A review by jls6283
Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire

adventurous challenging dark slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

This is a difficult one because I watched the live Broadway musical in my youth and then read the book.  It’s hard to not compare this to the musical when it was so popular and influential at that time in my life…

So first off I’ll say, I’m not in any way opposed to “spicy” scenes in books, but the sexual content in here is just odd and cringeworthy. I get its importance to the story and it’s not supposed to be an enjoyable aspect of the book, but it definitely impacted my low rating. 

There are also some parts of this book that just drag on and on… Sure, it is much more realistic that the relationships between these characters were built over many years of their lives and not a single school year at university, but man does it get dull at times! 

I was genuinely surprised (spoiler warning for both musical AND book)
that Fiyero truly dies in the book and wasn’t the scarecrow. I had myself convinced he would come back especially since Liir wished for a father.

I guess coming from the musical (which is very stereotypically a musical in the emotional journey you go through) I hoped to love Elphaba and you just don’t. I mean I get the point and she’s truly not “wicked,” but…it’s just too hard to be objective when I just want to sing “For Good.” 😂 Major kudos to Stephen Schwartz for reading this and then writing that. Not that we didn’t already all know he was a genius! 🎶

(Needless to say I don’t think I’ll continue the series)
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