Rating: 
Summary: Shocking to an OZ fan 3.5 stars
Review: This book shocked me quite hard. As a long time OZ fan it was very odd to read this novel about the truly evil Wicked Witch from the first book. Honestly I almost put this book away a half dozen times.
Why didn't I? because it was also incredibly engrossing I found myself almost facinated to see what he would twist of my beloved childrens books next, and he sure didn't disapoint me.
Glinda is a self centered pretty girl, the Wizard is a despotic dictator destroying OZ, Dorothy is a pawn used to destroy the true hero of this book.
Very odd, very well written, and very disturbing. I have a great deal of respect for Mr. Maguire but I'm not sure if I will ever read the book again. The original OZ books are a delight. But this novel really twists the tale into something quite dark and depressing by the end. Something I'm not sure Mr. Baum's book deserved to have done to it. I do however have tickets to see the musical this May in San Fransico out of perverse curiosity and my profond respect for Stephen Schwartz the composer who made Godspell in the 1970's. If anyone can make me truly care for characters that were once [bad] and hate those who were once good, he can and maybe it will let me read the book again.
Rating: 
Summary: Elphabulous!
Review: I purchased the book at the recommendation of a co-worker, and finished within a day and a half. I could not tear myself away from Oz - and I became so sad when I realized I was approaching the end of the novel.
Maguire has crafted a richly developed world, and I found myself lingering and rereading sentences, conversations, and entire paragraphs, simply enjoying them and stopping to think. In fact, I did a lot of stopping and thinking throughout this book - about the implications and ramifications of Ephalba's story. I found myself wishing that Margaret Hamilton was still alive, because it would be great to hear her thoughts on the book.
Can you see The Wicked Witch of the West as a modern-day PETA activist? How about visualizing The Emerald City as a Nazi-occupied city during the pogroms?
This book left me reeling, and wanting more. I cannot recommend it highly enough.
Rating:
Summary: For those who like to hear BOTH sides of the stories..
Review: I've loved "The Wizard of Oz" for as long as I can remember...So when I read about "Wicked" in a magazine, and it's summary, I was intrigued. The classic tale from the witch's point of view? YES!! So, I immediately ran out and bought "Wicked." It remains in my top 5 picks for favorite book. "Wicked" tells the story of Elphalba, or Elfie, the little girl who will grow up to be the Wicked Witch of the West. We are taken from her birth, through her time at school, through her time as a political activist, up until her death. We meet some characters you may remember: The Wizard, Dorothy, The Wicked Witch of the East, The Witch of the North. And who would have thought the Wicked Witch would have been in love?? I finished this book in what seems to be no time at all. Maguire truly makes you feel like you are in every town that is described. I do have to admit that there are still some things that I don't understand, even after reading the book five times.
I've also read "Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister," and while I enjoyed both books, I find "Wicked" to be the better of the two. After reading one of the two reviews already posted, I feel it important to mention: PLEASE do not get this book if you're expecting an exact retelling of "The Wizard of OZ." Dorothy is just a bit player in this story, and we as the readers are better off for it! Enjoy!!
Rating:
Summary: Dark and Wonderful
Review: If you are expecting the movie The Wizard of Oz from a different perspective you will be very disappointed.
If, however, you are open minded and willing to strectch your imagination you will love this book. This is a rare piece of fiction that actually makes you think. What is evil? What is right and wrong? How far would you go to protect what you believe in? How do we, as society, treat those who are different than we are and why? and what does that ultimately say about us?
I loved this book, I started it and could not put it down. I am eagerly waiting to have the time to read Maguire's other takes on classic tales.
Rating: 
Summary: Not what I expected!
Review: I've been a fan of the Wizard of Oz movie and book since I've been a little kid. In the book and even the movie, it shows Oz as a place of wonder and amusement. In this book Wicked, by Maguire, Oz is not at all like that. Instead Oz seems like a world no better than ours. The munchkins are people who swear and find amusment in that nasty time clock that puts on pornographic puppet shows. The Witch, Alphaba does'nt even have magic at all through the book, just a broom that flys. According to Maguire The Wicked Witch of the West (Alphaba)is a scientist who sewes wings on monkeys, and the Witch of the East is a cripple with no arms who is really nice,which completely goes against what the movie and the book of the Wizard of Oz tells us about her.
This book at times is based on the movie of the Wizard of Oz then is jumps to The Book of the Wizard of Oz and it keeps jumping back in forth. Then towards the end the Witch lives in her castle of the west with her child hood nanny and a little boy. I can honnestly say this book is not worth buying, its really twisted and would have been a lot better if C.S Lewis (author of The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe) had written it.
Rating: 
Summary: Such a different point of view!
Review: A friend of mine gave me this book when she saw that i was collecting fairy tales and such. I am so glad she did! This was a great spin on a classic story. Seeing the world through Elphaba, the little green girl's eyes made me feel much differently about one of my favorite tales! In following Elphaba's struggles to grow up and live a semi-normal life, it isn't hard to imagine why she became the Wicked Witch of the West. I highly recommend this to anyone looking for different twists on classic tales. Maguire writes this tale beautifully and it definitely designed to make you think twice about the Wicked Witch!
Rating:
Summary: Amusing
Review: I wouldn't call this novel anything life changing, I saw no need to change any opinion or habit, I didn't feel vindicated, or wronged. I laughed. This novel made it seem like OZ was someone's very strange hallucination and the girl that they picked on was just a rather human victim. Yeah, she does bad things, and yeah, she is strange- but what happenes to the "different Kids" in the grand old high schools of the U S of A? Sometimes they get bitter and hard, and sometimes they do naughty things.
Rating: 
Summary: Wickedly overrated
Review: I will start by saying that I have been a huge Oz fan since childhood. I have noticed that many of my fellow Oz fans objected to the liberties MaGuire took with the original stories. Personally, I don't object to that. What I object to is that he took his liberties and gave us a mediocre product. "Wicked" starts promisingly enough. The first chapter in which Ephalba, the mysterious witch-to-be, is born in Munchkinland captivated me. We then jump to when Elphaba goes to college, and the "plot" takes a jump into the garbage. Ephalba proves to be difficult to like, a self-absorbed boor who revels in her role as "outcast" and assumes a superior attitude over it. Along the way we are intoduced to Glinda, an irritating snob, Boq, a pathetic fool in love with Glinda who inexplicably becomes friends with Elphaba, and a host of other unlikable characters. The college chapter also includes simplistic diatribes against animal experimentation, trivializing a serious, complicated, real world issue. After that, things seem to happen for no other reason than the fact that they need to happen for the sake of the story. Elphaba moves in with the princess of Winkie-land. Why does she let her stay? So Elphaba can be the witch of the West of course. How nice of the princess to act irrationally for the sake of MacGuire's story. Elphaba begins sewing wings onto snow monkeys. Why does a rabid animal rights activist maim helpless monkeys? Because it moves the plot along. Glinda later becomes the witch of the North. Now, previously MacGuire had painstakingly been working every bit character from "The Wizard of Oz" into his story. Now he makes Glinda the witch of the North, like in the movie, ignoring the fact that in the book she was the witch of the South. Why does he do this? Because it moves the plot along. The overall message seems to be MaGuire whining, "She's not bad, just misunderstood." As in most cases where people try to defend criminal behavior this way, this line of "reasoning" falls flat. What is truly unforgivable, however, is that I found I really didn't care if she was evil, misunderstood, or anything else. I was just waitng for the bucket of water to fly so the story could end and I could return to my life. Overall, "Wicked" offers a promising premise, but fails to carry it out.
Rating:
Summary: An astonishing and sophisticated fantasia on L. Frank Baum
Review: Most of the disappointed reviews of Maguire's masterwork come from people expecting this book to be something it is not--to be somehow more like the 1939 movie THE WIZARD OF OZ, or like the 14 L. Frank Baum Oz books. Maguire's novel is like neither in tone, though it was certainly inspired by both, and uses as its coordinates the Oz mythology. Maguire's Oz is very thoroughly research-based on the Oz books and yet it is much darker and more sophisticated than Baum's Oz: Maguire manages to invent complex religious, political, and sexual-social systems for his version of Baum's wonderland. The novel ingeniously uses details and unanswered questions from the previous Oz books (why are the silver shoes so desirable? how did the two witch-sisters come to be rulers in the East and the West? what was the Good Witch of the North doing in Munchkinland, in the East, when Dorothy arrived?) and along the way presents a variety of deeply involving characters: Galinda, a Gillikin beauty will grow up to be the Good Witch of the North (Maguire tantalizingly never explains how Glinda will end up in the South at the end of Dorothy's jorney in a different guise); Nessarose, the armless and fanatically religious Eminence of the East; and, at the book's center, the marvelously complex and empathetic Elphaba, who will become the both the Witch of the West and Wicked by the novel's end. You're best off reading this book if you read the Baum books when you were younger, but you're also best off understanding they're not going to be quite the same. Maguire's is a rich, deep philosophical novel about the nature of evil and of governing systems, as well as a very funny and absorbing adventure story. It deserves to be the cult classic it has become.
Rating:
Summary: Very disappointing.
Review: Being the type of person who enjoys watching the Wicked Witch of the West melt in slow motion, I thought this book would be an interesting read. It was, until I got past the first chapter on the future witch's childhood. From then on, this book became a chore to finish. It doesn't even know what type of book it wants to be: tongue and cheek, serious, political or sexual. All of these elements are thrown in for good measure. Strange dialogue and silly plot twists persist throughout the book. The horrible throw-away ending only added to my regret at not putting the book down when our heroine was sharing a room with Glinda (the soon to be Good Witch of the North,) in college. (Really.) Don't be fooled by the premise of the book, which appears to have great promise. That promise is not fulfilled. To each his own, but I'm at a loss to understand how anyone could have given this book five stars.
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