Rating: 
Summary: Really enjoyed it!
Review: A very involving story. I'm not usually the type to re-read a book, but I did go back through this one again. Maguire has created a colorful, deep and believable land of Oz and all its inhabitants. Makes you want to read all the original "Oz" stories by L. Frank Baum to see where Maguire got the history and backdrop for his book!
Rating: 
Summary: good read
Review: I am not a fan of the fantasy genre, but found this book quite fun. There are some interesting twists and turns in the fictional life of the Wicked Witch, who is "only misunderstood, not really wicked." Personally, I rather enjoyed the biology professor who was a goat. For people having trouble understanding this book, I think it may help to remember that this is allegory. Even though I already knew what would happen to the witch, the buildup to the big meeting with Dorothy at the end kept me reading. This book is worth looking at alone for the beautiful illustrations.
Rating:
Summary: One of my favorite books
Review: I absolutely love this book. It is creative to the max with loads of plot twists and turns. It sucked me in and draged me through nealy to the end.Maguire took on a great challenge. In my view, it was a bit of a steach for Maguire to graft Baum's Oz story into his own. But what can you expect with an epic plot like this one. Maguire's story is truely inspiring. If "The Wizard of OZ" is a story about America. "Wicked" is the story about those that America has stepped on in its quest. I can't wait to read it again.
Rating:
Summary: Incredibly Beautiful and beautifully credible
Review: Maguire's book is more than a stunt, it is a poignant and finally tragic story of one character's courageous adaptation to a world for which she was not made. One simply cannot read this marvelous piece of fiction without being overwhelmed by the author's apparently bottomless reservoirs of invention and compassion for his creations. He has taken the Oz story in deadly seriousness and with transforemd it into a tale of enormous moral and philosophical seriousness. Furthermore, it's an extremely funny book that will make you laugh at loud in pleasure and amazement at least once every chapter.
Rating: 
Summary: HELP!
Review: I saw this book at the store and went home and read the reviews in Amazon. I was so excited to get this book - I couldn't wait. Now I have it and I don't know what to do with it. I am on page 143. I am an educated person and read tons of books but this one seems "over-my-head". Is it just me????? Maybe I'm not focusing. The reviews make me want to stick with it - should I??????
Rating:
Summary: Undoubtably one of the greatest works I've ever come across
Review: Upon stepping into Oz, one is finally given the opportunity to know the whole story. With characters that are personally identfiable and poiniant statements reflecting our own society, Maguire has created, or should I say elaborated on, a marvaluos tale that leaves the reader breathless. I first read this book in '96 when it first came out, and scince then I've read it numerous times and recommended it to every person I encounter with the inteligence to appreciate it in it's entirety. I found Elphaba(The so called "Wicked Witch" of the West) more like myself than any other character I had ever encountered before or scince, and in gaining in my understanding of her, I gained in my understanding of myself. I erge all those who are intellectual and sensitive to read this book. It's everything a story should be: intriguing, exciting, mysterious, humorous and heart felt. In short: I loved this book, and odds are you will too.
Rating:
Summary: I knew it couldn't be the way they reported it!
Review: Wondrous tale of the Witch behind the reputation. I will add the Wizard of Oz to my Video collection just to imagine that I am watching Elphaba on screen. Deliciously told with a twist that is so satisfying! Will read this one again and again. Encore!!Encore!!
Rating:
Summary: One of the most creative book ideas ever.
Review: When I first heard the idea of a story told from the viewpoint of the Witch, I thought that it was one of the most creative ideas ever. I wasn't disappointed with the execution. The background created by the author and the relationship of the the characters was first rate. You don't expect probing of social injustice in a book with this theme. The witch becomes a sympathetic individual. I would have enjoyed the book more if the tale was expanded from the point that the house crashed onto the Witch of the East.
Rating: 
Summary: the story is too big for the confines of the book
Review: It seems the one common criticism of the book is the way it ends. Other readers sigh collectively that the ending is somewhat of a cop-out. Well, it seems the author's intention was to tell us all the story of the Wicked Witch of the West that precedes her ultimate undoing at the hand of Dorothy. It wasn't his intention to rewrite the story of Elphaba, just to fill in how she became who she was when the house fell on her sister, and when she first encountered Dorothy. Does he succeed in this pursuit? Yes and no. The author succeeds greatly in painting us a picture of Oz and creating a context where Big Brother (aka the Wizard) is watching and will not hesitate to silence those who question his rule. He also succeeds in describing the multitudes of cultures and their religious/political convictions, not to mention their history and mythologies. The story of Elphaba's birth and rearing is interesting, but when the author places her in the context of college as a fully fledged personality and character, the story becomes both contrived in some ways and fails miserably in others. As soon as Elphaba is placed in the vortex of college and therefore the political climate of Oz, she is portrayed as paranoid, intellectual and activist. She may not know who she is, or what the nature of evil is (and it is contrived how she is portrayed pondering the nature of evil as she is reading political/religious doctrine as bedtime reading), but she has more moral fiber than her counterparts and it is inferred that this is where the rub is, this is what makes her different along with her green skin. Reading this section of the book, I wished that the author had simply written a book about the politics and history of Oz rather than cram it into Elphaba's story; this was simply too much material that could have been its own book, or could have been edited judiciously. Something I did appreciate about this section of the story, is learning about an origin of Glinda and the Wicked Witch of the East. Overall, I felt that the most important thing established was Elphaba as an intellectual, and upon finishing this assumed that she would go further in this direction. Sadly she does not. I couldn't help but wonder where evil came in, whether she would either accept and elaborate on this part of her, or would abolish it with her morality. She is no more evil than she is human, and though she may not know who and what she is, it is this limitation that ends up being her salvation. Her inadvertent "reunions" with various college acquaintances serve to show how different and deviant she is, but it beats the dead horse on that subject because we already knew from the beginning that she's different. I really want to like this book, but I know that it could have been so much better stylistically. When the author finally reaches the point in time that Elphaba encounters Dorothy, it feels like he's losing steam because you can see the seams where he is trying to fit his story into the original story, especially when it comes to the magic shoes and why Elphaba wants them, because it's been logically established ad nauseum throughout the book that she is above such things and has no need for recognition or entitlement, and wanting justice and freedom for all is very different from wanting magic shoes. The Cowardly Lion's origin was obviously an afterthought and happy coincidence, and the fact that the Scarecrow had no real origin in the author's version left something to be desired as well. I read this story in 2 days because I kept waiting for it to get better and I kept expecting Elphaba to find what she was looking for. I suppose if depravity and hysteria is what the author intended for Elphaba, he has succeeded. He has probably also succeeded in inspiring readers to try to do a better job and write a better book.
Rating:
Summary: Ambitious allegorical fiction
Review: Wicked is an excellent allegorical satire of the human condition. Maguire covers everything from oppression of a society by a political dictatorship to oppression of people by racism and the confines of class structure. Clever use of characters that most people in the United States are familiar with. Very satisfying reading through to its rather ironic ending. I believe this is Maguire's first published novel and I look forward to his next work.
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