Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West (edition 1996)

This book, while interesting, was a kind of difficult read. It was very complicated and convoluted, and even a bit disturbing. I was keen to read it after seeing Wicked, the musical. The musical is much better than the book. ( )

I selected this book after seeing the musical Wicked! My mistake. This was a long drawn out story based on the background characters from the Wizard of Oz and how they came to be who they are especially the Wicked Witch of the East. Her name is Elphaba is this tale. The story is over political and very dry. It goes on for too long and I didn't enjoy it at all. What's more amazing to me is that the author agreed to the musical that so far from his story, it shouldn't even share the same name. The only thing that is the same, are the character names. I would suggest don't bother. ( )

It was just "ok".
I had a hard time getting into it and didn't like it nearly as well as the Cinderella and Snow White retellings.
Good that I read it though and will probably try the sequels later.
Read in 2006. ( )

If you haven't read this book, but want to, I'll say that I quite liked it once I got past the first section (60-ish pages). I was wavering between 3-4 stars, but I just couldn't bring myself to bump it up. I enjoyed it enough that I will likely read the second book. (I doubt I will ever read this again, however.)

I did not like it as well as The Looking Glass Wars, an adaptation of Alice in Wonderland.

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This review contains spoilers. I repeat, there are going to be spoilers if you read any further. I will not be held responsible. So, if you haven't read it yet or seen the play and you don't want to know what happens then DO NOT read further!
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Okay, so, I liked this book (probably 3 1/2 stars worth), but I did not love this book and here's why:

First, the beginning was REALLY slow. Yeah, I get it, the framework had to be set for the "I'm this way because I had a crappy childhood." thing. But, it was still a bit of a slog for me to get through that first 60 odd pages. The middle bit was very good. The end felt a little rushed.

Second, what was with the gratuitous sex? I get that her mother had to be a little active for the storyline, but he seemed to take it all that step further just for shock value. For example, I didn't really need to know that Nanny washed the spooge stains out of Melina's sheets in the stream. No, not really. Not a mental picture I needed in my mind. Or, that whole bit with the Philosopher's Club? What was that all about? That had NOTHING to do with the story in my opinion. Well, other than the fact that Tibbett never recovered from being rogered by a Tiger and eventually died in Elphie's care which left a trail for her to be found. But, Tibbett could have had any old wasting sickness, people... It was just a little much for me.

Lastly, I felt that there were some pretty big questions the author never really bothered to resolve. Like, who was Madame Morrible anyway? What was she really about? Was Yackle trying to help Elphaba or harm her? Friend or foe? There were others, but I feel that those could carry on to the second book. MM was such a big part of the book though and as far as I understood, nothing ever really came around to being explained with regard to her. I was a bit disappointed in that.

I have to say, on the positive side that I was totally attached to Elphaba. The second section where they are in Shiz was my favorite bit. I totally would have befriended Elphie and played little tricks and pranks on Galinda to take her down a peg. As a kid, of course, I adored Glinda. As I got older I thought she was a bit silly in that particular get up. Reading the story I could see where it occurred to him to take the character in the direction he did, clever.

I still liked The Looking Glass Wars better, but it was a good adaptation and I did like it. ( )

Ugh, this book was SOOO BORING!! It was a chore to read this thing. I had to take 10 pages at a time, and even that was too much. Elphaba had such potential to be an amazing character - what a disappointment. She did have a few great moments of dry humor, and I could identify with her occasionally, but I could just never understand what she was all about or even how exactly she turned into the person everyone came to view as a witch. This is one of those rare cases where the "movie" (musical, actually) is better (in this case, WAY better) than the book. The only reason I gave this book 2 stars was because I thought the whole Animal rights thing was really interesting, but even that seemed to be covered better in the musical. *sigh*
Maybe most of what this book was about is just over my head or something. I just wish there would have been more heart in this story to accompany all the allegorical stuff. ( )