Reviews with content warning for Infidelity - Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West

Reviews tagging 'Infidelity'

Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire

20 reviews

dezzella's review against another edition

dark sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

1.0

I was excited to read this, as I've heard a lot about the musical and the concept seemed cool. Who wouldn't want to follow the wicked witch's life? I wanted to like this book, and was encouraged by the good reviews/what I heard from others over the years.

That led to me feeling very disappointed, there were a lot of things that you wouldn't expect going in, and a lot of dark stuff (warnings to those who are curious, child marriage, sexual situations mentioned involving children, lots of urination [so often it was weird], consumption of other sentient beings, misogyny/sexism, lots of mentions of cheating/affairs/unfaithful partners, ableism regarding Alfeba's sister).

I also didn't particularly like how it as written, besides many moment where I went 'um what???' the political plot wasn't very interesting to me and this was a struggle for me to finish. For those curious, the musical is supposed to be better so you may want to do that.

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rosemaryandrue's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

Long before Dorothy came to Oz, a baby was born in the east with green skin and shark-like teeth, and whether or not she is given a chance to be good will shape the future of the land.

This is a strange, slant-wise reprise of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, a thoroughly grown-up look at the realistic consequences of such political upheaval. I've seen the musical of course, and it is pretty funny how far it drifted away from the source material, as this in turn had drifted from its own. I liked the concept and the claustrophobic quality of the writing, but I felt the characters were held at too far a remove from us and each other, so I couldn't get invested in anyone's relationships.

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verinvaldez's review against another edition

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dark mysterious slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Extremely different to the musical Wicked! the tone of this is much darker with murder and unnecessary sexual content. Far too many time skips, at least 4 major time skips spanning years of Elphaba's life. The plot of the Wizard of Oz makes an appearance, but the portrayal of Dorothy here doesn't quite fit this darker story. I think the Shiz portion is when the book is at its best both character wise and regarding the political, religious and moral themes. Elphaba is a very fascinating main character but she is incredibly unlikeable outside of her passion about her beliefs about Animal rights.

If you are interested in this book because of the musical be very aware that this is extremely different, it isn't just darker, Fiyero is a side character, Glinda is a minor character, Boq has a larger role and shares only his crush on Glinda with his musical counterpart and Elphaba is no magical prodigy.

If you want a book that explores the mentality of the Wicked Witch of the West, this is for you.

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heart_strong500's review against another edition

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I was 40% though and so much time was being spent on things I didn't care about. I looked at other reviews which I rarely do before or while I'm reading and they all said it's very different from the musical. So even if my favorite parts of the musical would have happened I didn't know with how much detail they were or weren't going to be covered. And then the three-way sexual assult(everyone's under magic or something so I see it as sexual assult) with the tiger (which animals are just another race and I knew that before reading) happened and I was done.

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lilawsahar's review against another edition

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adventurous dark funny informative mysterious slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

I can’t say if I liked it or not… it had interesting questions about politics, religion, and general existence. I liked the story enough to keep going but I was always as confused as the narrator. I didn’t get the purpose of the grimoire, why is Yackle after WWW, what is the significance of the wizard being WWW’s father, what’s the purpose of the other world, and why was the time dragon telling WWW’s tale? Was time to repeat itself for the Kubala witch, WWW, then Dorothy? I am so confused.

I liked the dark humor throughout the book.

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