Rating: ![5 stars](http://www.reviewfocus.com/images/stars-5-0.gif) Summary: Well written story!!!!!! Review: I FELL IN LOVE WITH THE COVER AND THEN JUST HAD TO READ IT. THIS STORY IS SO WELL WRITTEN AND VERY INTERESTING. THERE WAS SO MUCH CREATIVITY IN THE TALE. THIS IS A WONDERFUL BOOK ESPECIALLY FOR THOSE WHO LIKE 'THE WIZARD OF OZ"
Rating: ![5 stars](http://www.reviewfocus.com/images/stars-5-0.gif) Summary: The REAL story... Review: Maguire takes a simple children's story and provides the REAL story behind the fanasty. Yes, it is still a STORY but now it is now much more interesting to hear the social, political and economic possibilities that could have created such a story. I loved this and "Stepsister". I can't wait for more!
Rating: ![5 stars](http://www.reviewfocus.com/images/stars-5-0.gif) Summary: Wicked : The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West Review: This has become one of my favorite books of all time. Learn about the childhood of the wicked witch of the west in a compelling and fascinating tale. If you like the Wizard of Oz at all, you MUST read this book.
Rating: ![5 stars](http://www.reviewfocus.com/images/stars-5-0.gif) Summary: Fun, intelligent read! Review: Brilliantly written,imaginatively gripping and insightful, 'Wicked' grabbed me and kept me ever intrigued, entertained and amazed at Maguire's amazing work! So true to our world today -- yet fun! Storybook style allowed me to enjoy the message within the fun of the fantasy world! I will never see 'The Wizard of Oz' in the same way again! Enjoy!
Rating: ![3 stars](http://www.reviewfocus.com/images/stars-3-0.gif) Summary: Novel but disappointing Review: I started off this book enjoying it for it's novelty. Then I started to enjoy it for it's descriptions and it's complex world you don't usually associate with OZ. The Animal rights, the complex religious dogma, the social classes, etc. Really enjoyable and different, something to sit down and read for it's own merits not just because it's novel. Upto the middle of the book. Then, when 'wicked' went to the Emerald city and stayed I found that the book just dragged on and on. After what I found to be a forced chapter (and a big one) I just couldn't get back into it. The middle of the book annoyed me so much I actually thought about stopping (very rare for me) but I persisted. The book did get better after that, but the damage was done. Though amusing and some innovative adeas of the 'beloved' land of OZ and our 'wicked' witch, the magic was gone, leaving you wondering if it was magic at all or just an illusion of a good book.
Rating: ![2 stars](http://www.reviewfocus.com/images/stars-2-0.gif) Summary: Wicked Book! Review: I do not think this book is suitable for people. It has much sexual content and should not be on the shelves for children!!!!!
Rating: ![5 stars](http://www.reviewfocus.com/images/stars-5-0.gif) Summary: Captivating! Review: Once I had but 100 pages left to read I could not think of anything else. I read on and all the while my stomach turned because, like the movie Titanic, I knew how the story ended! However, by that point I was in love with Elphaba and dreaded the end of her tortured life. Mr. Maguire presented her as the only true character in all OZ, without pretense or prejudice. I'm on my way to rent The Wizard of OZ so that I may see it through my newfound understanding of the otherworld.
Rating: ![4 stars](http://www.reviewfocus.com/images/stars-4-0.gif) Summary: I liked her! I really liked her! Review: As a young child watching the Wizard of Oz on our old black and white TV set, I would literally hide behind a sofa pillow at the site of the Wicked Witch. She scared me to death! Had I only known who she REALLY was, maybe I would have felt kind of sorry for her. But don't try to compare this book with the movie. While there are some similarities, there are many new ideas and twists that I found totally enchanting and fascinating. To find that Elphaba was a sexual-being who was capable of loving and being loved was not easy to imagine, but if you stay with this weird and wonderful story through the first few chapters you might find that you really like her! I adored this book and hated to turn the last page.
Rating: ![5 stars](http://www.reviewfocus.com/images/stars-5-0.gif) Summary: a wonderful book Review: I sincerely enjoyed this book. It was recommened to me by a friend, and I thought it looked rather odd, and was considering not even bothering. After the first part of the book I was still doubtful. But then, as the story started coming alive in my mind, I couldn't stop reading it. Elphaba became more than a character, she became a real person, in green flesh and blood. The story was complex and full of surprises. No one who has read this book will ever be able to look at the Wizard of Oz the same way. It is amazing.
Rating: ![4 stars](http://www.reviewfocus.com/images/stars-4-0.gif) Summary: Nearly brilliant Review: Maguire's take on L. Frank Baum's _Wonderful Wizard of Oz_ aims to show a second view of Oz. History is told by the victors, _Wicked_ seems to say, and then goes about telling the story of the villainized witches. The impulse is ingenious, and Baum's novels, with their sketchy settings and poorly realized zeitgeist, offer an excellent field of play (although, at least one reference to the striped stockings of the Wicked Witch of the East suggests Maguire also relied on the movie a bit). As an alternate version, most of the novel offers spectacular interpretations: the Wizard of Oz is a megalomaniacal despot, talking Animals are an oppressed people, the Wicked Witch of the East is a religious fanatic, and Glinda the Good Witch is somewhere on the fringe between bourgoisie and elite class. Because his world is more richly detailed and thoroughly realized than its predecessor, Maguire's version becomes immediately more convincing than the Baum stories. Where Baum's characters are ciphers, Maguire's characters have human traits. Unfortunately, _Wicked_ loses its momentum near the end as the Maguire novel begins to interlace with the plot of Baum's _Wonderful Wizard of Oz_. I think Maguire's mistake here was in attempting to apply the Baum plot too literally. A bit freer interpretation would have made for a better read and would have fit the initial, alternate-version impulse better. The Wicked Witch of the West as portrayed in the final chapter is not the same character we have come to know so well in the foregoing chapters. Also unfortunate is Maguire's final interlocutory disquisition on the nature of good and evil. I found it distracting and in no way supportive of the tale. It read like a passage interjected to give the tome a sense of Importance.
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