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3.69 AVERAGE
3.69 AVERAGE
adventurous
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
“Out of Oz” by Gregory Maguire was the perfect conclusion to the Wicked series. Out of Oz brought us more of all the characters we’ve come to know and love throughout this series — Glinda, Brrr, Liir, Candle, and Rain. Each of these characters goes through a journey of transformation, trying to do the right thing for those around them. But Rain’s journey, which is depicted from her childhood, is the most touching.
adventurous
emotional
medium-paced
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
this book pulled at my heart in all sorts of ways. the “ending” is some of the dreamiest and loveliest storytelling i’ve ever experienced. there are too many beautiful bits of prose in this book to count- maguire reminds me that writing is a craft, an art, and stories can be beautiful the whole way through when crafted with such care.
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
sad
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I hate ambiguous endings.
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Im kind of disappointed by the wicked series maybe it was just me but it felt like a whole lot of nothing
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
I think there something magical about out of oz that really charms me…I love rain a lot. that girl’s autism energy is off the charts. it was really lovely despite being kind of sad and slow. it felt a lot more like a conventional coming-of-age book about a strange little girl growing up into a strange young woman and trying to find her people and where she belongs and power to influence the world she lives in. it’s definitely a lot more plot-driven than soaw. I’ll remember it fondly
general impressions - it was so beautiful and magical and funny despite all the child abandonment. many old friends coming back. the glinda scenes were gold. it was, like all wicked books, a bit depressing and pointless, but found its beauty and its precious moments nonetheless. Like I'm really quite thrilled with how good things happened in ooo but it didn’t feel like an empty saccharine feel-good ending. the tragedy was real and present and never stopped being a tragedy but it didn’t mean everything was lost or that was the end, the characters learned to live with it and around it and past it….that’s the good stuff yknow. that’s a hearty meal
invoking ‘there’s no place like home’ to mean 'once you grow up you can never return to that time or place again no matter what’….stellar dark wizard of oz moment. I love when he references and subverts the original series. dark fairytale now. on the one hand it must suck for genuine fans of the original series to see their books recontextualized as dark and gritty and cynical and violent and gruesome, but on the other hand...they're really good a transformative work in the truest sense
I kind of want to reread wicked now. usually the whole ‘original protagonist’s children/legacy’ feels cheap and boring, but I really like rain and it’s genuinely interesting to reflect on elphaba’s legacy as an activist and a magic user. her life was tragic and painful, but she had such an impact on the people around her and she left such a mark on the political landscape….I care about this kind of legacy way more than 'they were a hero and there’s a statue of them in the town square and now you have to live up to their legacy of Being Good’
I really enjoyed the vague and very debatable hints that elphaba is alive without it ever being confirmed one way or another. I didn't WANT it confirmed - it would ruin the perfect balance maguire is setting up between ‘obviously she’s dead’ and 'hmm, but maybe not’. elphaba is too massive a presence to not overshadow any other character, and it would be a disservice to rain to have her suddenly show back up in the narrative in the flesh. her legacy, her name, her memory, her reputation, her power, it’s all enough to maintain her presence in the story and keep the audience in this fun little gray area. I usually can’t stand open endings or not having the plot threads neatly tied up, but in this case…it would feel cheap to have a final shot with her in profile like she really is back. the story needs to still matter even if she’s dead. the characters and their lives do still matter, and so do the things that they do. and the fact that she’s never confirmed to be alive calls back to the final line of wicked SO well….it really feels like these sequels are just continuations of the story for her even tho she’s not there. even the glinda scene was vague and potentially unreliable
and usually it drives me crazy when a character is reunited w their long-lost love and fans read it like ‘oh it’s a hallucination’ but in this case the lack of clarity would just make it better. the books are like. they’re all so much about the beauty of the world despite the misery and absurdity and tragedy of it as well. and thematically and tonally it just wouldn’t FIT if maguire was like 'oh and btw our beloved protagonist from book one was alive this whole time :)’ and brought her back for a triumphant fairytale conclusion
And I love stories for adults so much….yes do tell me about the political, social, and economic reasons that munchkinlanders don’t want to sue for peace with the emerald city and give up restwater lake. tell me about the riparian ecosystems of the great kells and the aquifers around the capital city and the agricultural landscape and labor force in center munch….
the little-girl memories throughout the story are enchanting and mysterious, inviting the reader to ponder the nature of memory, childhood, and isolation. especially poignant that we don't even know who's memories these are, until the very end
more specific reactions to the rest of the book: **SPOILER ALERT**
starting right off with dorothy herself, once again in kansas, isolated and miserable. pushed into marriage at the age of 16 - she was only TEN in wizard of oz??? - and unable to even talk about her experiences for fear of being called crazy. glumly thinking about how her future if she’s LUCKY is to marry some kansas farmer who’s never left his hometown…god you can really feel the weight of the patriarchy. suffocating!!! as bleak as these books are I actually really love how maguire writes women. I feel like he depicts social misogyny without reneging any of his female characters to anything less than fully fleshed out people
back to glinda, who I missed dearly, maguire does really well in encapsulating the absurd evils of the military AND the sociopolitical machinations of my favorite character (besides elphaba rip). I love her. when she made fun of cherrystone by pretending to be as stupid as he thought she was that was so funny. but I found her pov chapters so powerful and hopeful - she's haunted by regrets and the memories of her happiness with elphaba and how she never felt that way with anyone else and she has periods of listlessness and despair it's genuinely quite sad. but she's still learning to cook! she's still doing actual charity work! she's still trying to look after her staff! and she's still trying to defeat cherrystone <3 I mean you can still change and grow even as a 50 yr old former socialite with poor magic skills. She is still The Worst tho. Like your staff is in tears! Stop thinking about how good you look in your outfit!
glinda's staff...mirth...puggles...I did shed a tear
'she was losing it, big-time' <- great prose
'Loving through expressions and gestures and the palm set softly on the bruise at the necessary moment…' <- wonderful prose beautiful prose
meanwhile Illinora. HARROWING stuff. the way she talks about her trauma….her description of herself as someone who’s completely distinct from her child self is so gutting. she said that carefree little girl is dead and I am someone entirely different. and I am am peace with who I am but after everything that’s happened to me I am simply not that girl anymore. changed her name and swore to never bring a child into the world to suffer like she did. gave her insights on a distant and grieving child and promised to love her anyway. god
why is this the most wholesome book in the wicked years series…brr loves this little girl and nor is teaching her how to read and they’re all traveling together with sister apothecary? and rain is having a childhood where she runs around outside and spells things with rocks and twigs and brr is so proud of her? rain’s pov is making me weepy. I think maguire’s captured an unloved 7 yr old very well. she doesn’t even care that glinda is gone bc glinda was barely a caretaker. she expects mirth to be there bc mirth has usually been there. and she wants to read! she wants to learn to read! she tried to write ‘sorry’ to the dragons in the dirt…I’m going to cry
I maintain that liir and candle shouldn’t be married but at least they love their daughter. when he was trying to get her to stop being so weird and intense about having rain back but he just ended up telling her what to do and she went to sleep to escape his terrible platitudes. they are so bad together. divorce city <3 but I really loved the awe and wonder liir was experiencing watching rain enjoy the statues. this happened when he was with trism too 🥺 transcendent experience of being with someone you love except this time it’s your daughter
I often enjoy how dark the wicked years are honestly. “ugh of course there’s no goddess of goodness, we live in such a cruel and dark world. there IS a goddess of curses tho and we all believe in her because horrible things have happened to all of us’ yeah literally. I like hopeful fiction so sometimes it does get a but much but the wry acknowledgement of how painful and shitty the world is is also comforting in its own way. it does reflect a lot of what I feel about the real world but irl and in-universe this darkness isn't the end all of the universe. there's always resistance and life and hope and love and escape. the title after all IS out of oz
and haphazardly the plot lurches along, to a strange trial that pushes on the edges of your suspension of disbelief. I was like I’m armchair diagnosing dorothy with adhd she’s at a murder trial and she’s acting CRAZY. she's kind of being made fun of in ooo. The American in Oz. in wicked she was very grounded and serious and powerful and charismatic. however maguire is clearly aware of this because brr called dorothy a parody of herself which is is so funny. anyway the one person with faith in others in a cynical and brutal world. it could be laughable and it is a little but it's also very wholesome and even inspiring her folksy charm
meanwhile - rain at school! she’s been at this school for like 6 months and she hasn’t made any friends except for the maid who we do love but rain immediately made her the second place friend after meeting tip 😭 well at least she can read now
I liked tip. I liked their friendship. I thought the age gap was a bit weird. like their reunion later is SO emotionally tense and well written and romantic except I don't understand how rain is 16 now
can’t believe tip trespassed on school property and was caught and was also secretly living there for like a month and that’s how he got hired there. old timey job prospects were so different
every single wicked years book has involved the mc sneaking away in the middle of the night from their castle or their military base or their school. generations of runaways and anarchists
liir was so snarky when they took him captive and it made me laugh so hard and I usually find that trope predictable and tiresome but maguire is just that good he made it fun and engaging instead. alas tho liir your weak-willed nature will doom you to elephantism...just like in spirited away...
oh trism... how is he part of an unjust military venture AGAIN. LIKE GET OUT OF THE ARMY!!! you were supposed to STOP being a BOOTBOY. still the gay yearning is there and it is poignant. but liir as an elephant is sooo funny honestly he’s like ugh well if I die I can at least see my bitch of a neglectful mother again and give her a good smack
trism trying to get liir to help with the grimmerie for an attack to ‘end the war’ under threat of his wife and daughter and liir point blank stating that he’s done with being in the military and he’s not going to contribute to killing anyone and it doesn’t matter if they’re related to him. and then the dragon (bomb) attack on the EC with all the frantic desperation and horror that accompanies it, and rain is STILL caught up in it. and she’s still trying to help ppl because its what tip would do but she also has such a clarity of purpose that her father and grandmother lacked. her main character drive. and calling dorothy her friend…🥺 she almost lost Tay too I was distraught. really impactful and memorable scenes
when they found grommetick AND the murder weapon used on dr. dillamond that was crazy...it was decades ago now. how the passage of times renders things so different...
anyway can you fucking believe that they had sex right there in the corner during the peace talks. and rain hasn’t even asked him about her dead father yet 😭 and then she was too busy doing that to react to the reveal of her father not being dead. GIRL
liir throwing a shoe at shell direct reference to gwb. his political stances have been so consistent and so unusual for fantasy protagonists but they're really welcome for it. liir writing a quasi-anarchist manifesto to send to the new government because he doesn’t believe in the justice of a court and throne aww <3
the end of this book WAS rough. divorce finally happened but liir isn’t even the one to initiate it. and their marriage was bad because of all they did for rain and it fucking meant nothing. sucks, man. I hate when tremendous suffering and loss is chosen and it's meaningless
and now he’s not even going after trism and he and his daughter are just rotting in the mountains. my guy. and rain! rain!! it is nice that liir is like you know you can be with ozma even tho she’s a woman now. bisexuality is possible *points to himself* and rain is like it’s more that she’s not communicating. like ough but you two love each other...surely you can work it out....
speaking of. the gelphie reunion...so short and yet so sweet. perfection
omg the chancel of the ladyfish is a morrible thing isn’t it. maybe the reason I like ooo so much is that morrible isn’t here dooming the protags and interfering in their lives and such. that’s part of why rain can get so much done. the morrible stuff got so tiresome by the end of wicked. but rain has an open window to fly through at the end, she isn’t doomed to die like elphaba
the finale to the series using wording from the very first description of elphaba 🥺 rain flies away!!
WHAT a good final scene. bittersweet but honestly a lot more hearty and hopeful than it could have been. almost triumphant, especially compared to wicked’s ending. like the government is completely altered now. rain helped complete elphaba and liir’s work…she’s untethered and free now. just alone and far away from her lover….but the discovery of it all!!
general impressions - it was so beautiful and magical and funny despite all the child abandonment. many old friends coming back. the glinda scenes were gold. it was, like all wicked books, a bit depressing and pointless, but found its beauty and its precious moments nonetheless. Like I'm really quite thrilled with how good things happened in ooo but it didn’t feel like an empty saccharine feel-good ending. the tragedy was real and present and never stopped being a tragedy but it didn’t mean everything was lost or that was the end, the characters learned to live with it and around it and past it….that’s the good stuff yknow. that’s a hearty meal
invoking ‘there’s no place like home’ to mean 'once you grow up you can never return to that time or place again no matter what’….stellar dark wizard of oz moment. I love when he references and subverts the original series. dark fairytale now. on the one hand it must suck for genuine fans of the original series to see their books recontextualized as dark and gritty and cynical and violent and gruesome, but on the other hand...they're really good a transformative work in the truest sense
I kind of want to reread wicked now. usually the whole ‘original protagonist’s children/legacy’ feels cheap and boring, but I really like rain and it’s genuinely interesting to reflect on elphaba’s legacy as an activist and a magic user. her life was tragic and painful, but she had such an impact on the people around her and she left such a mark on the political landscape….I care about this kind of legacy way more than 'they were a hero and there’s a statue of them in the town square and now you have to live up to their legacy of Being Good’
I really enjoyed the vague and very debatable hints that elphaba is alive without it ever being confirmed one way or another. I didn't WANT it confirmed - it would ruin the perfect balance maguire is setting up between ‘obviously she’s dead’ and 'hmm, but maybe not’. elphaba is too massive a presence to not overshadow any other character, and it would be a disservice to rain to have her suddenly show back up in the narrative in the flesh. her legacy, her name, her memory, her reputation, her power, it’s all enough to maintain her presence in the story and keep the audience in this fun little gray area. I usually can’t stand open endings or not having the plot threads neatly tied up, but in this case…it would feel cheap to have a final shot with her in profile like she really is back. the story needs to still matter even if she’s dead. the characters and their lives do still matter, and so do the things that they do. and the fact that she’s never confirmed to be alive calls back to the final line of wicked SO well….it really feels like these sequels are just continuations of the story for her even tho she’s not there. even the glinda scene was vague and potentially unreliable
and usually it drives me crazy when a character is reunited w their long-lost love and fans read it like ‘oh it’s a hallucination’ but in this case the lack of clarity would just make it better. the books are like. they’re all so much about the beauty of the world despite the misery and absurdity and tragedy of it as well. and thematically and tonally it just wouldn’t FIT if maguire was like 'oh and btw our beloved protagonist from book one was alive this whole time :)’ and brought her back for a triumphant fairytale conclusion
And I love stories for adults so much….yes do tell me about the political, social, and economic reasons that munchkinlanders don’t want to sue for peace with the emerald city and give up restwater lake. tell me about the riparian ecosystems of the great kells and the aquifers around the capital city and the agricultural landscape and labor force in center munch….
the little-girl memories throughout the story are enchanting and mysterious, inviting the reader to ponder the nature of memory, childhood, and isolation. especially poignant that we don't even know who's memories these are, until the very end
more specific reactions to the rest of the book: **SPOILER ALERT**
starting right off with dorothy herself, once again in kansas, isolated and miserable. pushed into marriage at the age of 16 - she was only TEN in wizard of oz??? - and unable to even talk about her experiences for fear of being called crazy. glumly thinking about how her future if she’s LUCKY is to marry some kansas farmer who’s never left his hometown…god you can really feel the weight of the patriarchy. suffocating!!! as bleak as these books are I actually really love how maguire writes women. I feel like he depicts social misogyny without reneging any of his female characters to anything less than fully fleshed out people
back to glinda, who I missed dearly, maguire does really well in encapsulating the absurd evils of the military AND the sociopolitical machinations of my favorite character (besides elphaba rip). I love her. when she made fun of cherrystone by pretending to be as stupid as he thought she was that was so funny. but I found her pov chapters so powerful and hopeful - she's haunted by regrets and the memories of her happiness with elphaba and how she never felt that way with anyone else and she has periods of listlessness and despair it's genuinely quite sad. but she's still learning to cook! she's still doing actual charity work! she's still trying to look after her staff! and she's still trying to defeat cherrystone <3 I mean you can still change and grow even as a 50 yr old former socialite with poor magic skills. She is still The Worst tho. Like your staff is in tears! Stop thinking about how good you look in your outfit!
glinda's staff...mirth...puggles...I did shed a tear
'she was losing it, big-time' <- great prose
'Loving through expressions and gestures and the palm set softly on the bruise at the necessary moment…' <- wonderful prose beautiful prose
meanwhile Illinora. HARROWING stuff. the way she talks about her trauma….her description of herself as someone who’s completely distinct from her child self is so gutting. she said that carefree little girl is dead and I am someone entirely different. and I am am peace with who I am but after everything that’s happened to me I am simply not that girl anymore. changed her name and swore to never bring a child into the world to suffer like she did. gave her insights on a distant and grieving child and promised to love her anyway. god
why is this the most wholesome book in the wicked years series…brr loves this little girl and nor is teaching her how to read and they’re all traveling together with sister apothecary? and rain is having a childhood where she runs around outside and spells things with rocks and twigs and brr is so proud of her? rain’s pov is making me weepy. I think maguire’s captured an unloved 7 yr old very well. she doesn’t even care that glinda is gone bc glinda was barely a caretaker. she expects mirth to be there bc mirth has usually been there. and she wants to read! she wants to learn to read! she tried to write ‘sorry’ to the dragons in the dirt…I’m going to cry
I maintain that liir and candle shouldn’t be married but at least they love their daughter. when he was trying to get her to stop being so weird and intense about having rain back but he just ended up telling her what to do and she went to sleep to escape his terrible platitudes. they are so bad together. divorce city <3 but I really loved the awe and wonder liir was experiencing watching rain enjoy the statues. this happened when he was with trism too 🥺 transcendent experience of being with someone you love except this time it’s your daughter
I often enjoy how dark the wicked years are honestly. “ugh of course there’s no goddess of goodness, we live in such a cruel and dark world. there IS a goddess of curses tho and we all believe in her because horrible things have happened to all of us’ yeah literally. I like hopeful fiction so sometimes it does get a but much but the wry acknowledgement of how painful and shitty the world is is also comforting in its own way. it does reflect a lot of what I feel about the real world but irl and in-universe this darkness isn't the end all of the universe. there's always resistance and life and hope and love and escape. the title after all IS out of oz
and haphazardly the plot lurches along, to a strange trial that pushes on the edges of your suspension of disbelief. I was like I’m armchair diagnosing dorothy with adhd she’s at a murder trial and she’s acting CRAZY. she's kind of being made fun of in ooo. The American in Oz. in wicked she was very grounded and serious and powerful and charismatic. however maguire is clearly aware of this because brr called dorothy a parody of herself which is is so funny. anyway the one person with faith in others in a cynical and brutal world. it could be laughable and it is a little but it's also very wholesome and even inspiring her folksy charm
meanwhile - rain at school! she’s been at this school for like 6 months and she hasn’t made any friends except for the maid who we do love but rain immediately made her the second place friend after meeting tip 😭 well at least she can read now
I liked tip. I liked their friendship. I thought the age gap was a bit weird. like their reunion later is SO emotionally tense and well written and romantic except I don't understand how rain is 16 now
can’t believe tip trespassed on school property and was caught and was also secretly living there for like a month and that’s how he got hired there. old timey job prospects were so different
every single wicked years book has involved the mc sneaking away in the middle of the night from their castle or their military base or their school. generations of runaways and anarchists
liir was so snarky when they took him captive and it made me laugh so hard and I usually find that trope predictable and tiresome but maguire is just that good he made it fun and engaging instead. alas tho liir your weak-willed nature will doom you to elephantism...just like in spirited away...
oh trism... how is he part of an unjust military venture AGAIN. LIKE GET OUT OF THE ARMY!!! you were supposed to STOP being a BOOTBOY. still the gay yearning is there and it is poignant. but liir as an elephant is sooo funny honestly he’s like ugh well if I die I can at least see my bitch of a neglectful mother again and give her a good smack
trism trying to get liir to help with the grimmerie for an attack to ‘end the war’ under threat of his wife and daughter and liir point blank stating that he’s done with being in the military and he’s not going to contribute to killing anyone and it doesn’t matter if they’re related to him. and then the dragon (bomb) attack on the EC with all the frantic desperation and horror that accompanies it, and rain is STILL caught up in it. and she’s still trying to help ppl because its what tip would do but she also has such a clarity of purpose that her father and grandmother lacked. her main character drive. and calling dorothy her friend…🥺 she almost lost Tay too I was distraught. really impactful and memorable scenes
when they found grommetick AND the murder weapon used on dr. dillamond that was crazy...it was decades ago now. how the passage of times renders things so different...
anyway can you fucking believe that they had sex right there in the corner during the peace talks. and rain hasn’t even asked him about her dead father yet 😭 and then she was too busy doing that to react to the reveal of her father not being dead. GIRL
liir throwing a shoe at shell direct reference to gwb. his political stances have been so consistent and so unusual for fantasy protagonists but they're really welcome for it. liir writing a quasi-anarchist manifesto to send to the new government because he doesn’t believe in the justice of a court and throne aww <3
the end of this book WAS rough. divorce finally happened but liir isn’t even the one to initiate it. and their marriage was bad because of all they did for rain and it fucking meant nothing. sucks, man. I hate when tremendous suffering and loss is chosen and it's meaningless
and now he’s not even going after trism and he and his daughter are just rotting in the mountains. my guy. and rain! rain!! it is nice that liir is like you know you can be with ozma even tho she’s a woman now. bisexuality is possible *points to himself* and rain is like it’s more that she’s not communicating. like ough but you two love each other...surely you can work it out....
speaking of. the gelphie reunion...so short and yet so sweet. perfection
omg the chancel of the ladyfish is a morrible thing isn’t it. maybe the reason I like ooo so much is that morrible isn’t here dooming the protags and interfering in their lives and such. that’s part of why rain can get so much done. the morrible stuff got so tiresome by the end of wicked. but rain has an open window to fly through at the end, she isn’t doomed to die like elphaba
the finale to the series using wording from the very first description of elphaba 🥺 rain flies away!!
WHAT a good final scene. bittersweet but honestly a lot more hearty and hopeful than it could have been. almost triumphant, especially compared to wicked’s ending. like the government is completely altered now. rain helped complete elphaba and liir’s work…she’s untethered and free now. just alone and far away from her lover….but the discovery of it all!!
Content Warnings
Moderate: War
A real disappointment to me. I loved the first book and really liked the second (the third was all right) but felt Maguire needed a good editor here. There were many repetitive moments, and it felt very padded, with long stretches that didn't seem to go anywhere. I found the jokey references to the musical and movie tiresome and also wearied of the grimness of the whole affair. I think that compared to the others--especially Wicked--this book suffered from not following a single protagonist.
Like the other books in the Wicked series, this one covers a lot of storyline. At times it is tough to keep track of all the characters and the list of important families of Oz at the beginning of the book was a big help (although a bit difficult to use since I was reading this as an ebook). The toughest part of this book for me was the issue of Rain having been separated from her parents and never really having her childhood.