Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West (Harper Fiction) Reviews

• Raises disturbing questions about nature of evil

  
  By AFTIMAV8AQ7CQ on 1999-11-27
  If you can find a better bang for the buck than Wicked, please let me know. I picked up Wicked, knowing nothing except that its subject matter was the Wicked Witch of the West, to be drawn immediately into Maguire's splendidly imagined world of sentient animals, multiple societies, and unique physical laws. Wicked is an enthralling, great read, hugely entertaining. On top of all this, Maguire has Bradbury's gift for creating atmosphere. The pages are heavy with dark, mysterious magic; its moral laws are ultimately incomprehensible.

  Apparently doomed at conception, Elphaba is a truly terrifying infant. Razor-toothed and preternaturally intelligent, she is shunned from birth as a freak and a curse. She is nonetheless the tale's most complex, human, and compelling character, possessed of high moral sense and great courage. But neither of these qualities enables a single one of her brave, ethical actions to succeed. What are we to conclude from this?

  How is it that Dorothy, the sturdy little nobody from nowhere who committed manslaughter as she landed in Oz, skips down the Yellow Brick Road impervious to danger while Elphaba strives and plots to reap only negative results?

  Why is one protected while the other is doomed? Read Wicked and you will learn how the witch's monkeys became winged, where the rubies for those slippers came from, and, indeed, why the witch's skin was green. But you will wrestle, long afterward, with Maguire's moral pessimism and the snarl of grace and doom that underlies this novel. I know I will.
  
  

• Satirical, incredibly creative, a wicked read!

  
  By A2NQ9D0DAKV0UA on 2000-08-19
  This most wonderful, magically inventive novel details everything you could have imagined life in Oz was like before the great tragedy of Dorothy's arrival. We learn about Elphaba (the little green girl who would become the WW of the West), her physically deformed sister, the WW of the East, Nessarose (whose ruby red shoes caused all this trouble in the first place), Elphaba's college roommate (!), Glinda (whose bouncy blonde curls make her unforgettable as the Good Witch of the North), etc... One reviewer says, "Wicked is a punchy allegory that alludes to everything from Nazi Germany to Nixon's America." Another writes, "This book is a glorious frolic, a feast of language, a study of good and evil, and a massive history of the fabulous land of Oz." I loved it and couldn't help wanting more and more detail on every aspect of Maguire's tale. Although I came to admire and understand Elphaba (he does a wonderful job of making her the typically misunderstood villain) I was somewhat disappointed by the chapters leading up to the end (which we all know from watching the movie) only because they seemed rushed where I wanted to luxuriously bathe in more.
  
  

• Be prepared for the literal.

  
  By A1PVLKECC7ZW5J on 2005-08-25
  After hearing so many sparkling comments and reading stellar reviews, I was eager to begin Gregory Maguire's novel, Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West. As I began the story about little Elphaba and her promiscuous mother, her zealous father and the world they lived in, I waited patiently to get to the meat of the story, and the history of a timeless character. Unfortunately, I waited, and waited, and then finally reached the back cover and realised I was still waiting!
  
  Even early on, I had trouble connecting with a single character. I found myself not really caring what happened to any of them, but I pressed on. As I did, it became clear that the reason I felt so disconnected was that the characters were equally disconnected. There was no feeling, no devotion, no love, no admiration, no hatred, no disgust. I knew that people were friends because I was told. I knew that Elphaba felt kindly towards Galinda because it was in black and white in front of me. Relationships came forth like Juno from the brow of Zeus; no development of any kind, simply born whole and unquestioned.
  
  And Love. Love, the fifth element (if I may be so bold), has no boundaries and follows no set rules. But it has to be nurtured as it's as delicate as it is strong. All true loves are disected and picked apart in an attempt to see how they work. Not so with Elphaba and Fiyero. They simply love. We don't get the chance to know about that first flutter in Elphaba's breast, or the stirring in Fiyero's heart. We have no opportunity to question his infidelity with Elphie, but not with his sisters-in-law. What about this woman makes her so special to him? We'll never know.
  
  Nor will we ever understand how Nessarose, the much loved younger sister, is displayed as a tyrant in her world. One moment she is giving out awards at some public event (a very untyrantlike thing to do I add), and the next moment she is a splat on the pavement with a house on her head. Her shoes, her blessed shoes, red and glinting in the sun, a symbol of...what? We're not sure. Certainly the wizard could tell us, but he doesn't.
  
  On and on the story goes, dropping characters in willy nilly without so much as a blurb about their importance. We never meet Shell, the youngest and most complete sibling. Nor do we get a firm sense of Liir and the other (more legitimate) children that Fiyero fathered. And while the subject is touched on, no real reason for HOW the Wicked Witch of the West became just that is ever given.
  
  What we are given is a healthy dose of politics. Politics that go no where, and compare to nothing.
  
  Over all this novel reads like a poorly written assignment handed in by a college freshman who has no experience to draw on or emotions to invest.
  
  "Class, today you will select a person from literary history and give them a new life! Make it 300+ pages, to be handed in by semesters end. Hop to it."
  
  At the end of the day, I felt no richer for having read this book and appalled that it had gained so much praise. But then I felt perhaps some of the blame had been my own. The title is: Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West. It implies a straightforward, telling of the happenings and events in this one characters world. It was simply my mistake to assume I'd discover a vibrant flesh and blood character brought to life in these pages.
  
  I've learned my lesson. You can tell a book by it's cover, or in this case, it's title.
  
  

• Somewhere Over the Rainbow. . . .

  
  By ALS0041SS519N on 2001-10-26
  I had alreay read Maguire's CONFESSIONS OF AN UGLY STEPSISTER when I read WICKED (very contrary to my otherwise anal, everything-must-go-in-order personality), and I was greatly looking forward to it. Maguire again takes a relatively familiar storyline and turns it on its ear--and the readers along with it! We oftentimes think we know who and what is evil and sometimes even why. Maguire tampers with the "why" moreso than the who/what, really challenging the idea of the stereotypes and preconceived notions we all have. The "Wicked Witch of the West" from THE WIZARD OF OZ seems hardly the same girl, Elphaba, that we encounter in Maguire's book. In fact, she is the same, but our preconceived notions have clouded Maguire's "reality." I found the whole geographic aspects fascinating. How can she be the WW of the West, when she is really from the East? How can Glinda be the Good Witch of the North, when she is really from the East, too? Why does the Witch want those foolish shoes anyway? Why has Glinda given them to Dorothy? Where is Dorothy? Maguire doesn't even bring her into the story until it is very nearly over. Dorothy is more of an afterthought than the pivotal role she plays in the movie, and Maguire doesn't paint her kindly. . . . Maguire has invented a whole new world with his Oz, complete with detailed map, political strife and corruption, family histories, and fantastic elements. I can't wait to see THE WIZARD OF OZ now and watch it from Maguire's alternative perspective. It must be even better than Pink Floyd's DARK SIDE OF THE MOON experiment!

  The only times he lost me at all were when he stayed in that fantasy realm too long. I struggled momentarily with the lack of human beings and "reality" (whatever that is), unlike UGLY STEPSISTER, which has real people and real places throughout. That is hardly his fault, but that's why I gave UGLY STEPSISTER five stars and WICKED only four. Maguire is Tolkein meets C. S. Lewis meets L'Engle meets Jakob Grimm meets Ray Bradbury. . . . I don't know if he can continue this torrid pace of writing specatacularly creative, inventive, challenging, unique, and heady books, but I can't wait to find out!! (New one's out!!)
  
  

• Pointless Rambling Story with no Redeeming Values

  
  By A1KB3USMSFCAPA on 2005-01-02
  
  *S P O I L E R S* BELOW...
  
  Gregory Maguire took a very interesting concept for a novel, and turned it into a truly boring and rambling story that can best be described if you listen to the song, "Is That All There Is?" by Peggy Lee. After I read the last page, I think I became a book-burning sympathizer.
  
  Elphaba starts out as a very complex intuitive character, who progresses to the point of being part of a huge network of rebels who are trying to assassinate the Wizard (due to his Nazi-like running of Oz). For reasons not truly explained well, she abandons everything she believes in and morphs from a well-rounded interesting character you could empathize with, into a flat character with no motivations and no interests. This transformation lasts through the end of the novel where the eventually becomes a lunatic who causes her own death. (question for those who enjoyed the book: She starts off with this network of "terrorists", yet when she gets back in the game and aligns herself against the wizard again, where has this network gone?)
  
  Major characters you assumed would have important roles in the book were discarded randomly (i.e. Boq), and others were brought to the forefront without any sort of development (i.e. Fiyero). And speaking of random silly characters with no point, can someone please tell me why she spent 1 year with Fiyero's family in a rambling useless 100 pages worth of agony? And can someone else tell me why she spent 6 years screwing around the castle doing nothing after Fiyero's family were kidnapped? One might think they meant nothing to her (As not a single attempt to free them was described), but then you come to her meeting with the Wizard where she pleads through tears to get them back.
  
  One would think that her possession of the magic book would make her somehow stronger or more magical, but you would be incorrect in assuming so. IN fact, Elphaba doesn't really do anything Witch-like except ride a broom that apparently anyone can operate. Does that make everyone else a witch too?
  
  Lastly, with all the tyranny in the land, her life and her death meant nothing and changed nothing, which is the thing that pissed me off the most about this book. It served no purpose, and if the writer was attempting to discuss the origin or nature of "wickedness", he did a piss-poor job.
  
  For every issue and non-answered question I listed above, there's 100 more. Do not buy this book. IF you must read it, then go to the library or borrow it from a poor chump who has bought it already (i.e. like me).
  
  
• A richly detailed story that only gets better.
  By on 2003-11-17
  I must start this review by saying that it is certainly not a book you can take lightly. It takes some serious effort to stick with it, particularly once you get about half way through and the more light-hearted experiences of Elphaba, the wicked witch, at Shiz fade into her darker, secretive experiences at the Emerald City. After two failed attempts to tackle to book, fascinated by the subject matter both times, I finally got through it, inspired to read it because of the Broadway musical based on the book that I found myself mesmerized by (go see it, despite how different it is).

  The book is a richly textured account of the life of the Wicked Witch of the West, here given an actual name, Elphaba, as she moves from student at Shiz University, an outcast and roommate to G(a)linda, to secretive activist in the Emerald City, to maunt (nun), to Auntie Witch, later to become The Wicked Witch of the West.

  Throughout, the detailed religion, culture, and government of Oz supplement the narrative beautifully, adding depth to what could have been simply an unfounded story of what could happen to some flatly portrayed green girl from Oz. This story really makes you care for the witch and understand that even the most evil of people could simply be the victims of chance.

  I thought the book began and ended very strongly, but the narrative sagged a bit in the middle, particularly as Elphaba becomes a nun and travels rather boringly across the desert to the Winkie stronghold of Kiamo Ko. The story stays rather low-key for a while, but picks up when some more familiar characters, such as Nessarose, Elphaba's sister, Elphaba's father, Frexspar, and Glinda, reenter the novel. From this point out, the novel receives its well-deserved finale, in which it goes out with a bold glory rarely seen in novels.

  Of course, no life is without its dull moments, and even these are not completely flat. The prose is witty and never becomes to boorish. What really mesmerized me was fitting together the story in this novel into the context of the original Oz book and movie of the same (revised) name.

  I would reccomend this to someone who has quite a bit of undistracted time. It's important not to take very long breaks in reading this novel, as the details become more important toward the end, when the witch begins looking back upon her life. The novel should be a very interesting read for anyone familiar with The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum or the movie from MGM. Its richly detailed characters and interesting plot choices make for a wonderful read that you're surely not soon to forget. Tough it out through the middle so you can finish this great book.
  
  

• Snore
  By A6KA06GKG8IRH on 2005-07-06
  First off let me congratulate Mr. Maguire on his success as an author. He has written a book, I have not. That being said, I'll begin my criticism of Wicked.
  
  I bought Wicked and envisioned a lazy summer reading about the Land of Oz. As I child I loved the movie and read ALL the L. Frank Baum books about Oz. If you too wanted more OZ but disliked Wicked I recommend reading the other OZ books such as Ozma of Oz, Scarecrow of Oz, etc. They are available from Amazon or at the local library (children's dept. but what the heck!).
  
  Anyway, it wasn't too long into the book that I was nodding off pretty quickly to sleep. L. Frank Baum's OZ is a magical place with good and bad, but Maguire's OZ is a dreary land with unsympathetic characters and a plot that goes nowhere. I didn't buy his backstory on Elphaba. In the movie she had a pretty fierce reputation as evil. She locked up Dorothy and then mimics her crying for Auntie Em. She had no qualms about killing Dorothy, just concern over how to do it delicately enough not to hurt the shoes. She had the creepy flying monkeys working for her. She used the trick field of poppies to force Dorothy and the Lion to fall deeply asleep. The guards at the castle hailed Dorothy with relief when the witch was dead. The Wizard was afraid of her. Even Glinda said the Wicked Witch of the West was worse than her sister.
  
  But this Elphaba in the book is nothing like the movie version of the Witch we have known for 65 years. There is all this background about what she was like as a baby, her mother's sad life, a huge section about life at college and a lot more about Glinda, and side plots about Animal rights and the murder of a professor, but in the end none of it contributes to helping us understand how she became this evil witch who scared the bejezzus out of us all as kids. In the book she isn't evil, she doesn't actually do any of the evil things we see her do in the movie and she bears no resemblance to the Wicked Witch of the West we all know. So what was the point?
  
  And the length! Good grief, if you are slogging through it in the early pages I agree with the other reviewers who advocate giving up while you are ahead. No one will care if you finish the book.
  
  I view this book as a missed opportunity to have created a fabulous tale about a character who so many people can identify with and based on the book/play's popularity, a character that so many of us obviously want to know more about.
  
  I saw Maguire's photo on the back and saw he lived in the Boston area, and I assumed that he felt he had to intellectualize and create boring political drama in OZ to save face amoung his Ivy-league neighbors. Please set your next book in a communist or poverty-stricken country where your joyless characters and dragging plots will feel right at home and leave our precious fairy tales alone.
  
  
  
  
• Wonderfully Done!
  By AX3WJZLFQQRCT on 2003-11-16
  I've owned this book for almost 3yrs and now just got around to reading it - and I'm sorry I waited so long. I actually put off finishing the last 50 pages because I did not want it to end. I enjoyed it that much.

  As others have mentioned (and the subtitle implies), it's the backstory of the Wicked Witch of the West (beginning prior to her birth) and her point of view of what was covered in the 'Wizard of Oz'.

  Admittedly, I know the 'Wizard of Oz' from only the movie and have never read that book. But the way that Maguire weaves little bits of references we know from the movie into his storyline is extremely clever and well done.

  Though the book covers much detail and touches on religion, politics, class structure, etc - what really is blatant is how there IS more than one side to a story. I'm not sure many people would consider the Wicked Witch of the East a protaganist - but she is, at least in this story...and at least in my opinion.

  I found the entire book interesting and moving along at a good pace. I have recommended the book to many people as I had been going along with my reading.

  Though I know they have made a musical play from this book - I believe a movie would have been a better way to go (NOT a musical movie either), but in the vein of how 'Lord of the Rings' was done for film.

  I have this at the top of all the books I've read in the last few years.
  
  

• Such a Disappointment
  By A26OPNLJ0JYHPH on 2004-12-30
  I loved all the OZ books as a child, collected them, saved them for my grandchildren. I was so excited about the concept of this book! I didn't expect it to be a child's book, but I also didn't expect it to be so absolutely gawdawful! So many good reviews; so little good reading!
  
  This book is just boring. I kept thinking the threads would begin to come together. They didn't. I kept thinking the story would start to develop a point. It didn't. I kept thinking the author was going to have mercy on me and end the loooooong and detailed, navel-gazing, self-absorbed meandering chronicles of things and people that seemingly had no relevance. He didn't.
  
  Every time it would begin to get interesting, the author seemed to lose interest. Forinstance, we read about an interesting underground, revolutionary thing going on in with Elphaba in the Emerald City, but were never given enough information to care what happened to it or her. Then, suddenly and inexplicably, years have passed and she is on her way to the home of her dead lover's widow. Why? Who knows - or cares! -- because you soon realize that this story line doesn't matter either.
  
  I persisted, doggedly and with much whining to my poor husband, until Dorothy arrived. "Finally!" I thought, "Now it will all come together." Silly me. Instead, I read more endless drivel, this time about Elphaba's return to Munchkinland for the funeral of her armless, witless sister, dead under the house. On and on he wrote about Elphaba's obsession with shoes - not because of their powers, but because of her jealousy of her sister's relationship with their father. (You really don't want to know about that; it's boring AND wierdly sick.) In the middle of yet another long and boring conversation between Elphaba and Glinda, I put the book down. I simply realized I still didn't care and never would.
  
  
• One more example of massive hype going to waste (Warning: I give away much of the plot in my criticism)
  By A1D9NRPFO85WXU on 2005-10-20
  I realize that I am in the minority here as many others greatly enjoyed this book. Though it raised some very interesting questions about good and evil, there are several concerns that ruined the book for me. The sex distracts the reader from a very vital message. Many questions and mysteries go unresolved. Characters drift in and out of this story without ample explanation, leaving the reader completely lost.
  
  I was completely engrossed in the book until Mr. Maguire reached the third section. I was a little put off by all the sexual inuendos during Elphaba's childhood. I felt as though Maguire was using the sex, as well as some of Elphaba's more disgusting behavior (such as the pissing on herself and the floor and then smelling with glee) to shock the reader and personally, I did not appreciate being shocked in that manner. However, I decided to give the book a chance and keep reading.
  
  I was perfectly delighted with the second section once Elphaba reached school. The chemistry between the characters, the intrigue, the political situation... It was all adding up to be a wonderful book. A professor is killed and Ama Crutch turns senile, something mysterious happens in a strip club that leaves you hanging, Madame Morrible tries to engage Elphaba, Glinda, and Nessarose on a secret mission, Elphaba leaves Shiz seeking answers... It was with sincere anticipation that I turned the pages to section 3, the City of Emeralds.
  
  This section started off interestingly enough. Several years have passed since Elphaba left Shiz. Fiyero finds her in a church in the middle of a secret and dangerous endeavor. I was slightly distracted by Fiyero suddenly coming into importance as he was never in the limelight before (In fact, I had to go back to the final pages of section 2 to remember who he was!). Still, I figured there was a good reason for Maguire using Fiyero instead of Boq, who up until this moment was the focal male character, so I continued reading. However, things steadily declined from my initial confusion. Elphaba and Fiyero start a wild love affair which makes absolutely no sense. The entire time, Elphaba's secret and dangerous life looms overhead of the two, leading to more vigorous and explicit sex. Finally, it is revealed to Fiyero and the reader that Elphaba's mission has to do with Madam Morrible. Whether it is to kill her, expose her, or what, no one knows. And equally unexplained is why Elphaba in the end is unable to complete said mission. This part of the story concludes with Fiyero being beaten by soldiers and Elphaba turning up traumatized at the same church we met her at in the beginning of section 3.
  
  Section 4 goes even further downhill. Another several years have passed and Elphaba is now a Sister with a mysterious boy, whom she never claims as her son though Maguire makes sure to point out several times in his narrative that Liir is Elphaba's and Fiyero's son. We find out, once again through Maguire's narrative, that Fiyero was in fact killed in the attack. Elphaba travels to his homeland to seek forgiveness from his wife, as she blames herself for his death. The wife and the sisters are, in one word, annoying. I never understood why Sarima is the only one allowed to have a name and the other sisters are called by a number. Sarima's children torture Liir to such extremes that you wonder how much the author suffered as a child. Elphaba gathers with her a strange collection of animals and suddenly develops this amazing gift of imagining bad things happening to people she doesn't like and then those things coming true! She never gets the chance for her forgiveness and in fact, Sarima, her sisters, and surviving children (as one dies due to Elphaba's new power) are captured by soldiers, leading on to the final section.
  
  Another SEVERAL years have passed by upon the opening of section five. Elphaba is now ruler of Sarima's home, since she claims she tried so hard to free the family and was unsuccessful. At this point, I was so disgusted with the book, I was concentrating on just finishing it. Glinda comes in briefly as a ditsy aristocrat who gives Nessarose's shoes to Dorothy. Enraged that the precious shoes were given away without her consent, Elphaba embarks on a perilous journey across Oz in search of those shoes. Along the way, she always just misses Dorothy but finds every other character from her past, such as Madame Morrible, Boq, and Avaric. When Dorothy is sent to the "Wicked Witch of the West", Elphaba's only thought is on recovering the shoes and sends her beasts out to intercept Dorothy and bring her alive back to the castle (How Dorothy and her companions could have ever mistaken a swarm of bees and a pack of huge dogs as a threat, one will never guess...). Once Dorothy reaches the castle, the book ends much as anyone who had seen the 1930s Wizard of Oz movie remembers.
  
  Where was the resolution? Where did all the characters go? Why introduce such intrigue and then solve none of it? His characters develop and then un-develop in such astonishing fluidty that you wonder why Maguire even bothered including them in the story. For example, Glinda makes a dramatic transition in character from being the snooty, sorority type girl to someone with more brains and tolerance and then by the time you FINALLY run into her again in sections 3 and 5, all that character development is reversed! Also, in section 2, Maguire makes Boq out to be the essentiel male lead in the novel and then excludes him from the rest of the story until section 5 where he makes two minor cameos!! Fiyero, who doesn't even enter the story until the very end of section two suddenly becomes the focal male in section 3 where you are made to care very deeply for him and then he is suddenly and violently killed before section 4! Elphaba herself makes very weird transitions as a character, starting off as a disturbed and burdomson child in the beginning, to a smart and spunky college student, to the Oz version of La Femme Nikita, to a traumatized and bitter woman seeking forgiveness, to finally a shoe crazed witch who in her own obsessiveness gets herself killed. And that's just the problem with the characters. Lets talk about plot now. What the hell was the point of including Madame Morrible's secret mission if you never quite understand the purpose or facts of said mission? What was Elphaba supposed to do to Madame Morrible that fateful day and why didn't she complete her task? What happened exactly to Sarima and her family and why were they taken captive? How did soldiers know where to find Elphaba's apartment and why kill Fiyero instead of Elphaba? Why must several years always pass between each section? Where do Boq, Glinda, and the others go after Shiz? What happened at the sex club that was so bad? WHO THE HELL KILLED PROFESSOR DILLAMOND AND CURSED AMA CRUTCH? Many answers to these questions are hinted at but are never fully explored by the author.
  
  Maguire gets one star for this book rather than zero because a. I can't give zero stars on an Amazon.com review b. section 2 was interesting enough to keep my attention and c. Maguire creates a world where evil thrives unchecked and those who are considered good and those who are considered bad may be more than what they seem. Now, if only he had written a story worthy of such a world, I may have given him more stars.
  
  
• Horrible execution of a terrific idea
  By on 2004-03-22
  I chose this book for my book club without having read it first. Biggest mistake EVER! This book is a MESS. The author lacks any real focus. He needed an editor badly. The story needed to be stripped down to its essence and then written in a straight-forward way. I felt no closer to knowing what really made the Wicked Witch of the West who she was. Also, I have to agree with many others that the sexual content was not only completely unnecessary, but overly gratuitous and revolting. I purchased this book and rather than loan it out, or give it away, I am throwing it away (something I have NEVER done before).
  
  
• Hackneyed, self-conscious and pretentious...
  By on 2000-06-02
  Sigh. I _really_ wanted to like this book. I was terribly disappointed and I had to steel myself to finish it as a result. Part of the problem may lie in the fact that it is billed as "brilliant", "insightful", and even as a "psychological study"... and so I expected a book on par with classic literary tales addressing the nature of good and evil, a book that could add to an already extensive body of sophisticated literature.

  Instead, I read a book wherein the author merely dabbles in character development and philosophical concerns, and never takes on the risk of drawing any conclusions. Instead of creating believable characters (and I do not feel the term 'believable' forbids the fantastic) that struggle with legitimate and engrossing dilemmas, the author parades us past a whole host of one-dimensional characters and odd scenarios that are astonishingly devoid of any real complexity despite the elaborate and thorough descriptions employed. Maguire is conscientious in introducing a wide spectrum of issues that are at the fore of modern Western culture (such as homosexuality/lesbianism, living with disability, the nature of justice, etc.), but to claim that he gets to anything _beyond_ an introduction on even one of these issues is laughable. I would describe his method as the 'Post-it Note' approach to the themes he claims to address... and while Maguire's writing style is certainly palatable, that's no excuse for his lack of depth.

  Sure, it seems oh-so-current and fresh for 1995, but this isn't a book that will stand the test of time. In this regard, it is almost embarassing to draw attention to it's dependence on the true classic children's tale, _The Wizard of Oz_... a book that never pretends to be more than it is and yet accomplishes so much more than Maguire's feeble and soon-to-be-passe attempt to update and maturate the original.
  
  

• Wicked Sucks
  By A3CMMQQH5BJL1I on 2006-03-21
  Sorry for the inelegant title. I sat here for a little while... trying to come up with something clever, but nothing captured the scope of my feelings about this book quite as well as that.
  
  I found Wicked to be one of the weakest novels I have ever read and would strongly discourage you from picking it up. I'm not actually in the business of reviewing literature, but I have been astounded by the critical acclaim for this book, despite its incredible lack of depth and character.
  
  Wicked starts from a safe premise: take a well-loved story and write a story within it. Tom Stoppard has made a career out of this, with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead being a prime example. However, Maguire fumbles this by diverging from the source material at almost every contact point. His vision of Oz is pallid and mostly uninteresting. The development of Oz's religions, local customs, and such are limited in scope and generally not fresh. Unlike the world of Harry Potter, where the little touches make you curious for more, I felt very much that Maguire was crassly trying to flesh out the world of Oz simply to create storytelling space for future stories.
  
  The characters are defiantly flat and frequently step out of their own characterizations to do things that are pointless and, often, absolutely baffling. Elfaba, a character who refused to carry out an assassination in the presence of a group of children, randomly, and spitefully, attempts to kick a well-meaning child in the back. Sarima, a widow whose husband disappeared under mysterious circumstances, is not at all interested in discovering the truth about her husband... even with the truth knocks on her door and BEGS her to listen. I found so many examples of behavior incongruous with common sense that I started second guessing my own. Would I, a green girl fatally allergic to water who has, for hundreds of pages, taken extremely detailed precautions to avoid every single drop of water, go ICE SKATING for no reason? Upon further examination, the only thing wrong with me was that I lacked the common sense to put this book down.
  
  Wicked's plot is stilted and stumbles over itself as if it was written in one take without an editor. Maguire introduces plot threads and then does not resolve them, leaving the reader frustrated all every turn, waiting for payoffs that never come. Years at a time pass casually... key plot points are dropped in parentheticals hundreds of pages after you've forgotten their thrust. The plot meanders aimlessly for dozens of pages at a time, detailing the hide-and-seek exploits of minor characters, the sexual fantasies of a young girl, and the thoughtfully-named sisters Two through Seven.
  
  Consistent mediocrity is the prose's hallmark. Maguire attempts to hide his lack of substance behind alternating complex and florid language. The prose is decidedly amateur and takes every opportunity to throw you off of a nice pace with its awkwardly-worded sentences, simplistic imagery, and general vulgarity. Maguire bumbles modern and antiquated phrases and concepts together in a way that makes the entire body seem anachronistic. The overall effect is slapdash and serves to jostle the reader out of the story.
  
  Wicked does have one bright point however: the single worst plot twist I have ever seen. I think even the story editor at General Hospital would wince if you pitched him this one. Elphaba, asked if she is the mother of a dubious tagalong kid, replies to the effect of `well, it doesn't feel like I've ever had a kid... but there was that one time I was in a coma for a year. I guess I could have had him then." The coma she is talking about happened about a hundred pages before - but was not mentioned. I'm sorry... how do you NOT MENTION YOUR PROTAGONIST'S YEARLONG COMA IN A BOOK SUBTITLED "The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West"? Then, as if to demonstrate a complete contempt for the reader, about a hundred pages later, Maguire drops into a parenthetical that the boy is in fact the son her Elphaba's lover... but does not confirm her as the mother.
  
  As for social commentary - which is a key theme of the book, according to the jacket - I found it sorely lacking. If Maguire's aim was to explain the motives and perceptions of evil, we can only conclude that he believes that evil is fueled by society's idiotic, illogical behavior. Having driven the highways of Los Angeles, I can certainly understand this sentiment, but Maguire misses just about every chance to explore the true nature evil. Nietzsche's famous phrase "gaze long into the abyss, and the abyss gazes into you" gets closer to explaining evil in eleven words than Maguire does in 400 pages.
  
  You know how when you read most books, as you get closer to the end, you read faster? Some books, you can't even put them down. With this book, I had the opposite experience. The closer I got to the ending, as I realized there was nothing the author could do to salvage this train wreck, and there was no way for me to reclaim these precious hours of my life, I had to stop often - and could only read a page or two at a time. When I finished, I actually literally physically threw the book across the room.
  
  I have never been this frustrated with a reading experience in my life. After a hundred pages, I decided to read on to see if the book improved. At two hundred, I plodded along out of sheer morbid curiosity. At three hundred, it was too late to turn back. At four hundred, I feel as if my brain has been violated. It may be too late for me - but it isn't too late for you! Skip this book and read something good.
  
  
• WICKED GOOD!
  By A3J4ZO1MBTQD7Q on 2000-06-28
  If you go into this story with expectations of a retelling of the classic "Wizard of Oz", then you may be disappointed...but enter with an open mind and a desire to be fully entertained, you'll find yourself incredibly satisfied by the end of this "Wicked"-good book.

  Gregory Maguire sets out on an ambitious journey into the story that we grew up with, but by giving it a clever twist and fleshing out the characters we never got to know in the original. Yes, we all know about Dorothy and her annoying little dog...the twister, the house... But, how much were we told about how Oz came to be, or Munchkinland, or the Wizard himself? We were expected to accept these places and things as they were, without any explanation, and as kids, we did. We accepted that Glinda was the good witch and that the Wicked Witch of the West was evil...but why? Well, when you read "Wicked", you get the story, warts and all! You find that perhaps the Wicked Witch of the West (born Elphaba) wasn't entirely acting out of pure evil at all, nor was Glinda acting on behalf of all that's good. You find that perhaps there was a lot more going on in that particular world than you ever imagined...but luckily for all of us, Maguire does an excellent job of imagining it for us! The politics, the treachery, the origin of The Wiz himself...all of this included in this highly readable, immensely likeable book!

  Don't start it expecting to read another take on Dorothy or her adventure in the "wonderful Land of Oz". She doesn't even enter into the picture until the very end! What you will find is an incredibly imagined story, for adults, that you'll find yourself thinking about for a long time after you've finished reading it!
  
  

• Witty, dark, and terribly creative . . .
  By A2MNB77YGJ3CN0 on 2000-10-12
  Political upheaval, blatant discrimination, religious intolerance -- sounds like something out of recent history, no? But this is Oz, before there was a tornado, before Dorothy arrived on the scene.

  Maguire paints a dark landscape into which Elphaba, the little green girl, was born. His use of detail is exquisite, but somewhat inconsistent. Still he crafts a cunning tale of Elphaba's attempts to "do the right thing," her many struggles that ended in failure and misunderstanding. We learn of the origins of the ruby red slippers, how the "witch" ended up in the west in that towering dark fortress, her relationship with her sister, Nessarose, the "wicked witch of the East," her association with Galinda (who transmuted into Glinda, the "good witch of the North"), her experiments in "life sciences" that resulted in the flying monkeys, the *real* reason the "Wizard" came to Oz. Yes, this book answers a lot of questions, and poses a few more: what, truly, is evil? What makes "good" better? Must every sin be punished, and by whom?

  A delicious read, definitely NOT a children's fairy tale.
  
  

• The Darker Side of the Rainbow
  By on 2000-12-03
  In Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, Gregory Maguire has written a novel that deals with the life of Elphaba, an emerald-green skinned young woman who was born into the family of a preacher and his wife in Munchkinland. Elphaba's family are not Munchkinlanders, however, and Elphaba grows up knowing more than she ever wanted to know about persecution and alienation. As a result, she becomes somewhat introverted, rebellious and yes, a little wicked.

  When we all root for Dorothy as she triumphs over the Wicked Witch of the West in Frank Baum's Oz tales, we seem to forget that we are only hearing Dorothy's side of the story. There is more to Elphaba than wickedness and Maguire proves it as he chronicles Elphaba's odyssey through the land of Oz.

  What makes Wicked such a special book is the fact that Maguire has written a story that challenges our preconceived notions of what, exactly, is good and what, exactly, is evil, with the character of Elphaba at the heart of the matter. Although Dorothy does make an appearance near the end of the book, it really isn't necessary to know anything about her or the Baum stories to understand and appreciate Wicked.

  In Wicked, we follow the life of Elphaba as we learn what shaped her personality, what it really means to be a witch and how things are not always as we think them to be or even as we want them to be. The characters in Wicked are fully-fleshed out and believable. Besides Elphaba, there is her university roommate, Glinda; Boq, the lovelorn Munchkin; Fiyero, a tribal prince from the primitive West of Oz; and Nessarose, Elphaba's beautiful and witchy sister.

  The fantasy elements in Wicked are actually quite light; this is no book for children and it even runs the risk of becoming overburdened by the weighty issues it seeks to tackle. Maguire could have let this book slip into nothing more than a sappy view of the technologies and magic that pervade the land of Oz. Instead, he wisely chose to focus on the people, instead and he has created characters that are vibrant, strong and full of life.

  Maguire's Oz is no Utopia and Elphaba is more than just a green-skinned witch. She is a woman who has become wise through the mechanations of guilt and sorrow and one who is, surprisingly, actually happy to meet the young girl from Kansas who eventually shows up at her door.

  Wicked is more than satire; it is an imaginative, fast-paced, fantastically real and supremely entertaining novel of vision and revision. Once you read it, Oz will never be the same again.
  
  

• Wicked and exquisite!
  By A1ZBCKOJFOMQ39 on 2000-10-16
  I've always been a fan of traditional stories retold from the point of view of a character other than the protagonist. And "The Wizard of Oz" has long been one of my favorite stories. This book forever changed the way I see it.

  Using elegant, eloquent prose, Geoffrey Maguire weaves the tale of Elphaba, the little green girl who will one day grow up to be the much-maligned Wicked Witch of the West. After reading this, the Witch became my favorite character of "The Wizard of Oz." See if she doesn't win your heart as well.

  Born to a religious father and an upper-class mother, Elphaba becomes a surprisingly sympathetic character. Her life is traced from birth to death, and along the way we see her development, from horrific baby, to idealistic student and activist, to reclusive wisewoman. She isn't perfect. She loves, and hates, and plots. Her long association with Glinda is a treat to discover, through Elphaba's eyes.

  The animal rights (or Animal rights) and political issues of the book were of particular interest to me. This book draws more in inspiration from Frank Baum's classic fantasy series than from the movie.

  A finely crafted read, a change of perspective, a tragedy, a love story, and a moral tale all wrapped up in some of the best writing I've ever experienced.
  
  

• What does this book want to be?
  By on 2000-01-04
  I stumbled on this book at Amazon and bought it solely because of the customer reviews here. The good reviews outnumbered and out-intensified the bad, and I was (am) intrigued by points of view that have gone unconsidered. My feeling was that you've just gotta like a book whose subtitle is "The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West". Or at least ya gotta like the title....

  It is one of the few books I have decided to quit without finishing. I gave it several extra chances after initially contemplating quitting. I've quit about a third of the way through. Maybe the remainder of the book redeems the problems that made me quit. I choose not to find out. My comments are only about the first third, then, and of course as always Maybe It's Just Me. But my comments still might be of value to potential readers, so here.

  I found it darker than I thought it needed to be Of course I'm not the arbiter of how dark it needs to be, but it was darker than I wanted to read -- dark in a way that felt not useful.

  I also found it required too much suspension of disbelief. I realize it's a fantasy, and I enjoy some fantasies, but I just couldn't get past things like a goat who is able to speak quite clear English (enough to be a university professor) yet who requires assistance with writing because "of course" he can't use a pen and paper with those hooves. **But of course he can speak English with his lips and tongue?** If such incongruity made a good point, or were necessary to the story, I would accept it, but.... it wasn't. Or it was and I am obtuse.

  Some reviewers here said it gets off to a slow start. Must be -- or it never gets going. After reading the first quarter of the book I was wondering when anything was going to HAPPEN that had anything to do with the nature of evil. I still hadn't seen anything thought-provoking. The witch was born and was discriminated against. Some politics and religion happened, very superficially. If there's more to the story, I was very disappointed not to have found it yet.

  Again: Maybe it's just me. Maybe I'm not a sufficiently sophisticated reader. (I think I am, but...) But I found this book not adding anything to my life. I'd like to know what other books the rave reviewers here have read, and what other sorts of books they like. I'm thinking they either just have different tastes than mine or they have very low standards and don't know there's better out there for provoking thought.
  
  

• Pretentious...bloated...boring beyond belief....see the show instead.
  By A1XSEXEQBWMH3M on 2007-08-08
  I've read many of the reviews of Wicked and I just don't get it.
  
  So many, even when they revile the plot, the content, the story itself, deem Mr. Maguire a "literary genius" with words. I see none of that. In a great story, especially one of fantasy, we should feel swept away by the tale, captivated by the writer's language and enveloped by every sentence. Instead of creating this safe haven for us to enjoy by making his words RELATIBLE, he seems to go out of his way to show us what fancy verbiage he can pull off, regardless of whether it improves the story for it's reader or not. It doesn't.
  
  I'm not impressed by Mr. Maguire's vocabulary. In fact, it is one of the most annoying parts of an amazingly annoying book.
  
  These are my complaints, along with the verbiage issue:
  
  1) Mr. Maguire makes the book excessively complicated by adding in made-up factors which are essential to the plot, but which he never explains to us,
  regardless of how verbose he is.
  
  For example, by the time I was 2/3 of the way through, I realized that I still didn't understand the "time dragon" or any of the religions or basic politics that are so crucial to his story. He never bothers to explain these things, but carries on long, boring conversations between his characters that revolve around them. It's like sitting down to a meal with 20 people speaking a foreign language. After a while it just exhausting and mind numbing.
  
  2) Mr. Maguire jumps around - usually just when things are getting good.
  
  We spend goodness-knows how many pages dealing with Elphaba and her family before she even utters her first word and then, just when the plot FINALLY goes somewhere...*poof*....she 17 and off to college. This happens continually. I kept thinking that it was going to become some sort of cliff-hanger where he goes back and we get to REALLY hear the good stuff. Nope. He moves on and that's it. Where's the payoff for the reader? We put up with all of that blah, blah, blah and then he just SKIPS ahead when it gets good?
  
  HE DOES THIS EVERY SINGLE TIME. Beware. You have been warned.
  
  3) He skips the interesting characters and spends pages and pages on the ones that you could care less about.
  
  In another one of his jumps, we never know what happens to Elphaba's TRUE father because it just ends with all of the characters in limbo, then, in a passing phrase, we find out that he was murdered - something to do with that 'ole time dragon again. Then he's on to something else. Hundreds and hundreds of words and pages have gone plodding by, and one of the more interesting things gets nothing more than a passing reference.
  
  4) He spends pages and pages on THINGS that you don't care about, describing them into minutia with his wordy, verbose language.
  
  I think that if I had had to read one more word about Elphaba's journey to the castle, I was going to tear my hair out. The description went on and on and was so boring and wordy. Blech. Skip that stuff! Geeze - tell us the GOOD stuff. Tell us exactly how they killed Fiero. Oh, I forgot, he skipped that part.
  
  5) Elphaba is nasty, annoying and never grows emotionally.
  
  Get some therapy, Elphi. Her POV was just annoying, hardly sympathetic. Obviously, after she learned to speak , she simply became a teenager and never grew past that.
  
  6) The sex scenes and the violence are dull. Just because there is sex between humans and other species doesn't make it good reading or erotic. It's been done before and CERTAINLY done much better.
  
  and the very worst thing:
  
  THERE IS NO PAYOFF. NONE! I hung in there, and hung in there hoping that he would wrap things up and explain things at some point and give SOME sort of emotional satisfaction for having dealt with pages and pages and hours and hours of his slog, and he just rushes through the Dorothy part and it's over. I'm furious.
  
  Overall, I hated it. I'm astounded that so many liked it. I regret picking it up. Unlike others, I wish that I could give it "no stars" - the writer's ability create an imaginary world should be a given and he gets no credit for that from me.
  
  SEE THE SHOW: The broadway show is wonderful and amazing. It is everything that this book is not. However, don't go thinking that they have much in common, because they don't. The plot in the show makes sense, is interesting (far more interesting than the plot in the book), creates characters with whom you really become involved AND gives you a GREAT payoff in the end, explaining things in a MUCH better way and giving you a WONDERFUL and different point of view of the whole story of Oz. The show is one of the best that I have ever seen, and I have seen quite a few. Don't miss Julie Murney as Elphaba, if you get a chance.
  
  THE SHOW: 2 THUMBS UP, 4 STARS, DON'T MISS IT!
  
  THE BOOK: 2 thumbs down, 0 stars, skip it.
  
  
• Despised it
  By A1GROTIMHKTMSR on 2005-11-03
  I am a voracious reader and will ordinarily finish most anything. I could not complete this book. The idea is original. The execution is poor. The narrative is choppy and the motivations of the characters make little sense. Pass this one over.
  
  
• If you love OZ, you'll HATE this book
  By A1KA3O5YTLDDMT on 2005-12-06
  Other then stealing the names and geography you'll find nothing of Baum's Oz in this book. This Oz is filled with prejudice, hatred, sex, religious intolerance, politics, backstabbing, adultery, and every other low disgusting behavior ever exhibited by humans. Not one character is noble or even particularly likeable.
  
  If you have not done much reading of serious literature you may find Macguires themes on the nature of evil interesting. But Shakespeare and Shelly did them already. If you are a reader, I doubt you'll find anything new.
  
  I admit this is all dressed up in well-written prose. And if you enjoy verbose introspection, by all means try the book out. But if you have fond memories of Baum's originals you'll probably find this betrayal of Oz too painful too enjoy.
  
  
  
• The Worst Book I Have Ever Read!
  By A37K8IDJ6LA2KW on 2004-10-31
  And that's saying something, because I've read a lot of books in my lifetime!
  
  How to describe my irritation with the author's TONE? Preachy, diatribing, inconsistent, SNIDE, and OH-SO-PHILOSOPHICAL--Maguire seems to be trying to punish the reader with his moral superiority. His venomous attitude towards Frex and his religion, of course, is just a thinly veiled allegory towards the "hypocritical believers" that exist in OUR world. His endless lectures on good and evil, the politics of Oz, the policies of the Wizard--more thin allegory, more obvious moralizing about OUR world.
  
  I'm not against a good allegory--Animal Farm, anyone? And moralizing about the problems of our world can be done very effectively--American Beauty, anyone?
  
  But Maguire simply is NOT up to the task. His book cheats. He TELLS us things instead of shows them (having just finished Anna Karenina this very evening, the difference was startling!!! Tolstoy had LOTS of judgmental things to say about his society, but the STORY he told was full of LIFE--I BELIEVED that those characters existed. I LIVED their lives.) His characters are such ciphers for his politics that it becomes harder and harder to find the suspension of disbelief necessary to believe in a story and follow it.
  
  Why all the ominous evil omens in Elphaba's infancy, if you're only going to make her a sullen Holden Caufield in her college years? And while we're at it, why take over one of the great rip-roaringly creative and action-packed fantasy series of all time if all you REALLY want to do is write like Henry James or Jane Austen? (not meant as a knock on THEM--just on their cheap imitator, Maguire)
  
  And what IS the deal with him describing his most exciting parts in a summarized paragraph, then spending a HUNDRED PAGES at a time describing the navel-gazing of characters who are just uninteresting ciphers in the first place? The effect is MADDENING!! THis COULD have been an interesting book. Instead, it is the WORST book I've ever read in my life!
  
  
• Take me back to Kansas because I hate this version of Oz
  By A28V0XBEWMZAO1 on 2006-11-06
  Before I delve into this review, I'll note this--I have not seen the Broadway musical. I have only read the book. Because of the numerous discrepancies between the two, I ask those die-hard musical fans who can sing Elphaba's every note but have yet to read the book to withhold criticism. Onto the review:
  
  The original Wizard of Oz is already an allegory (free silver!), so I don't see Maguire's approach of taking a perceived child's story and adding political implications as anything too revolutionary. It's been done, and it's been done a lot better the first time around.
  
  The political references go grossly under-explained. Something evil is brewing, but the many factions in Oz are never clearly defined even as the story evolves. It's as if Maguire is trying to explain Marxism through Munchkins and India's caste system through animals and Animals, but I'm tired of lauding stories that envision a dystopia reminiscent of Nazi Germany without any explanation of the surrounding circumstances. Maguire explains the tensions between the different groups and their power struggles with the other, but not any history behind it (which is essential to understanding any side, good or evil). Taking the animals and Animals-- how the two became distinct isn't mentioned, nor what caused the wizard to create anti-Animal legislation in the first place that leads to the murder of Dr. Dillamond. Sure, this is a society that parallels Nazi Germany and the expulsion/genocide of the Jews, but if the intent of the book is to make the reader question good and evil, then I question the circumstances surrounding the evil behavior of the wizard. Those questions, however, are never answered. I'm disappointed that an author's premise is to explain how so few things can be black or white when he paints this new Oz as such. There are too many winners and losers, and even the supposed winners end up losers.
  
  Not only are the political scenarios underdeveloped, but so are the characters and their relationships. Truthfully, I find Elphaba paranoid, mean-spirited and short-tempered. Despite her (dis)likeability, she at least remains consistent; unlike the rest of the characters. Galinda undergoes a strong transformation from a shallow, flippant, superficial teen to a woman of depth, compassion, and benevolence. What in the world happened? As the reader follows her high school years and her secret friendship with Elphaba, we are never given justification for how she changes. Elphaba's sister, Nessarose, is also a boring character in terms of her personality. For someone being so important (she's the wicked witch of the East, for crying out loud!), she isn't showed as anything other than a spoiled, paraplegic witch. Pun intended. The character in whom I was most interested was Dorothy. I understand the author's down-play of her as means of showing Elphaba as the protagonist, but I still found Dorothy more endearing than anyone else in the book.
  
  Since no good story is complete without some romance, the author hap-hazardly throws Elphaba into a relationship with what's-his-name-Fiyero, a character who is developed piece-meal (if that). The two characters don't show any compatibility or interest in each other throughout their college days and yet, when they meet again by happenstance for one day only they somehow become the deepest of lovers. I just don't buy it. As a spoiler, why did Maguire kill this character by having him murdered on a toilet during a bought of diarrhea? If this is symbolism of sorts, I am the first to admit: I don't get it. It's instances like this in the book where I wonder if Maguire wants us to take his book seriously. His comments on sex add to my doubts.
  
  Let's talk about sex. I must ask why he feels the need to write of a pre-teen girl's desire to be raped by soldiers, his need to write of a young boy's first erection, or why he wrote of a tiger sodomizing a man. Pardon my lack of sophistication, but again: I just don't buy it, despite considering myself liberal on issues of sexuality. I suppose one could twist sex equating to power, insert some Foucault here, blah blah blah... but no. Like many readers, I see this as just plain vulgarity disguised in pretty vocabulary.
  
  I refuse to believe this book is simply "too sophisticated" for the average reader, as some reviewers would attest: when it comes down to it, it's just not that good. The most complex ideas that are supposed to add depth get buried. When it comes to developing characters and romance, I've read better from bad chick lit authors like Sophie Kinsella.
  
  If you're looking for literature that embodies the same themes Maguire so dismally tries to promote, stick with "Lord of the Rings," "1984" or "Lord of the Flies." This version of Oz has a long way to go.
  
  
• What a waste of a great idea
  By A1LJFKIZ15WP32 on 2004-10-23
  When I saw the title I was pumped. I figured I was getting one of two things; a book showing that the Witch wasn't really evil or a book showing she was evil but from her point of view trying to justify her evil actions. Either way I was looking forward to a book that would play in the wonderful world of Oz, a land every person in America and many in the world got to visit as a child, and woould probably be humorous.
  
  Then when I first started reading I was a little surprised about how the story was going. The world wasn't seeming very magical and definitely wasn't funny at all. The book seemed to concentrate on what an outcast the poor green kid was, and while it wasn't what I expected, with almost zero humor, I kept at it seeing it had potential to be great even though it wasn't what I had picked up the book looking for.
  
  It wasn't great, or even good, or even tolerable. My problems were many.
  
  One. It was way too normal. Why pick the land of Oz and the Witch to write about if you are going to try to make the world as normal as you can. I understand picking a character that every one perceived as evil and then showing us how we make false assumptions, but you could have done that and still been true to the land of Oz.
  
  Two. It was way too philosophical. I like philosophy but only when it's good. There were no great revelations shown. I didn't get an epiphany that I should stop mistreating people that are different. It is nothing new in a book to see people treating people who are different cruelly. The author's only hope of introducing this in a new and original way was lost when magic was mostly removed from her writing world.
  
  Three. The book was boring. Not just the theme was bad, I also thought the writing was atrocious. The flow stunk, the dialogue was uneedfully long, and the action slow to happen and when it did it was over before it started.
  
  Four. I didn't like any of the characters. Even the protagonist, the Witch, was not very likeable. While I understand the author's need to seperate her from the other characters, I didn't understand her need to seperate her from me the reader.
  
  This was one of my biggest dissapointments of the year. It was especially bad when I think of what another author could have done with this truly awesome idea.
  
  
• Honestly one of the worst books I have ever read
  By A8IFUTWVCSY1W on 2006-01-23
  This book is truly one of the worst books I've ever read in my adult life. That sounds harsh, but I should say I rarely read a book unless I am pretty sure I am going to love it (I am one of the many who forces himself to finish any book he starts).
  
  I read this book two years ago, so I won't give a detailed response. Let me just say that this book is stock full of cliches and clunky writing. I am 100% convinced that people only love this book because they love the gimmick of it (a gimmick the author has used a half-dozen other times). A book explaining the motives of a movie character! How cute.
  
  The gimmick is alright with me, but the excecution is not. Perhaps the worst part was how cluncky the transitions between the different sections. Each one ends abruptly and normally in some absurd cliffhanger that is never resolved.
  
  Also, for a book whose only constraint is what is known from the film, there was a lot in this book that simply didn't jive with the account in the movie, especially regarding the Witch's death.
  
  This book might fare well as a YA novel for pre-teens in love with the movie, however.
  
  
• Wickedly Misses Mark
  By A2F8R40Z2OMIJM on 2004-06-21
  I had high hopes for WICKED. Ultimately, it let me down. It is certainly well-written and enjoyable to read. I finished it in about 2 weeks. However, WICKED suffers from poor execution of its basic premis: the backstory of the Wicked Witch of the West.

  In some ways, the backstory is very successful and author Maguire is creative. The novel, in my opinion, gets weighed down with politics that never seem to get fleshed out (the idea of "Animals" vs. "animals" is fascinating, but never seems to get a proper exploration.)

  I'll be the first to admit that my prejudice may have colored my opinion of this book. But I think this is a major problem: most people who read WICKED will only know the MGM movie version of WIZARD OF OZ. I remember reading Baum's OZ as a child. I remember that it differed greatly from the film: Dorothy's slippers were silver, not ruby; the mice saved her from the poppy field; Glinda took a plaque from her nose (!) ... However, that's about all I remember. The film has been etched in my mind. I felt let down by the book because many of its themes that held such promise never get fleshed out. I thought Glinda and Elphaba (the Witch) would have more of a good and evil relationship. The well-written Glinda character, however, disappears about 3/4 through the book. When Maguire finally weaves Dorothy into the story, all of the iconic moments from the film are gone -- could Maguire not legally write about MGM's story?? Glinda and the Witch do not wrangle over the shoes in Munchkinland; the Witch does not follow Dorothy and her companions; she does not send the flying monkeys to catch them; etc., etc.

  What's the point?

  I know that fans of the Baum book will probably not appreciate my review, but I would venture to guess that most people who would read WICKED have never read the Baum book. So, ultimately, any pay off the book could offer never materializes, because the same story is not being told. It'd be like doing the STAR WARS prequels without being able to reference plot points from the 1977 or 1980 films!

  I believe we are supposed to feel something for the Witch when she dies (NOT a spoiler, I hope ... we all know she gets "liquidated", yes?). But the central question of "what *is* wicked or evil" never fully gets answered for me. And, much like the STAR WARS prequels, we already know how this story is going to end --- just get to it, ok?

  So, to summarize, WICKED is entertaining and a good read. However, many of its themes are never fully realized. And the lack of reference to the MGM film really hurts the book.
  
  

• Disappointing
  By A223P3EIMGWY4L on 2005-05-17
  The idea of a story about the Wicked Witch of the West was exciting, intriguing. I bought the book with anticipation of an original fantasy spinning from a familiar one. But from page one it seems this author needed a venue for his sexual appetite and has tortured this idea with his eroticism and cynicism. While I could have endured a satire (his themes were interesting), I was not interested in soft porn.
  His use of language is fantastic. The themes he introduces are definitely food for thought. If only he could have left the excessive innuendos and gratuitous sex scenes out, I think I would have really enjoyed this novel. As it is, I find myself slogging through because I never leave a book unfinished. If your curiousity compels you to read it, I recommend going to the library instead of wasting good money on it. Then, if you disagree with me, you can purchase it for your collection. It doesn't even begin to compare to Tolkein, BTW.
  
  
• When can we expect a sequel?
  By A3FY8V7795WDV9 on 2000-02-15
  Although she is a loner, Elphaba draws you into her world. I loved the happy, skippy movie as a kid, but I'm delighted that there is a cynical side of Oz for the adult I have become. I knew I was going to love this book when I read that the yellow brick road was a misguided, state-sponsored public works project that destroyed wetlands and quadling habitat.

  I was wary about reading a fantasy novel, but quickly appreciated Maguire's use of this nonsense land to examine prejudice, religious zealotry, class distinctions, terrorism and even the interpersonal dynamics of college roommates.

  I wondered how Maguire would tie in some of the early characters and plot lines, and was pleased and impressed that nothing was wasted.

  There are some questions I would like to see resolved. Since there was no body, did Elphaba's lover really die? Who is Yackle? Is Lurlina real? What happens to Oz after the wizard leaves? What happens to Elphaba when she emerges from the waterfall?

  Hurry that sequel, please!
  
  

• I feel cheated
  By on 1997-06-10
  I don't know why people are raving about this book. There were too many loose ends, too many character contradictions to make Elphaba believable, and a depressingly shoddy ending. We all know how that Wicked Witch of the West dies, we all know she's supposed to be evil. This book was supposed to explain why she appeared that way. I admit that I was quite intrigued, so I devoured this book in a weekend.

  Silly me, I expected the book to live up to the glowing praises quoted on the cover. (I should have remebered the movie trailer rule: the better the trailer, the worse the movie.) The book started out promising but ended with a whimper. I read the final chapter not out of enjoyment but just to finish. Why did Maguire bother to re-write the Wizard of Oz if he have nothing new to add? I feel suckered into buying an unfinished book.

  The idea of the story was fascinating and the desciption was irresistable. But we were promised something that was never delivered.

  WHAT WERE THE EDITORS THINKING?!

  I would send those editors back to basic training. They should never have considered this book finished. It's a great draft but there are entirely too many unanswered questions, dangling plot threads, gratuitous characters (lesbian, gay man dying of AIDS, noble savage, etc.) that do not further any plot, not to mention unexplained personality changes in the main character (including Christ-like capabilities). There are events and issues alluded to which should be integral to the plot, but which are never brought to light. And while the book description promised this great discussion in the philosophy of good and evil, this NEVER happens! We muddle through some half-baked bits here and there, but there is no argument, no reasoning, nothing to show that the author really knows what point he's trying to make.

  Unless you like feeling gypped, don't expect this book to give you an "alternative" view to the Wizard of Oz or even an interesting debate in "what is evil?" because you'll just end up feeling like you've wasted your time. I also thought the text was set too small with too thin a typeface--difficult to read on public transportation or late at night, and I don't have vision problems. The only reason I am giving this book a 4 is because Maguire's writing style is beautiful and despite the story's failure to gel into anything truly amazing, it is quite entertaining in parts--just remember to skip the last chapter and imagine your own.
  
  

• Exceedingly frustrating
  By A3P00V1YW6D4UJ on 2005-01-31
  What a waste of potential. With such a great concept, this could have been a good book, but in every way that I can conceive, the author failed utterly to make it worth my time.
  
  1. No character in the book is believable--none of them behaves or reacts as a real person would and there is not a single kind-hearted act in the whole novel. There is very little character development, people are dropped in and out of the story randomly, and none of them serve to further the plot. Because there IS no plot!! That would mean that there would have to be tension, a climax, and a resolution. There would have to be a point! (...)
  
  2. Since he is writing a book from the perspective of a "bad guy" you would think that he's trying to get us to sympathize with her. He undermines this by making her the most foreign, unhuman, unrelatable creature in the whole work. (...)
  
  3. The philosopical discussions on the nature of evil are crap. I could make no connection to what they were talking about, no "ah-ha" moment of truth, as the kind of evil they referred to had nothing to do with evil in OUR world. Apparently Oz evil is different. Sometimes they talked about it as a metaphysical force entirely unrelated to the real world and other times it seemed a nearly tangible thing, rather than a seed that lies within all of us. (...)
  
  (...)
  
  I wish someone would take this same concept and completely rewrite it. I STRONGLY recommend against buying or reading this book. I want my weekend back.
  
  

• Son of a Witch: Volume Two in the Wicked Years
• Wicked (2003 Original Broadway Cast)
• Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister: A Novel
• A Lion Among Men (The Wicked Years, Book 3)
• Mirror Mirror: A Novel