I thought this was pretty funny.
My niece was reading it, and said she loved it. My sister-in-law had seen the play and said it was fantastic. I thought the idea was really intriguing, and I thought I would really love it.
I really didn’t. I had to slog all the way through it, and I never did come to like the book at all. It was really sort of depressing.
It’s a shame, really. The idea behind it sounded so very, very neat. I just really didn’t enjoy it at all. I don’t think you’ll feel rewarded by making it through to the end.
I feel I’m in the minority of people who enjoyed the book but I first read it nearly a decade ago and now I’m afraid to pick it back up and find out if my rosey memories are valid. My ladyfriend borrowed the book from me after we saw the musical in Chicago and she liked it as well.
Regarding the musical,
I wasn’t entirely happy with them changing the ending to having Elphaba survive and the water thing be a ruse. I understand that sometimes endings get softened up a bit when they make the transition from literature to stage or screen but every man, woman, beast and child who might see the show already knows the fate of the Wicked Witch. The happy deus ex machina the musical tacked on gave me pause though it hardly ruined the overall experience.
That tie-in just refers to the movie; the rest of the book throws off numerous allusions to Baum’s Oz. (Some of which were fairly clever; however, they did little to save the book.)
Maguire has good ideas, but his writing is confusing and, as others have said, pretty boring. He writes in a monotone voice, making his books fairly unsatisfying. (Well, the two that I’ve read, that is: Wicked and Lost.)
And here I was feeling shallow and unintelligent because I was the only person I know who couldn’t enjoy the book (enjoy it?! I put it down halfway through and then forgot I was supposed to be reading it!). I feel better knowing that I’m not alone in not loving it.
well, you have my thanks for resurrecting this thread. i’d done a desultory check for threads on Wicked when i finished it, but nothing seemed to be current at the time. add me to the “Unimpressed, Mightily” column. i, too, was expecting something pretty spiffy from all the time it was listed on the Top Ten Books list. unfortunately, the actuality left me with a profound case of “Well, what WAS all the fuss about?” i was beginning to severely question my taste and judgement in books.
thanks for the confirmation that i haven’t totally lost it. at least, not yet.
There were so many elements from the original Oz that he had to do back story for, he shoehorned in a lot of details. The monkey experiments were dumb. How the hell else do you explain flying monkeys? It was a neat idea but clumsy in the execution.
I did like Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister. No magic, no giant leaps over gaping plot holes, a plausable story told from a different point of view.
Add me to the list of haters. I’ve read thousands of books and finished every single one. Except Wicked. I just couldn’t do it, it was awful.