Reviews - Wicked: [Movie Tie-In]: the Inspiration for the Smash-hit Musical and the Upcoming Major Motion Picture

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Wicked: [Movie Tie-In]: the Inspiration for the Smash-hit Musical and the Upcoming Major Motion Picture

Gregory Maguire

3.4 AVERAGE

dyunnei's review against another edition

4.25

adventurous challenging dark reflective tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Very fitting how Im reading this 7 + year old copy during such times, politically.

The original Wicked does such a wonderful job at critiquing organized systems that continue to oppress minorities. Going into the book I already knew that this was a metaphor, a piece of commentary on race, religion, and class, but I did not expect it to be as well fleshed out as this. Considering the source material, and how this becomes the source material for the extremely popular musical, it is wild how this can exist in between.

Morality becomes the subject of the entire novel, and specifically what morality looks like in different communities. The book revolves around evil, how evil trickles down in families, social structures, religion, and even our very own relationships. I found that I enjoyed the heavy critiquing much more when Maguire allows himself to write much more freely.

Ultimately, Wicked’s flaw is its structure, textually and characteristically. It fails to address the questions one may have about the nature of really just how a lot of things work in this world, and for a fantasy story, definitely makes the experience of reading much more confusing.