As a lover of both the Wizard of Oz (I played a Munchkin in our school play in 1st grade) and of the fantasy genre in general (Lord of the Rings, Legend, Willow...to name a few) I thought that Wicked would be a slam dunk.
Truth be told, several years ago when some of my coworkers were going to New York and said they were going to see Wicked, the Broadway musical, I oohed and ahhed like I knew what it was...assuming it was some hysterically funny (get it? wicked?) show. Little did I know at the time that it was a retelling of the Wizard of Oz from the witches viewpoint...but the original storyline only comes into play in the last 50 pages or so and the 250 pages prior tell the story of Elphaba (the witches name), the misunderstood green girl.
I didn't love this book, in fact, it's rather hard to get into...but once I got going it kind of moved along in a way that was intriguing enough to continue...but ultimately, the heroine isn't very likable and the writer tries too hard to be shocking and frankly it's just too much.
I would not go out of my way to recommend this book, but if you're at all interested then I wouldn't tell you to avoid it completely...and I obviously like it well enough if I went ahead and bought the second book (yep, it's a trilogy)...but I am kind of a finisher, so it might not say much for the story!
7 comments:
Mmmm, i've had a hard time getting into Greggory McGuire's books in general. But I know some people really love them!
And random fact for you...I was friends with a girl in college who was one of the little people in the movie Willow.
I had trouble getting into it, too.
The musical on the other hand, well, I've seen that 3 times (did I just admit that?!)
I'm curious to hear what you think after you read the second book.
I had a hard time with McGuire's books too- Wicked was the easiest for me to get into- and I didn't finish the trilogy.
Good luck with the rest of the books- I know it's great just having something around to read- even if it's no twilight ;0)
i love that you are doing these book reports, jenny! it is fun not only to see what you've been reading, but also to read what you think about the books.
can't wait to see you tonight! xo
heather, you've seen wicked 3 times?! how do i not know this about you? heather kuhne would be so pleased- i think she knows that musical by heart!
haha. my cousin took me the first time, i took my mom the second time and then i wanted heath to see it so i took him the third time. i got 1/2 price tickets, so i couldn't resist.
i'll have to chat with heather kuhne about it. : )
Keep these book reports coming Jenny. I need to finish a book soon but I just seem to keep starting more and more. I think I'm reading six right now!
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