William Morrow & Company
Wicked: Volume One in the Wicked Years
Wicked: Volume One in the Wicked Years
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The New York Times bestseller and basis for the #1 smash hit movie starring Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande.
With millions of copies in print around the world, Gregory Maguire's Wicked is established not only as a commentary on our time but as a novel to revisit for years to come. Wicked relishes the inspired inventions of L. Frank Baum's 1900 novel, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, while playing sleight of hand with our collective memories of the 1939 MGM film starring Margaret Hamilton (and Judy Garland). In this fast-paced, fantastically real, and supremely entertaining novel, Maguire has populated the largely unknown world of Oz with the power of his own imagination.
Years before Dorothy and her dog crash-land, another little girl makes her presence known in Oz. This girl, Elphaba, is born with emerald-green skin--no easy burden in a land as mean and poor as Oz, where superstition and magic are not strong enough to explain or overcome the natural disasters of flood and famine. Still, Elphaba is smart, and by the time she enters Shiz University, she becomes a member of a charmed circle of Oz's most promising young citizens.
But Elphaba's Oz is no utopia. The Wizard's secret police are everywhere. Animals--those creatures with voices, souls, and minds--are threatened with exile. Young Elphaba, green and wild and misunderstood, is determined to protect the Animals--even if it means combating the mysterious Wizard, even if it means risking her single chance at romance. Ever wiser in guilt and sorrow, she can find herself grateful when the world declares her a witch. And she can even make herself glad for that young girl from Kansas.
Recognized as an iconoclastic tour de force on its initial publication, the novel has inspired the blockbuster musical of the same name--one of the longest-running plays in Broadway history. Popular, indeed. But while the novel's distant cousins hail from the traditions of magical realism, mythopoeic fantasy, and sprawling nineteenth-century sagas of moral urgency, Maguire's Wicked is as unique as its green-skinned witch.
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Love this story. It still holds my imagination on each page. The author never disappoints the reader. Read the books then see the movie.
Way darker and slower paced than I was expecting. The musical deviated heavily from the main plot points so I considered the book a separate story entirely. Even considering them separate works I didn’t enjoy the book. It crawled from start to finish and went off in random directions frequently. It felt very disjointed.
This certainly wasn't like the musical and I knew that going on. It was enjoyable, but I found the pacing somewhat slow.
The author uses a lot of words and phrasing that seems pretentious at times, used merely for the sake of sounding overly intelligent. There is a lot of descriptive narrative in the book that is unnecessary. Overall, it’s still an enjoyable read, though very different from the adaptations it inspired. Whether I fully understand the themes and meanings of the writing is to be discovered, buried as it is, at times, in convoluted passages.
I originally read this 25 or 30 years ago and forgot a lot of it. I, like many, loved the musical adaptation movie Wicked. I always cry during Defying Gravity. It, to me, is about being who you are and not letting anyone hold you back, "nobody in all of Oz, no wizard that there is or was, is ever gonna bring me down." I love Elphaba. So then I decided to go back and read the book and it is beautiful. I loved it. I think it is truly a literary masterpiece and I'm so glad that I read it again.
Love this story. It still holds my imagination on each page. The author never disappoints the reader. Read the books then see the movie.
Way darker and slower paced than I was expecting. The musical deviated heavily from the main plot points so I considered the book a separate story entirely. Even considering them separate works I didn’t enjoy the book. It crawled from start to finish and went off in random directions frequently. It felt very disjointed.
This certainly wasn't like the musical and I knew that going on. It was enjoyable, but I found the pacing somewhat slow.
The author uses a lot of words and phrasing that seems pretentious at times, used merely for the sake of sounding overly intelligent. There is a lot of descriptive narrative in the book that is unnecessary. Overall, it’s still an enjoyable read, though very different from the adaptations it inspired. Whether I fully understand the themes and meanings of the writing is to be discovered, buried as it is, at times, in convoluted passages.
I originally read this 25 or 30 years ago and forgot a lot of it. I, like many, loved the musical adaptation movie Wicked. I always cry during Defying Gravity. It, to me, is about being who you are and not letting anyone hold you back, "nobody in all of Oz, no wizard that there is or was, is ever gonna bring me down." I love Elphaba. So then I decided to go back and read the book and it is beautiful. I loved it. I think it is truly a literary masterpiece and I'm so glad that I read it again.
