Melanie B. (bamabennetts) reviewed on 10/18/2009

Helpful Score: 1

i was not impressed at all with this book. i waited so long to finally read it that i was very excited to recieve it in the mail. i normally will only take a few days to read a book, sometimes devouring books in mere hours, but this book took me 2 weeks to read. there was so much hype about this book, especially since it had been made into a broadway musical, and it had been very highly recommended by several friends, but it left me wanting. i understood the premise alright, a reworking of frank l baum's wizard of oz, a prequel if you will, only told from the perspective of the wicked witch of the west. i anticipated humor, wit, tongue-in-cheek parody. what i got was a book about politics. on top of that it was the politics of a made up society that i have nothing invested in. for the life of me, i just couldn't make myself care about this book, its characters or the politics. the characters were superficial to me, lacking any depth or personality at all. The main character, elphaba, was vague with her thoughts and emotions, even with the reader, and left me wondering what her thinking was behind her actions and that made it very hard to care about her at all. the time frame of the book seemed off to me too. about the time i'd start to immerse myself in the story line the time frame would jump ahead, several years ahead in fact, and just pick up like you are of aware of what took place between where it stopped and now. it was distracting, i found myself asking,"what happened next?". Anyway, i do not think i will be reading any more of mr. maguire's books. i do not care to read another story that makes no sense and leaves me frustrated that i just wasted time on a story that didnt take me anywhere or teach me anything. that makes me truly sad...how i wanted to be able to say that this was one of the best books id ever read, but alas, it was not. not even close.

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