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Summary: Who is really Wicked?
Review: Like John Gardner's Grendel, Maguire takes a reviled villain and gives the reader a new perspective of the character. By showing an Oz of political intrigue, usurped by an outsider, Maguire takes the reader deep into a dark fantasy dominated by Elphaba, the green skinned offspring of...well see if you can guess. With an excellent attention to detail, Maguire creates an Oz much more interesting than Baum's and also much more adult. My only problem is the unexplained elements, like the dragon clock, that move the story but are left mysteries. In a book that explains so much about a fantastic character and her motivation for becoming what people perceive her to be, it seems inconsistent to leave so many other questions.
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Summary: Not what you expect it to be
Review: This is an excellent book, full of pointed satire. I must say my mom warned me it was not what she had expected it to be, and she was right. It is very engaging, and a more challenging read than any of the other Oz books, with a new enlightening twist on one of the most prominent characters in the history of fantasy literature. This is obviously not a novel inteded for children. But all adults, if you enjoy Oz, I suggest you read it.
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Summary: compelling!
Review: I put off finishing this book because I didn't want it to end. Elphaba (the "witch") rules! In fact, all of the characters were well-developed and true-to-life, despite the fantasy setting. I'm not much of a fantasy fan, but I truly enjoyed the book because of the quality of the writing and the interesting and amusing story.
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Summary: Must read for any Wizard of Oz fan!
Review: If you fell in love with the Wizard this book is a must read. It gives you insight to the Wicked Witch of the West, and makes you question why you thought she was so evil to begin with. The characters are rich and explain how a life that seems evil may become necessary when that is the path that life has led you down.
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Summary: The side of the witch you never knew
Review: This book made me laugh. This book gave me an even better appreciation for The Wizard of Oz than I had before. You see that Glenda is not such a pure witch, and the ol' WW of the West ain't so bad. In fact, she actually has a boyfriend!
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Summary: Wonderfully Wicked...
Review: I am not a reader and I absolutly could not put the book down. The story was just so creative and well thought out and you got to meet everyone including the witches lover and her parents and her friends in college... This is a side to the Wizard of Oz I never would have imagined. I would only recomend this to people of adult age.
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Summary: The Darker Side of the Rainbow
Review: In Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, Gregory Maguire has written a novel that deals with the life of Elphaba, an emerald-green skinned young woman who was born into the family of a preacher and his wife in Munchkinland. Elphaba's family are not Munchkinlanders, however, and Elphaba grows up knowing more than she ever wanted to know about persecution and alienation. As a result, she becomes somewhat introverted, rebellious and yes, a little wicked.When we all root for Dorothy as she triumphs over the Wicked Witch of the West in Frank Baum's Oz tales, we seem to forget that we are only hearing Dorothy's side of the story. There is more to Elphaba than wickedness and Maguire proves it as he chronicles Elphaba's odyssey through the land of Oz. What makes Wicked such a special book is the fact that Maguire has written a story that challenges our preconceived notions of what, exactly, is good and what, exactly, is evil, with the character of Elphaba at the heart of the matter. Although Dorothy does make an appearance near the end of the book, it really isn't necessary to know anything about her or the Baum stories to understand and appreciate Wicked. In Wicked, we follow the life of Elphaba as we learn what shaped her personality, what it really means to be a witch and how things are not always as we think them to be or even as we want them to be. The characters in Wicked are fully-fleshed out and believable. Besides Elphaba, there is her university roommate, Glinda; Boq, the lovelorn Munchkin; Fiyero, a tribal prince from the primitive West of Oz; and Nessarose, Elphaba's beautiful and witchy sister. The fantasy elements in Wicked are actually quite light; this is no book for children and it even runs the risk of becoming overburdened by the weighty issues it seeks to tackle. Maguire could have let this book slip into nothing more than a sappy view of the technologies and magic that pervade the land of Oz. Instead, he wisely chose to focus on the people, instead and he has created characters that are vibrant, strong and full of life. Maguire's Oz is no Utopia and Elphaba is more than just a green-skinned witch. She is a woman who has become wise through the mechanations of guilt and sorrow and one who is, surprisingly, actually happy to meet the young girl from Kansas who eventually shows up at her door. Wicked is more than satire; it is an imaginative, fast-paced, fantastically real and supremely entertaining novel of vision and revision. Once you read it, Oz will never be the same again.
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Summary: A must read for any fan of the Wizard of Oz
Review: Anyone who has read this book will never be able to look at the movie the same way again. Delightfully humorous with intersting dark twists that keep you captivated throughtout the entire book. It's hard to sometimes determine if Elphaba, the wicked witch of the west, is truly evil or just misunderstood and is honestly good. The depiction of other characters that are seen in the movie puts everything in an entirely different light. The good witch Glinda really a spoiled selfish socialite?, and the Wizard a tyrant terrified of his home back on earth? What s the difference between animals and Animals and what is the connection? So many questions brought up and the only way to have them answered is to read the book and see for yourself.
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Summary: Shockingly enticing!
Review: This is more of a book for teens and adults, and not for a kid to read after the fairy-tale of Oz. This was story with such profound meaning, revealing the odd nature of evil. There are so many creative, deep messages about life told through the tale of Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West, (now my heroine), and all that goes around her. This book drew so much of my attention that at my high school, my friend and I, who were reading this at the same time, couldn't stop talking about it. Others started asking, "What is this book?" with a weird look on their faces, and once we introduced them to this amazing story, they all became interested. Try it for yourself; it's bound to leave you breathless! (I'm on my way to reading "Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister", Maguire's other book).
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Summary: A Favorite Novel
Review: Imagine the Wizard of Oz story told from the viewpoint of the not so Wicked Witch of the West. This novel is for adults, not children and draws more from Baum's Oz series than the movie. It is, in part, a meditation on the nature of evil. Do ends justify the means? Does the careless behavior of childen constitute evil? How about the careless promiscuity of a neglected wife? The thoughtless smugness of the upper crust? How about a ruthless campaign to consolidate power by literal scapegoating, murder, opression and distortion and lies? It turns out that the Wizard is both a very bad man and a very bad Wizard--but there were extenuating circumstances. This book is very much worth reading if only to see how an author can take a very familiar story and turn it topsy turvy. Even more thought-provoking is the examination of the nature of evil.
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