by Fumei Shirokuro
Author: Gregory Maguire
Genre: Fantasy
Age: 18+
Almost everybody knows the amazing musical that has been on Broadway for a few years now, but before this musical appeared, there was the book. In this review, I’m writing about the book that became the inspiration for the Broadway musical “Wicked”. And yes, I’m talking about the book with the same name: Wicked.
Wicked is the first book of “The Wicked Years” series written by Gregory Maguire. In Wicked, we get to read the story of The Wizard of Oz from Elphaba’s side, the Wicked Witch of the West. The story starts off with the birth of Elphaba. She was an odd-looking baby to begin with; she was already green with vicious teeth. In Wicked, we see how an “innocent” child turns into the so-called Wicked Witch of the West.
Wicked is a book that focus itself on the political, social, and ethical commentary of good and evil. The story of Elphaba is divided into five different sections, which are based on the plot location. The book starts off with Elphaba spying on Dorothy. After that, we get to see her birth/childhood, her years as a “high school” student, what she does after high school, and how she grows into the role of the Wicked Witch of the West.
I liked that this book focuses on Elphaba’s story. From The Wizard of Oz books, we know that the Wicked Witch of the West is “evil.” I like how we get another look into the character of the Wicked Witch of the West. We get to know her as someone who isn’t wicked, but is called wicked because she has a different point-of-view than others.
During the book, I got attached to Elphaba and how she’s misjudged. I love how Maguire has developed Elphaba. In the book, we also get to read about the love life of Elphaba, her friendship with Glinda the Good Witch of the North, and the interaction between Elphaba and her family.
I find it really interesting how Maguire twisted some of the personalities from what you would expect them to be. In the original version of the Wizard of Oz, the Wicked Witch of the West is wicked and evil. You don’t feel any compassion for her; she’s evil, and that’s it. Glinda the Good is good and gentle, and in the original story we don’t get to hear anything more about those characters. But in Wicked we get to see the other side of good and evil. Glinda isn’t as good as she appears. She’s more self-centered, but still has some good nature in her. She’s also easy to manipulate and does a lot to keep her “standards” high. Elphaba fights for the rights of those who nobody fights for. She fights for the Animals, and she stands up against the Wizard because he’s manipulative.
Before I started to read Wicked I read The Wizard of Oz. I never read that book before, but I knew the story of the book. Who doesn’t? When I was reading it, I noticed that I wanted to know more about the characters in the book. That’s the reason why I like Wicked so much. You get to know more about all the witches and the wizard. I felt like I was missing so much information, and Maguire managed to give it to me.
That’s what I like so much about this book: I get to know more about the characters and how they aren’t what they seemed to be. I think that Maguire did very good with his version of the Wicked Witch of the West. Reading this story makes me want to read all the other books in The Wicked Years. I just began to read the second book of the series, which is called, Son of a Witch. So far, I like that book as well, but I won’t get into details during this review, because my next review will actually be about Son of a Witch.
I have also seen the musical of Wicked, and I have to say that I loved that one as well. The musical just touched me, and that made me want to read the books. Of course there are many differences between the musical and the book. If I have to say which one I loved the most it would be the book, because it gives me more information. That doesn’t mean that I don’t think the musical isn’t a top musical, though! It is, and that musical will be one of my favourites for a long time!
Also, it has been said that there will be a movie of the musical version, probably released in 2014. I can’t wait for that, because I would love to own that movie. Besides that, in 2009 Maguire also sold the rights to ABC to make a non-musical TV adaption of Wicked. I truly hope that there will be one, because I would like to see how they turn the book into a TV adaption, and I would just love to see more of this series.