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A review by cassjsmith
Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire
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!