Rating: 
Summary: falls way short of its potential
Review: This book is a great idea, but instead it gets bogged down in preaching about good and evil and loses track of the story.
Rating: 
Summary: Wicked
Review: I have just one word for "Wicked" --- BORING!!!
Rating: 
Summary: Great idea, not so great writing
Review: I love the movie the Wizard of Oz, and I really like the idea of the book. However, the book lacks focus, and I was a little disappointed.The plot seems to focus on unnecessary details, while glossing over the important ones. For example, the book covers with great detail the the infancy of Elphaba, and then quickly summarizes how Elphaba's sister (Nessarose--aka the Wicked Witch of the East) is born, and they also have a brother Shell and move into the wilderness. The book touches on how Elphaba had to care for Nessarose, because her sister was born without arms, and how Elphaba always felt jealous because she sensed that everyone liked Nessarose more. But the time line of the story jumps from when Elphaba is three to when she's entering college. I thought this part of Elphaba's life was an interesting part of the story that was ignored, and the author kept repeating this mistake in each section of the book. It was like each section kept starting out really dull and very thorough, and painstakingly describe everything, and then it would lead up to a climax and go....no where. Then at the beginning of the next section it would quickly summarize how the last section came to be resolved. It's hard to explain, but I felt like the important details were ignored, and other insignificant points of the story were left out. This may have been part of Maguire's writing tecnique, but it didn't work for me. But, I must stress, that I did enjoy this book, and I loved the idea of telling the story from the Witch's point of view. However, I had a hard time keeping myself involved with the book.
Rating:
Summary: More political propaganda than character development
Review: This book could have been so good, but it isn't. If it really would have told the "true" story of the Wicked Witch of the West, it would have been a wonderful story, but it focuses way more on the political atmosphere of Oz, in a preachy way, than on the life of Elphaba (the Wicked Witch of the West).
Rating: 
Summary: An experiment in how life unfolds
Review: Last night I finished reading Wicked, which was quite wonderful, and much more than I expected. After a friend gave it to me years ago, I never managed to pick it up because I thought it would be 400 pages of fluffy fairy tale. Actually, it's gloriously moody, brilliantly political, completely engrossing, and surprisingly sexy. Elphaba is one of literature's great outcasts, and Maguire fills his pages with too many valuable thoughts on the course of a life to read it just once. I've no doubt it's meaning will change for me if i read it again in five years, as any "classic" work should. I couldn't recommend it more. While almost every quote about the book will hail it as an intelligent discussion of the nature of evil, I think that was almost a side of effect of telling Maguire's story. Any dependable post-modern yarn would be sure that we saw all angles of interpretation, and, really, I think his point is more about the tragedy of each and every human life. In our youthful confusion, do we inadvertently destroy ourselves later in life? Is seeking forgiveness for our wickedness destined to ruin us? It's distressing to me that some people on Amazon deride the novel for the very reasons I hold it in such high esteem - its moral complexity and political nature. If you're looking for fluff, I think the Wicked, the musical, would be more appropriate. Maguire's Oz is a hard place to live in, a world of magic and fantasy where those things did little to eleviate the troubling political, social, and even meteorological conditions; the shoes could help Nessarose stand on her own two feet, but not save her from a cruelly displaced house. We are forced into admitting that sometimes "evil" is the only acceptable course of action, after having it precipitated upon us. On stage, Oz appears to be more supportive of outcasts, the politics more annoying than outrageous, and wickedness manageable for children 8 and up.
Rating:
Summary: Wicked
Review: I think this book is a must read for everyone. The only thing I did not like about it is how Dorothy does not enter the story until the end and only has a very small amout of interaction with the witch until she dies. I think this could have been developed more thouroughly, however I do reccomend the book to everyone.
Rating:
Summary: Great fun!
Review: I wish I could get the person who said they were going to throw their book away to mail it to me! I am a high school librarian. Several of my teacher friends and I have had the best time reading this jewel and comparing our notes. We laugh, and believe it or not, compare what is done or said in the book to current culture. We are planning a road trip to NY right after school is out to see the musical. I think possibly those who can't appreciate it are not creative thinkers?
Rating:
Summary: Wickedly Good
Review: I thought this book was fabulous. I think this is a great book for anyone to read. I know most people think that by the short amount of info on the back of this book, it probably just the wicked witch's version of 'Wizard of Oz.' It really is much more. It makes you think about the story, because it someone else's view of it. It starts with the birth of the Wicked Witch, who was named Elphaba. She had scary teeth and was born green, but you find why in the end of the book. Elphaba is allergic to water. Then her mother doesn't know what to do, so she gets her old Nanny to help her. When Elphaba's mother finds out is she pregnant again she scared it will turn out like Elphaba. It doesn't, but the baby had no arms and is crippled. Her sister becomes the Wicked Witch of the East. Then Elphaba goes to Shiz, which is a school. The headmistress, Madame Morrible makes her Galinda roomate. Galinda becomes Glida. Elphaba has some fun there, then her sister comes. Elphaba leaves the school and goes on to do different things. Not that much happens until Dorothy comes to Oz. Then the Witch trys to get the shoes back from Dorothy. But she doesn't get them and she dies.
Rating:
Summary: Stuck In Between...
Review: I, along with a lot of the other reviewers, am a huge Oz fan and was very excited by the idea of this book. It started with the uber-cool picture of the witch on the cover, with her animals and continued when I read the back flap. I started reading it in the summer of 2002 and got maybe twenty pages into it and just put it away, I really was bogged down with the lengthy descriptions and nearly impossible names to pronounce. Fast forward two years, to January of '04. I had heard about the musical on Broadway and was anxious to pick up the soundtrack. From the minute I put it in, I was hooked. The music was just great and it told an interesting tale. So there I was again, staring down my copy of the novel in my bookshelf. So I picked it up and began reading it. It was a difficult one to get through but with each revelation I came upon I was so excited. The author did an astoundingly good job with the historical accuracy to the L. Frank Baum books and the film version. Something to notice is the conflicting colors of Dorothys shoes in the film version and the books. They are ruby red in the film and silver in the books and what Maguire did made me page through to check myself, but it was cool. He never mentioned the color of the shoes, just went into their powers and I thought that was unique. All in all, a great book and I think it was a fun view of a great story.
Rating:
Summary: Spellbinding
Review: I am astounded at the number of reviewers here that have breezily put down this exquisite and fascinating tale. Maguire has made the Wicked Witch into a multidimensional character quite unlike what we remember from the film. Potential readers, don't listen to the naysayers here. If you're the kind of person that has an appreciation for good *writing* and have an attention span that allows you to be interested in something for longer than the duration of a sitcom, chances are you will be enthralled with this novel.
| 
