Rating: 
Summary: Read it!
Review: It is nice to read something that is a little different than your ordinary novel. All the good things that people said in previous reviews are true. I can't wait to read more of Maguire's books. I reccommend this book to everyone who enjoys reading.
Rating: 
Summary: Compare & Contrast with the Musical
Review: I saw the musical first, and I enjoyed it more. I also think it dealt better with the issues of good and evil. The book could be confusing and I spent time trying to figure out what was going on, instead of pondering the nature of good and evil as I did with the musical. The musical turned the original book, movie, The Wizard of Oz, on its head, changing the story, while still keeping within the original plot. I thought this was more effective and made the audience think more. However, the book still has much merit. Intriguing characters and plots are simplified, changed, or entirely left out of the musical. In the musical, Galinda/Glinda was the most popular and rich girl, but in the book she was on the margins and trying to fit into that category. I actually enjoyed her turning point in both. In the musical, she incidentally made Nessarose happy, and she then convinced Elphaba to change her mind about it. Elphaba then insisted Madame Morrible let Galinda into the sorcery class, something she coveted, flooring Galinda and making her look at Elphaba in a new way. In the book, Doctor Dillamond is murdered, and this profoundly affects her, making her look at life differently, become more serious, and befriend Elphaba. I also enjoyed both versions of Fiyero, though the book version was more intriguing. In the musical, he was rich and superficial, but not in the same way as Galinda, it was a philosophy for enjoying life and avoiding quandaries. His attraction to Elphaba led him to reevaluate his priorities. In the book, Fiyero is a mysterious outsider, a prince from the Vinkus. He has a extramarital affair with Elphaba in the Emerald City and dies because of her political association. The book included more background for Elphaba's parents and Nessarose. The quadlings were interesting and we never find out whether Nessarose was the daughter of her father or a Quadlign friend. Other good characters left out of the musical were Elphaba and Nessarose's Nanny, Sarima (Fiyero's wife), and Liir (Elphaba & Fiyero's son). I wonder if Gregory Maguire might write a sequel to continue the story of Liir, Nor (Sarima & Fiyero's surviving daughter), Shell (Elphaba & Nessarose's barely mentioned baby brother), the mysterious Yackle, and the Grimmorie (a powerful book) as well as maybe Boq (a much more interesting character in the book and NOT the Tin Man), his friends Avaric and Crope, and Glinda (who didn't have a big a role in the book).
Rating:
Summary: A wild ride on the wicked side
Review: Even if you're not a fantasy or sci-fi fan, you'll love this book. Once you flip open the cover, you'll need to brace yourself for an unbelievably wild ride. What an amazing feeling to be taken back to a story - a world - you left as a child, thinking it was all neatly tied up in a pretty, rainbow-colored ribbon, never to be visited again. For the purists out there, Maguire's writing stays true to the original story, but takes you back to the Emerald City via a slightly different path along the yellow brick road. Maguire answers all those questions you always wanted to know, including why the Wicked Witch so desperately wanted "Dorothy's" red shoes. This book does an exceptional job of exploring and twisting our own definitions of good and evil. I just sent the book to my sister-in-law and she finished it in two days; she couldn't put it down. I only wish I could afford to buy a copy of Wicked for everyone I know. I can't wait to read his other books and am just now starting Mirror Mirror.
Rating:
Summary: Pretty darned good
Review: Three cheers to Greg for fearlessly rewriting fairy tales. That takes a huge amount of creativity to rewrite fictional history. Its a cool book and I found myself becoming infatuated with some of the characters, wishing they were real. I connected with Elphaba (the Wicked Witch) for her individualism and her logical, bold, punk-rock world view. Her real life equivalent might have been, in high school, that really weird, cool, smart goth chick sitting in the corner reading Shakespeare with the PETA sticker on the jacket. I enjoyed this very much. The writing style didn't particularly impress/offend me (eh, dont worry, nothing like the nighmarishly irritating Gravity's Rainbow), even so, this book and will go on my "to read again sometime" shelf.
Rating:
Summary: Where's the sequel?
Review: I absolutely loved this book, but readers should be warned that if you don't like getting lost in imagination, this is not for you. After reading Wicked, I immediately read Maguire's other books, but didn't find any of them nearly as wonderful.
Rating: 
Summary: I'm not quite sure what the hype is about
Review: I bought this book because of the excellent reviews the author received. I picked it over Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister because I found the premise more intriguing. However, I found the characterization and dialogue uninteresting. The plot was dull even in the places that it was unpredictable. I think it might appeal more to those who identify themselves primarily as readers of romance, rather than as readers of fantasy, as the romance aspects of the novel were its best conceived parts.
Rating:
Summary: EXELLENT!
Review: I read this in two days! Truly excellent spin on one of my favorite characters from Oz. It begins as the author puts us in the witch's point of view as she swoops down to spy on Dorothy and her crew as they walk through the forest, which immediately lets us know the story we're entering is both a familiar one, but now the walls are coming down and we're going to see all sorts of things we didn't in the movie or even L. Frank Baum's spectacular series of books. I just loved this.
Rating: 
Summary: VILE SWILL - Save Your Money!
Review: After the prologue the author starts in on his fairy tale of how the wicked witch of the west was born. He manages to incorporate some of the most wicked, depraved, evil images I've come across in a long time of reading. If you're into books about the inner emotions of serial killers, devil worshippers, or child molesters, this is the fairy tale for you!
Rating:
Summary: Good, but flaws prevent it from being classic
Review: I suppose I come to this book opposite of many readers, having read The Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister first. I found that book to be enchanting (although often times a bit obscure with out any good reason to be so). whereas Wicked is just as enchanting, but a weaker novel. Wicked, which looks at the life and times of the Wicked Witch of the West from the movie Wizard of Oz, is in many ways an amazing book, but some serious flaws prevent it from being an all time classic. As L. Frank Baum: Creator of Oz by Katharine M. Rogers points out, Wicked really draws from the movie and less so from the books. Although in Maguire's defense, he does seem to get the style of names right for those that he makes up. In both the movie and the books, the Wicked Witch of the West (and East for that matter) are little more than props. Maguire fleshes out her story, giving her a background, a life. He does a remarkable job of probing deep into Baum's world without disrupting it. To his credit he does not rely too heavily on the Freudian sense of a doomed childhood forming an evil adult (although he comes close to that and certainly her childhood helped form her as an adult). Instead he focuses on who one's search for a purpose in life often leads us to make "bad" choices, which other perceive as evil. The two main problems with the book are style and characters. Again, I find that Maguire often writes obscurely, as if trying to infuse his writing with a feeling or an artistic style. In a story already so rich in detail this just comes across as overload. I often found myself wishing he would just get on with things rather than trying so hard to make this "literature." Secondly, and this is the biggest problem, the main character comes across as dull and uninteresting. How on earth could a character with as much potential as this be so flat is the crime here. She does not do much and fails to act more than act. I guess this is part of what Maguire is trying to say, but it leaves a big hole in the middle of the book. Not helping matters is the large number of rich characters that come and go in the story. One wishes that perhaps more could have been done with Boc or Prof. Dillard or even Glinda, but perhaps they too are not strong enough to carry the whole story. Still, I recommend this book to most anyone. Yes, you will have to leave reality behind (unlike Confessions, where Maguire was trying to leave fantasy behind to inject realism into the fairytale) but the world he creates in engrossing. Now if Maguire could have just pulled a good novel out of that world...
Rating:
Summary: Very disapointing
Review: I was very intrigued by this book and then very disapointed. I think it was a great idea to explore the life and times of the wicked witch. It was a great idea but I found the characters fell flat. It was a disapointing and painful read.
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