Scan barcode
sarahmelc's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.25
sharkgirlsam's review against another edition
funny
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
hedyharper's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Addiction, Gaslighting, Pregnancy, Sexual content, Confinement, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Violence, Animal death, Classism, Colonisation, Grief, Infidelity, Abandonment, Ableism, Abortion, Body shaming, Fatphobia, Genocide, Fire/Fire injury, Animal cruelty, Kidnapping, Mental illness, Death of parent, Murder, Suicide attempt, War, and Xenophobia
ducky_'s review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
Hard book to read! Read it for a school project and it was a challenge!
jennings_thom21's review against another edition
5.0
By far one of my most favorite books of all time. Definitely different and way more detailed than the musical, but SO GOOD.
dakinpj's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
dndeevee's review against another edition
2.0
I thought I might give this book another chance, now that I am 10 years older and wiser. I thought maybe the political, philosophical bits might be more enjoyable to me now.
Nope. This book is BAD.
Reading this book is like digging for nuggets of gold. The concept of an origin story focusing on the Wicked Witch of the West is brilliant, and there are moments of narrative in the first and third acts that make us really care about these characters. These glimmers of potential make you keep reading, hoping you’ll find another glimmer. But most of the time, it’s just dirt.
It is also unnecessarily graphic. Every trigger imaginable is in this book and treated with appalling callousness. Not even the characters seem to care, and in many cases he goes out of his way to illustrate how LITTLE they care.
This book is a self-indulgent, bloviating, nearly incoherent navel-gazing ramble from the author as he philosophizes freely on the nature of good, evil, and forgiveness using the thin allegorical facade of well-known Oz characters. He simultaneously explains nothing while also never shutting up.
(My main problem is, if you’re going to write a philosophy book, just DO that… don’t make us read your own philosophy on your OWN lore?? He creates unnecessarily detailed lore on the politics and religions of Oz, spending about 70% trying to explain it and the other 30% clumsily trying to transition from one philosphical diatribe to the next.)
Most of the plot about Elphaba and her schoolmates happens in the first third and the final third. There are moments of those storylines that are quite charming, funny, and very fun. I would recommend to anyone reading this book that they skip the middle third entirely… you won’t miss a thing and you’ll have a much better shot at enjoying yourself.
~~~Original review: August 2014~~~
The beginning and end of this book was great, but the middle act was sooooooo sloooooow... The plot made little or no sense, scenes were unnecessarily graphic... just in general that section seemed to last forever. I think he was going for political and emotional intrigue, but it fell FAR from the mark for me. I ended up skipping it and headed straight for the end, and I didn't miss a thing.
Four stars for the beginning and end sections, two stars for the middle.
Nope. This book is BAD.
Reading this book is like digging for nuggets of gold. The concept of an origin story focusing on the Wicked Witch of the West is brilliant, and there are moments of narrative in the first and third acts that make us really care about these characters. These glimmers of potential make you keep reading, hoping you’ll find another glimmer. But most of the time, it’s just dirt.
It is also unnecessarily graphic. Every trigger imaginable is in this book and treated with appalling callousness. Not even the characters seem to care, and in many cases he goes out of his way to illustrate how LITTLE they care.
This book is a self-indulgent, bloviating, nearly incoherent navel-gazing ramble from the author as he philosophizes freely on the nature of good, evil, and forgiveness using the thin allegorical facade of well-known Oz characters. He simultaneously explains nothing while also never shutting up.
(My main problem is, if you’re going to write a philosophy book, just DO that… don’t make us read your own philosophy on your OWN lore?? He creates unnecessarily detailed lore on the politics and religions of Oz, spending about 70% trying to explain it and the other 30% clumsily trying to transition from one philosphical diatribe to the next.)
Most of the plot about Elphaba and her schoolmates happens in the first third and the final third. There are moments of those storylines that are quite charming, funny, and very fun. I would recommend to anyone reading this book that they skip the middle third entirely… you won’t miss a thing and you’ll have a much better shot at enjoying yourself.
~~~Original review: August 2014~~~
The beginning and end of this book was great, but the middle act was sooooooo sloooooow... The plot made little or no sense, scenes were unnecessarily graphic... just in general that section seemed to last forever. I think he was going for political and emotional intrigue, but it fell FAR from the mark for me. I ended up skipping it and headed straight for the end, and I didn't miss a thing.
Four stars for the beginning and end sections, two stars for the middle.
wbrooklynn's review against another edition
3.0
could’ve cut out 50+ pages in Vinkus. made me giggle !
matheamae's review against another edition
3.0
This was certainly a read! I'm a huge fan of the Broadway musical, and retellings in general which brought me to this series. I maybe made the not so smart choice by purchasing all the books in the series before even starting it...oops! Well, it took me a hot second to complete this one because it is so dense. Very wordy and kinda repetitive. I enjoyed a lot of aspects of it, which kept me reading, but I also wanted it to be over more than once which brought my star rating down. I am going to read the next one in hopes that my interest picks up!
saramhiatt2's review against another edition
2.5
2.5 ⭐️ - Listen…some of my biggest issues with this story is that it doesn’t live up to my expectations. As someone who loves TWoO movie, but hasn’t seen the Wicked musical, I expected lighthearted and charming like the movie.
This is NOT the case.
The story/plot itself? Eh. I have to keep in mind that (to my knowledge) nothing in this book is canon to Baum’s original stories. I found myself dreadfully bored through this whole thing.
The writing style is also emotionless. It doesn’t captivate or make you fall in love with characters. I genuinely DGAFF about any of the characters in this book.
In this realm, Galinda/Glinda is a “mean girl,” as is the rest of her posse from Shiz. Elphaba has a shit life from start to finish and I genuinely feel bad for her and the way the world has treated her.
This book is also strangely sexual. Shared partners, orgies, sodomy, beastiality. I felt like most of this was completely unnecessary to the plot. It’s also pretty graphically violent - which doesn’t bother me near as much, and was much more relevant to the plot line.
The whole book feels like a bad acid trip.
Overall - I didn’t HATE it. But I don’t think I would recommend it to anyone. I still will likely read the remainder of the series (since I already possess all of the physical books) but it has not earned a spot to stay on my bookshelves.
This is NOT the case.
The story/plot itself? Eh. I have to keep in mind that (to my knowledge) nothing in this book is canon to Baum’s original stories. I found myself dreadfully bored through this whole thing.
The writing style is also emotionless. It doesn’t captivate or make you fall in love with characters. I genuinely DGAFF about any of the characters in this book.
In this realm, Galinda/Glinda is a “mean girl,” as is the rest of her posse from Shiz. Elphaba has a shit life from start to finish and I genuinely feel bad for her and the way the world has treated her.
This book is also strangely sexual. Shared partners, orgies, sodomy, beastiality. I felt like most of this was completely unnecessary to the plot. It’s also pretty graphically violent - which doesn’t bother me near as much, and was much more relevant to the plot line.
The whole book feels like a bad acid trip.
Overall - I didn’t HATE it. But I don’t think I would recommend it to anyone. I still will likely read the remainder of the series (since I already possess all of the physical books) but it has not earned a spot to stay on my bookshelves.