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

This book is extremely wordy and many of the wordy words are made up, making it a challenging read. It is like the author just added words to make his reading level higher.
If you read this after watching the musical: do not expect it to be even remotely similar. They are so different, I'm not sure how they even can call the play by the same name.
This was very dark and disturbing at times with weird sex mixed in. Overall a weird, long, somewhat boring read. It wasn't too terrible, but still not great.

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rosanna17's review against another edition

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dark emotional slow-paced

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

1.0

I just could not get into it. I thought it was overhyped and a long, pointless, fluff filled bore of how the witch became “wicked”. I feel it was over sexualized in quite a couple parts. There were holes in the book. Maybe the next couple of books fill those holes but….I have no interest in trying to read them. Hopefully the play is better and more to the point, although after suffering through this atrocity I don’t care to see it.

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summerb's review against another edition

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adventurous dark funny mysterious medium-paced

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

4.5

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bookbelle5_17's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

5.0

Review of Wicked

By: Gregory Maguire

First, I will say this not for everyone even if you loved the stage show adaptation. The stage show takes elements of this novel makes a less dark and more bittersweet. In case you don’t realize this the origin of the Wicked Witch of the West, who is named Elphaba, and what lead her eventually to target Dorothy…. Or did she?

Maguire’s Oz still has that whimsy and weirdness, but it also reflects real world problems such as injustices of minority groups. One of Elphaba’s biggest passions is the fight for the rights of Animals, animal-human hybrids such as the cowardly Lion and Dr. Dillamond. The irony is Elphie isn’t even interested in magic, but she is interested in science. As a character she is brutally honest to point of sounding mean and doesn’t know how to show love and affection. She loves in her own way and sees herself as someone with know. She is frustrating, but charming in her own way. She easily becomes obsessed to the point of not being unable to see past her own beliefs, but we are seeing from her perspective. It makes the reader actually consider her side and realize she’s not as wicked as she seems, or there at least there’s a reason behind her wickedness. The novel not only questions how we see her but how we define “evil”. Glinda and Elphaba’s relationship is complicated and fascinating to read about it. It is the opposites attract theory as they have respect and love for each. At the same time, they don’t always understand each other, but there’s still love between them. There is quite a bit of mature content like sex and drugs. There is a scene where characters go to what can only be described as a pleasure den. The Wizard being the villain gives a new perspective on his lack of power in the original series of books. He is an illusionist and trickster, but in this story, he uses it for political gain. This spins a darker and complicated read.

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georginainvisablestring22's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark informative mysterious reflective sad tense slow-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

3.75

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susannaobrien's review against another edition

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adventurous dark slow-paced

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

3.0

Pretty disappointed in this, but I may have been expecting it to be closer to the musical which I love. Fantasy fans may enjoy this more, but I found the meandering plot and many small characters hard to keep track of and quite tedious at times. The commentary on religious fanaticism and the way societal expectations can become self-fulfilling prophecies was interesting, but often overworked and written in dense, and at times impenetrable language. I also found Maguire's writing of Nessarosa's disability incredibly ableist, and sex and female desire pretty dated and unnecessarily vulgar. Glad I read as it satisfies a curiosity but ultimately it dragged for me.

Content Warnings

rebeccafarren's review against another edition

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reflective slow-paced

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

3.5

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