Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.4 AVERAGE
3.4 AVERAGE
Let me just say something: this is the only Maguire I've ever finished, and I've tried all of them. The only reason I finished this one is because of my love of the musical, and sheer force of stubborn will.
I loathe Gregory Maguire. As an author. And maybe as a person, if you are equating a person's writings with their soul, which I do. He takes all the fun out of fairy tales, instead turning them into boring creepy horrible snobbishness. True story: the only author that can make creepy things boring.
If you know me at all, you know I tend to find the best in every book I read and that I tend to LOVE things easily. This book had such potential, and I was SO excited about it, and just BLERG. Boo, booo, boooooo.
I loathe Gregory Maguire. As an author. And maybe as a person, if you are equating a person's writings with their soul, which I do. He takes all the fun out of fairy tales, instead turning them into boring creepy horrible snobbishness. True story: the only author that can make creepy things boring.
If you know me at all, you know I tend to find the best in every book I read and that I tend to LOVE things easily. This book had such potential, and I was SO excited about it, and just BLERG. Boo, booo, boooooo.
adventurous
dark
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
My partner has told me so many times that they like the book way more than the musical (and the movie) and now I understand why. Delightfully gay, perhaps even more gay than I had expected.
dark
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
adventurous
dark
mysterious
medium-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:
Yes
Since the movie came out, I've seen a lot of people start reading this and then give up on it. I've heard that it's too dark, political, difficult to get into, and very different from the musical.
As soon as I started reading it, I was hooked. I absolutely adored the first half of the book and flew through it. I thought it was engaging and fun. It did really slow down in the second half. It got bogged down with political rambling (which I mostly enjoyed but it could have been weaved in a bit more gracefully) and the pacing and plot were definitely suffering. Still, I loved the themes and the characters.
It was extremely sexual in very strange ways which took me out of the story often. The most blatant example of this is when they were approaching a landscape with hills, the hills were described as a naked woman laying down with her legs spread open. That was really something. The first half of the book is 5 stars for me and the second half is maybe three.
As soon as I started reading it, I was hooked. I absolutely adored the first half of the book and flew through it. I thought it was engaging and fun. It did really slow down in the second half. It got bogged down with political rambling (which I mostly enjoyed but it could have been weaved in a bit more gracefully) and the pacing and plot were definitely suffering. Still, I loved the themes and the characters.
It was extremely sexual in very strange ways which took me out of the story often. The most blatant example of this is when they were approaching a landscape with hills, the hills were described as a naked woman laying down with her legs spread open. That was really something. The first half of the book is 5 stars for me and the second half is maybe three.
i could have enjoyed this in a vacuum i think, but along with the rest of everyone who read this post- musical (and especially post part one of the film), wicked benefitted hugely by being adapted by people who are better writers. could be a fun-ish queer coming of age in a weird fantasy world, if dorothy gale didn’t appear 87% of the way through (not including the prologue, where the scarecrow calls elphaba gay). the most interesting parts of the story are confined to glimpses from other point of views, elphaba spends most of her pov feeling intense religious guilt and shame, and also only does magic like a single time when doing unethical frankensteinian experiments on her flying monkeys.
however, i will say. the glinda x elphaba content was really awesome and it’s heavily implied that glinda is a lesbian who got brainwashed into liking men and marrying her rich old husband (NOT jonathan bailey) by madame morrible. they also kiss when they split up in emerald city. so i’m holding space for that but i would never ever recommend someone else read this unless they were experiencing the same sort of brain rot that i am currently.
also the “ozdust ballroom” scene in the novel took place in “the philosophy club”, where boq is traumatized by watching a threesome including an anthropomorphic tiger. which cracked me up.
however, i will say. the glinda x elphaba content was really awesome and it’s heavily implied that glinda is a lesbian who got brainwashed into liking men and marrying her rich old husband (NOT jonathan bailey) by madame morrible. they also kiss when they split up in emerald city. so i’m holding space for that but i would never ever recommend someone else read this unless they were experiencing the same sort of brain rot that i am currently.
also the “ozdust ballroom” scene in the novel took place in “the philosophy club”, where boq is traumatized by watching a threesome including an anthropomorphic tiger. which cracked me up.
This is bad, the story is disjointed and has no real flow and the writer very obviously has a real problem with women
dark
emotional
mysterious
medium-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
So instead of reviewing this book traditionally as I do with others, I want to make this review a collective log of all things I would change if I could rewrite the book. And honestly, with the way the book was written and the liberties taken with the canon material, Wicked doesn't even feel like an Oz book. In fact, I would go so far to say that this book is a shameless grab of all Oz movie and book fans to entice people to read Maguire's book. And that is really what ruffles my feathers. If Maguire wanted to write a book about a magical land whose two primary plot points are between the ambiguously moral protagonist and the fine print of sapience, then he should have done so, on his own merit.
Whew.
The Log
♦There was a lull between the magic we experienced between the intro to the Clock and Glinda's entry into the magical studies. Maybe I'm the minority, but that part in between made me completely forget that these girls were going to be witches. More consistent mention of magic and inclusion in everyday life.
♦For the importance Madame Morrible had, it didn't feel like she was prominent in the section. Why is she so darn important that she destines the three girls to become section witches? I just... Maguire is not good with following through plot points and making them prominent. This seems like such a handwave. Make Morrible a more fleshed out character and make her interesting.
♦Why should I care about the philosophy club? It served no purpose other than ~being edgy for the sake of being edgy~. I'm sick of shock porn in books.
Whew.
The Log
♦There was a lull between the magic we experienced between the intro to the Clock and Glinda's entry into the magical studies. Maybe I'm the minority, but that part in between made me completely forget that these girls were going to be witches. More consistent mention of magic and inclusion in everyday life.
♦For the importance Madame Morrible had, it didn't feel like she was prominent in the section. Why is she so darn important that she destines the three girls to become section witches? I just... Maguire is not good with following through plot points and making them prominent. This seems like such a handwave. Make Morrible a more fleshed out character and make her interesting.
♦Why should I care about the philosophy club? It served no purpose other than ~being edgy for the sake of being edgy~. I'm sick of shock porn in books.