• Welcome to BookAndReader!

    We LOVE books and hope you'll join us in sharing your favorites and experiences along with your love of reading with our community. Registering for our site is free and easy, just CLICK HERE!

    Already a member and forgot your password? Click here.

Gregory Maguire: Wicked

WoodenCoyote

WoodenCoyote

New Member
I just finished Son of a Witch the other day and I'm eager to discuss this book and its prequel with anyone else who's also picked them up.

Me, I really enjoyed it :)
 
Having finished re-reading the two books together, I have to say I liked Son of a Witch more. It had a more continuous storyline, without the lull in pace that Wicked suffered from near the end. At least in my opinion.
Also, I liked the characters better.
 
I haven't read either yet, but my sister loves all of Gregory Maguire's book especially 'Wicked'.
She actually just saw the play not to long ago with Carol Kane playing 'Madame Morrible'.
And she insist that I'm must read them soon, so I guess I will. :p
 
My twelve year-old g'kid is reading Wicked.I dipped into it and said ":eek: " but oh, well -- it's only a book after all.
 
StillILearn said:
My twelve year-old g'kid is reading Wicked.I dipped into it and said ":eek: " but oh, well -- it's only a book after all.
Click to expand...
Err, I'm not sure if I'd let a 12 year old read it. Not that there's anything overly explicit, but the book is very suggestive. Son of a Witch less so, but still...
 
I thought Wicked was quite excellent, I first read it about 10 years ago, and have re-read it a few times since. I did read Son of a Witch some months ago, but wasn't too impressed with it.
 
I read Wicked about two years ago, and then re-read it in October when I was spending a lot of time at the hospital w/ my partner. I loved Wicked. I loved the play even more, I saw it in Toronto (with Carole Kane) last march and.... :eek: it was fantastic. I cried.
 
In my opinion, Wicked is a lot better than Son of a Witch...there was something about the world of Oz in Wicked that was a lot more realized than it was in SoaW...maybe because in SoaW it was expected that we were familiar with the world already? I'm not sure why, but the characters, and even the plot in Wicked were just more detailed and interesting for me.

The changes made in the musical though were rather shocking, although overall the musical is fun for what it is.

D
 
I despise politics and as a result found Wicked rather boring. I actually put the book down and stopped reading about half way through and that is a big deal for me. In fact, I can't think of one other book offhand that I ever put down before and stopped reading entirely. I liked confessions of a wicked stepsister alright. I think I had more of an expectation for these books to be fun, but they're written with a fairly serious tilt.
I always thought it would be interesting to hear about the other characters in fairy tales before the main characters came along and made life 'interesting', or to find out what "Happily ever after" really means in fairy tale land. lol. Somehow, Maguire just doesn't do it for me.
 
The politics definately turned me off. I read Wicked as a book club pick at work, and I was the only one to actually finish it, and I forced myself to.

I don't think it added anything to the Oz stories. If you want to read something that makes you think of Oz in a different way try Geoff Ryman's Was.
 
I'm am so glad to discover I'm not the only one who didn't like Wicked. I thought it was very boring as well. I tried to read Son of a Witch, but couldn't bear to read more than the first 2 chapters.
 
I just finished Wicked (I liked it) this summer and I'm hoping to pick up Son Of A Witch soon.
 
I am actually reading Wicked right now. I REALLY wanted to like this book. I found the topic so interesting and was certain the author could do so many things with this book.

I am about halfway through and really dissapointed. I honestly don't even want to continue. I dont even know what is going on. The author is so vague and seems to not know what is going on himself. Whenever i start to get interested in something that is going on in the book its like the author gets distracted by something else.

I think that I am unfortunatly going to have to put this book down, and trust me there is nothing i dislike doing more.
 
shayknee2893 said:
I am actually reading Wicked right now. I REALLY wanted to like this book. I found the topic so interesting and was certain the author could do so many things with this book.

I am about halfway through and really dissapointed. I honestly don't even want to continue. I dont even know what is going on. The author is so vague and seems to not know what is going on himself. Whenever i start to get interested in something that is going on in the book its like the author gets distracted by something else.

I think that I am unfortunatly going to have to put this book down, and trust me there is nothing i dislike doing more.
Click to expand...

Yeah. I agree. I recently tried another book of his though--Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister. I had low expectations but ended up loving it. It was MUCH better than Wicked. Maybe try again with Confessions. It took me 2 years to want to try again, but I'm glad I did.
 
tundra said:
Yeah. I agree. I recently tried another book of his though--Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister. I had low expectations but ended up loving it. It was MUCH better than Wicked. Maybe try again with Confessions. It took me 2 years to want to try again, but I'm glad I did.
Click to expand...

Yeah i will remember to look into Confession of an Ugly Stepsister but for now i need to move away from him because i have a feeling i would go into the book looking for negative things. So i should wait for the grudge to pass. =P
 
The first Gregory Maguire book I read was Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister, which isn't as dark as Wicked, but I do enjoy Maguire's books. I absolutely LOVED Wicked. The story is fantastic. I always wondered what the other side of the story was, and Elphaba is such a complex character. I loved that it was darker (it's definitely not a kid's book), even though they changed it on Broadway. I think the best part was the underlying message of what is really good and what is really evil. Classic.
 
*side note* Check out Maguire's book What The Dickens. It's a young adult (possibly younger) book, but is absolutely darling. It's about a toothfairy (not as lame as it sounds) who is named What the Dickens. Lovely book.
 
Wicked has been in my stack of books to be read for at least a couple of years now; every time I think I'm going to get to it next, I find myself picking out another book instead.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top