelgaynor.com

where you can also sign up for her newsletter.

My Thoughts

Hazel Gaynor's Before Dorothy is a pleasant, well-intentioned read for anyone who has ever wondered about life before L. Frank Baum's beloved classic. The premise is genuinely appealing: this novel takes us back to the sun-scorched Kansas prairie to tell the story of Emily-- the woman who would become Auntie Em-- and the circumstances that shaped her long before a young girl named Dorothy ever tumbled into Oz. 

The novel's greatest strength is Emily herself. Tracing her journey from a lighthearted shop girl with big dreams living in the city to the hardened but loving and dignified aunt we glimpse in Baum's pages is the book's central reward. Unfortunately, Emily's sister Annie, who figures meaningfully in the earlier narrative, comes across as cold and emotionally remote in ways that feel underdeveloped rather than intriguingly complex. She functions more as an obstacle than a fully realized character, and the relationship between the sisters quickly fizzles out. Dorothy's husband Henry is a bright spot — warm, grounded, and genuinely likable in a way that makes the Gale household feel real and lived-in. He is the kind of steady, decent character who anchors a story without demanding too much attention.

That said, Before Dorothy left me wanting more. Somewhat ironically for a novel with Dorothy's name in the title, Dorothy herself remains a bit of a hazy figure. She passes through scenes rather than inhabiting them, often feeling as more of a gossamer apparition than someone of real substance. The Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz is spirited and forthright and makes her presence felt. I also found myself baffled over the way that Dorothy communicated like someone much older than her mere eight years and kept trying to calculate to determine whether a wide span of time had passed without me realizing it and aged Dorothy into maturity.  To be fair, this is Emily's story, and perhaps the author's intent was always to keep Dorothy at the periphery-- but readers hoping for deeper insight into the girl from Kansas may come away a little disappointed. This is Emily's story.

The setting and drawing of life on the Kansas prairie left me wanting more. Prairie life during the Dust Bowl era is rich territory full of hardship, community, and grit that could have lent the story tremendous texture. Instead, the details of life in the Dust Bowl feel somewhat sketched in — present enough to establish atmosphere, but not immersive enough to truly transport the reader. The dust, the drought, the grinding daily reality of survival on those wide-open plains — all of it could have been rendered with far more weight.

Five words: inventive, underperforming, gritty, grounded, adequate

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My final word: None of this makes Before Dorothy a bad book. It is engaging, moves at a comfortable pace, and offers genuine warmth in its best moments. But one finishes it with the nagging sense that the novel could have gone deeper-- into its landscape, its characters, and the harder edges of the world it depicts. As it stands, it is an enjoyable if somewhat surface-level glance into the life of our beloved Auntie Em. For fans of the original, there can be real pleasure in exploring this backstory, and Gaynor deserves credit for finding a fresh angle on an American treasure, but this could have been so much more.

Trigger Warnings:

Miscarriage

My Rating:

(rounded up from 3.75 stars)

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The Cerebral Girl is a middle-aged blogger just digging her way out from under a mountain of books in the deep south of Florida.

I received a copy of this book to review through BookBrowse and the publisher in exchange for my honest opinion. I was not financially compensated in any way, and the opinions expressed are my own and based on my observations while reading this novel.