Just couldn't get into this book. I've read several other of Maguire's books and really enjoyed them, but this one just didn't compare. Not really sure why. ( )

Entertaining and creative take on the "back story" behind characters in "The Wizard of Oz". Not for kids, though the musical based on the book was even better and fine for kids. It's not great writing but held my interest.

Quotes; this one seems like a dark spin on Frost "Home is where they have to take you in":
"Maybe the definition of home is the place where you are never forgiven, so you may always belong there, bound by guilt. And maybe the cost of belonging is worth it."

On religion:
"If you could take the skewers of religion, those that riddle your frame, make you aware every time you move - if you could withdraw the scimitars of religion from your mental and moral systems - could you even stand? Or do you need religion as, say, the hippo in the Grasslands need the poisonous little parasites within them, to help them digest fiber and pup? The history of peoples who have shucked off religion isn't an especially persuasive argument for living without it. Is religion itself - that tired and ironic phrase - the necessary evil?" ( )

This is not a bad book, but people who think it's the greatest thing since sliced bread really should read more Terry Pratchett... ( )

This is the second book by Gregory McGuire I have read. I tried Mirror Mirror in high school and didn't care for it. This book was highly recommended by several of my friends, so I reluctantly gave it a try. I remain unimpressed. McGuire mixes in poorly developed political strife and intrigue with overuse of words like "cock," and people call him brilliant. He's not. His writing ends up being pretentious, boring, and at times pointlessly crude and offensive. Yes, the alternative fairy tale is a fun idea, but my suggestion is to try Mercedes Lackey or Robin Mckinley, but stay away from McGuire. ( )

Hah! Finished! And it's going straight to Bookmooch.

Wicked: if you were thinking of reading it, don't bother. And if you've seen the musical, especially don't bother - there is no resemblance other than some names as far as I can tell, and it would probably offend you.

This book is... I don't even know where to start. This probably won't be a very coherent post.

My first and foremost complaint is the explicit content - totally gratuitous, adds nothing to the plot, and jumps out at you when you least expect it. Stop it! I hate that. There were points where I was on the verge of giving up every few pages.

It's inconsistently written. It's split into several distinct parts, and each one reads like it was written by a different author. The Shiz university section was the most coherent and readable, the rest was generally meandering and confusing. Plot lines makes no sense, characters' actions make no sense, and most of all, characters speech is completely random and makes no sense, especially towards the latter parts. It's a bit like the author had a big bag of actions and phrases and just reached in, pulled out stuff, and stuck it together at random.

The structure runs something like this:

Early years: weird, explicit
Shiz: readable, except for the gross explicit
Emerald City: random, slow
Vinkus: random, deathly slow, mostly pointless
Last few chapters: QuickFinishItNowWe'veGotToPublishTomorrow! Utterly inconsistent.

I liked Fiyero a little bit, but he has no characterisation at all. I actually like Elphaba a lot, which is part of why I'm so annoyed with this book. I feel offended on her behalf that her story was written like this! If I could write, I'd want to write the book again to do her justice. The other characters we're uniformly un-endearing.

It could have been done so much better. ( )