Sianeka - , reviewed on 4/7/2009 + 114 more book reviews

I'd seen the musical and was intrigued to find out more about the life and times of Oz and the Wicked Witch of the West. This book gave me what I expected and hoped for, and yet it didn't. The story is fleshed out more than the musical's plotline, and you do get more insight into the personality and life of Elphaba, the wicked green anti-heroine. However, the details start getting skimpier and Elphaba's motivations get murkier as the story moves along. How she actually becomes "wicked" and glories at her newly won reputation as the Wicked Witch of the West is treated shabbily. The plot details and looks at Elphaba's life get traded in for discussions of morality and the origin of evil and the theology of souls, and it's a poor tradeoff where readability is concerned. The story never recovers from this derailment and the last section of the book, which should have been exciting and enthralling as this is the section where Witch meets Dorothy, is a big letdown. Throughout the book, the main character is referred to by name, as Elphaba, although different nicknames are ascribed to her at various times, yet in the last section she is continually referred to only as The Witch and no longer called Elphaba, a distracting device designed to distance the reader emotionally from her death.

Characters are never fleshed out enough to garner sympathy or likeability and the sections of the story reflecting the well-known Wizard of Oz story are far too brief to enjoy properly. Author Maguire goes through all this trouble setting up a rich and detailed storyland and then pulls away the vicarious enjoyment we could've had comparing this refreshingly new take on old familiar scenes and people by removing almost all such references out of the plot.

An interesting but flawed read, not all I had hoped it would be.

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