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A review by dndeevee
Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire
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.