Excellent tale. ( )

Gregory Maguire, with his work Wicked, really put himself into the limelight. Of course, in this instance, his protagonist Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West, really puts the "lime" in limelight.

That is, to say, she's green.

Maguire, following past success as a children's author, took one of the most beloved children's books and made it real, focusing on the misunderstood Elphaba, and how she became so wicked in the first place. This also firmly placed him in the caste of "parallel novelist," in which most, if not all, of his general works to date have been heavily inspired by previous works of beloved fiction.

Wicked does a role reversal of the expected characterizations of Oz. We're to root for the bad guy, who really isn't all that bad; she just doesn't appreciate the oppressive government of Oz, especially as it treats animals and Animals (that is, animals gifted with speech) the same, though one is clearly capable of rational thought.

Maguire's Oz is real, grizzled, gritty, and nothing like the happy magic land Baum made it out to be. If you find Oz to be sacrosanct, you may wish to avoid this one. But, if you enjoy Oz, and wish to see more work inspired by it, then this is definitely a book for you. Since it's publication, Maguire has written two other novels to follow in this parallel storyline, which may also be worth reading when you're done being Wicked. ( )

This book was the worst. If you like books written by misogynists (if every female character in the book is either a b**** or a dope then I'm guessing that Maguire hates women) who are into freaky sex scenes, then by all means read this book. The premise is great, but yuck, the characters are horrible and story just draaaaaags. ( )

My only previous exposure to Oz is in the form of movies (the Judy Garland classic as well as "The Wiz" and "Return to Oz"), so there was probably a lot of irony in this story that was completely lost on me. All the same, I enjoyed it. Its assertion that evil is in the eye of the beholder (and the writer of history) was striking. The ending was a bit rushed, and the author did not offer quite as many explanations as I would have liked (such as *why* she was making winged monkeys), but all in all it was a good book. Now I want to read Maguire's other fairy tales from the bad guy's point of view. ( )

The premise was clever but what a clunker of a book. I enjoyed some of the imagery. Yet, it was as if the author sat around with a group of friends late one night and said, "What if we made the wizard Elphaba's father?" and "We have to make her a hermaphrodite." The beginning of the book had me engrossed. The middle (college years) dragged. The end was just plain silly. And yes, before I forget, the political and religious talk was preachy and quite uninteresting. ( )