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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.
lady_jess_87's review against another edition
5.0
It was a very good book. I felt the author did a wonderful job at describing a bittersweet and horribly sad ending for Elphaba.
lduubs's review against another edition
adventurous
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
spookyautumnleaves's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
shellydav's review against another edition
5.0
LOVED this! This is the kind of book that I call a heartbreaker--it breaks my heart to finish it and have to walk away from the characters and the story.
riestenberger's review against another edition
4.0
Review is late, blah blah.
I grabbed this audiobook because a) I love the musical and b) one of my close friends loves these books.
Not at all what I was expecting. I had a really hard time getting into it because it was so vastly different from the musical. However, since this book ended where the musical ended, I decided to continue and see what became of the characters since I had no expectations.
I grabbed this audiobook because a) I love the musical and b) one of my close friends loves these books.
Not at all what I was expecting. I had a really hard time getting into it because it was so vastly different from the musical. However, since this book ended where the musical ended, I decided to continue and see what became of the characters since I had no expectations.
eadrianschmitz's review against another edition
The writing is terrible, the world I'm feels unfinished. A waste of time.
anxiouscoffee's review against another edition
5.0
A Wicked-ly good origin story for one of the most well known witches
cassjsmith's review against another edition
challenging
dark
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Before anything else can be said about this book, it must be said that the Broadway show is *inspired* by this book, not based. Most of the plot is actually not the same at all, it seems that because audiences love love, the play took the most marketable parts of the book (relationships) and made it a show. All of that being said, this book is so so so good.
The book is so wonderfully complex as it navigates through a maze of moral quandaries. It actually hardly focuses on her relationships and friendships at all, in fact, she seems rather incapable of normal relationships. Instead we get to see the topic of the nature of evil develop throughout the book as it is almost impossible to see Elphaba as evil, even though she might be incapable of being truly good as well.
The writing is gorgeous. I often found myself wanting to underline sentences that were hardly important because the writing was so pretty.
I marked the characters as not lovable because they are not. They are real and we kind of only get to see their actions rather than their feelings. This wasn’t a drawback through as it allowed the reader to examine the themes rather than be blinded by affection for the characters.
All in all I loved this. It didn’t make me like the show any less, but it made me realize that the book it was based on if far deeper than I could comprehend after only 1 read.
Yay! Will read again! Will not recommend to students since it’s pretty adult!
The book is so wonderfully complex as it navigates through a maze of moral quandaries. It actually hardly focuses on her relationships and friendships at all, in fact, she seems rather incapable of normal relationships. Instead we get to see the topic of the nature of evil develop throughout the book as it is almost impossible to see Elphaba as evil, even though she might be incapable of being truly good as well.
The writing is gorgeous. I often found myself wanting to underline sentences that were hardly important because the writing was so pretty.
I marked the characters as not lovable because they are not. They are real and we kind of only get to see their actions rather than their feelings. This wasn’t a drawback through as it allowed the reader to examine the themes rather than be blinded by affection for the characters.
All in all I loved this. It didn’t make me like the show any less, but it made me realize that the book it was based on if far deeper than I could comprehend after only 1 read.
Yay! Will read again! Will not recommend to students since it’s pretty adult!