Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory MaguireMy rating: 2 of 5 stars
Well, thank God I'm done with THAT!!!
So much potential, so much squandered. Clearly a talented writer, Maguire greatly disappointed me. I've been told by many book-loving friends that the musical version is far superior to the book.
At times, I was very interested in the plot and its characters, but so much of this book bored me to tears. It just went on and on and on...and I stopped caring. The only reason I read to the end was to find out how the Dorothy story was tied in...and what really happened from the witch's point of view. I'm not sure it was worth it. I want all that time back!
Kieran, of course, is desperate to have me read it to him because of his fondness for The Wizard of Oz. I read him the prologue one evening and then read the reviews on Goodreads, during which I discovered that it is not suitable for children. Well, that's an understatement. The book contains a good deal of bizarre sex and violence, and just plain meanness. Not to mention the fact that it would bore him to tears. Now he's desperate to see the musical.
I just read the plot of the play on wikipedia, and it appears that the playwright changed it quite dramatically (probably why the play is better). Apparently a movie production is in the works. We'll have to wait for that...maybe by the time it comes out, Kieran will be old enough to see it!
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I totally agree. I was so disappointed, especially since people seem to love it. The sex scenes were absolutely unnecessary and added nothing to the story. It was almost as if the author had to find something shocking since the rest of the story was so, as you also found, boring. I think this was one of the first books I reviewed on my Shelfari page (and only one of five) because I felt so strongly about hating it!
ReplyDeleteAnd I like the new blog look too. I usually read your posts through Google Reader so I've been remiss in coming here.
Thanks Jennifer--I found some free templates and had fun redesigning both blogs. They needed a fresh look!
ReplyDeleteI agree that he was throwing shocking passages into the story just to spice things up a little. I couldn't figure out why else they were there. Not that I mind sex! But it seemed unnecessary to the story.