Friday, August 10, 2007

Maybe it's me..

I just finished Wicked. Wow! It was such a long, painful go for such a short book. It took me most of the summer because I just couldn't bring myself to give up on it entirely. I hear that the musical is divine and I expected more from the book.

The length of the book was about 450 pages but this book certainly seemed much longer. It was somewhat interesting to get a backstory for the Wicked Witch of the West and I really empathized with her as the protagonist but the story never quite managed to grab me. I found myself turning the pages waiting to see how it somehow all came together at the end. Rather than create a tie-in to Oz (or maybe he did and I don't know because I never read the Wizard of Oz), the world Maguire created never really helped me imagine what it was like. Do you suppose the movie's to blame? Would have been easier if I hadn't had the picture of the movie witches in my mind?

I don't know. I don't really know how many stars I'd attach either. I guess I'd go about three out of five. It was okay - not fantastic. It's a book I don't expect to read again. The burning question is what do I do with Son of a Witch? Is it okay to give a way a book you've never read because you didn't like the prequel?

3 comments:

Tal said...

I thought almost the same thing when I finished it a couple of weeks ago. I loved the way Maguire created some real political drama in what we would typically say was a "happy" world, I loved Elphaba and her story. But I really didn't love the ending, or the fact that some pieces of the story were never wrapped up.

Son of a Witch was better, imo, but still FULL of huge holes. My friend (who really likes G.M.) tol me that we get what we want out of these books, but what I really wanted was a freaking plot!

Anonymous said...

The musical is very good.

Lisa said...

Oh I believe that the musical is very good. I am hoping that it stays in Chicago until I finally get a chance to see it. Cross your fingers! Maybe if our house sells we can take the $20 bucks profit and put it towards tickets?