Wicked (the book): A review.
Half a year ago (so long, already?), a friend of mine went and saw the musical Wicked! down in Toronto. he LOVED it, and raved about it to me. So, slow creature that I am, I started to check into it this past week. The musical looks AMAZING and like a lot of fun, and I really, REALLY want to see it now (Come back to Toronto soon!!). So, naturally, since the musical looks like such a smash, and I cannot see it yet, I went and bought the book. People had raved about that too, after all, and promised to be better than the musical ever was.
It's not as good as I hoped it was.
It falls very, very short.
The only saving grace about the book is... the musical. Wow. I never, EVER thought I'd say that about a book.
Okay, maybe after reading authors such as Agatha Christie, Terry Pratchett, J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, J.K. Rowling, P.D. James, P.G. Wodehouse I may be a bit spoiled and picky. But before you go tearing me to bits over how horrible I am for not liking the book that spawned the musical, the first thing you should know about Wicked the book is: the musical is NOT the same as the book!
WARNING: spoilers for the book ahead. However, you might do better to read a summary anyway.
The book is indeed set in Oz. The girls, Galinda and Elphaba, indeed meet and room together at university. They do become friends. Boq does have a massive crush on Galinda. Elphaba and Fiyero do fall in love and Elphaba does wind up at castle Kiamo Ko, where Dorothy hits her with a pail of water, in accordance with Frank Baum's tale. There the similarities end. It's a very gritty tale, full of politics, religion, sex, struggle to find oneself, sex, oppression by and resistance to an ugly superpower, and, of course, sex. Oh, and did I mention sex? If you're getting a little tired of Playboy or Harlequin fare, this book is an excellent alternative. Kinky, inter-species sex (a threesome, no less!), peeking into the girls' dorms while they undress (seems rather tame now), Elphaba and Fiyero's steamy affair (yes, Fiyero is already married when we meet him in the book), Elphaba's loose mother's affairs, homosexuality, the works. The first half of the book seems to alternate between the life of Elphaba and someone screwing around. It's not even particularly well-written sex, is graphic at times, comes on too fast, leaves just as quickly, and is rather boring altogether.
So, parents, even if you loved the musical - DO NOT BUY THIS BOOK FOR YOUR KID. unless perhaps he/she is 18+. And you don't care if they read that sort of thing. This is why the book isn't in the Children's Fiction section of the bookstore. If it is, you should be seriously lobbying the store to remove it from there.
in addition to sex, Death also features prominently in the book: the witch dies. Fiyero dies in a spray of blood. Doctor Dillamond, the Goat, is MURDERED (also bloody). Madame Morible is murdered. The original inhabitants of Kiamo Ko, Fiyero's family - murdered! There is a subsequent elimination of minority people/species groups throughout the book. Bloody battles and killing are seen throughout. The only satisfying deaths are of people who are set up as shallow, cruel, and only appear briefly, as to provide some sense of satisfaction for all the senseless killing in the book.
The one good thing is the friendship ring that develops at the university - Elphaba and Glinda actually are part of a group of students who become friends, in spite of status or race. A touching homage to past memories, perhaps? It comes early in the book, and is over all too soon. All of a sudden, Elphaba decides to cut away and disappears for 5 years. Another nice thing is that the sex peters out for most of the last chapter of the book.
As Elphaba searches (unknowingly) for a soul, so does the book - it has no cohesive plot line running through. The ending is anticlimactic and hurried. Though the book questions the nature of Evil, it gets so tangled up in itself that it never gets around to the author's conclusions on the matter. Perhaps he had none. It does have the feel of Star Wars ep. III to it - waiting to meet up with an ending already written, with commentary on the miserable state of affairs of our world. Characters are flippant, shallow, show up to give a point of view rather than more insight into Oz itself - something sadly missing in the book. I wanted to explore the emerald mines of Glikkus, hear more of the beauty of the flora and fauna of the mountain and plain, rather than have them abruptly enter, perform their function, and leave. What exactly does a skark look like? I wanted to wander around the countryside of Oz, not wallow in gritty intrigues of the cities and towns.
It also seems that the author had trouble picking a viewpoint and sticking to it. we see more than Elphaba's life and what affects it, either directly or indirectly. we get insight into the mind of Boq, Glinda, and Fiyero's wife and family, but not into Nessarose (interestingly), or Madame Morible. Yackle appears, but more as a plot device, and we never find out who she is. There is no confirmation of the story, no perspective (why was this tale preserved? who tells it?).
To conclude: This book is a sad, gritty, shallow tale and is not really worth a read. Makes me wonder how many of the raving reviews are truly mad, or just never read the book. Hold off buying it and save the money for the musical instead.
It's not as good as I hoped it was.
It falls very, very short.
The only saving grace about the book is... the musical. Wow. I never, EVER thought I'd say that about a book.
Okay, maybe after reading authors such as Agatha Christie, Terry Pratchett, J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, J.K. Rowling, P.D. James, P.G. Wodehouse I may be a bit spoiled and picky. But before you go tearing me to bits over how horrible I am for not liking the book that spawned the musical, the first thing you should know about Wicked the book is: the musical is NOT the same as the book!
WARNING: spoilers for the book ahead. However, you might do better to read a summary anyway.
The book is indeed set in Oz. The girls, Galinda and Elphaba, indeed meet and room together at university. They do become friends. Boq does have a massive crush on Galinda. Elphaba and Fiyero do fall in love and Elphaba does wind up at castle Kiamo Ko, where Dorothy hits her with a pail of water, in accordance with Frank Baum's tale. There the similarities end. It's a very gritty tale, full of politics, religion, sex, struggle to find oneself, sex, oppression by and resistance to an ugly superpower, and, of course, sex. Oh, and did I mention sex? If you're getting a little tired of Playboy or Harlequin fare, this book is an excellent alternative. Kinky, inter-species sex (a threesome, no less!), peeking into the girls' dorms while they undress (seems rather tame now), Elphaba and Fiyero's steamy affair (yes, Fiyero is already married when we meet him in the book), Elphaba's loose mother's affairs, homosexuality, the works. The first half of the book seems to alternate between the life of Elphaba and someone screwing around. It's not even particularly well-written sex, is graphic at times, comes on too fast, leaves just as quickly, and is rather boring altogether.
So, parents, even if you loved the musical - DO NOT BUY THIS BOOK FOR YOUR KID. unless perhaps he/she is 18+. And you don't care if they read that sort of thing. This is why the book isn't in the Children's Fiction section of the bookstore. If it is, you should be seriously lobbying the store to remove it from there.
in addition to sex, Death also features prominently in the book: the witch dies. Fiyero dies in a spray of blood. Doctor Dillamond, the Goat, is MURDERED (also bloody). Madame Morible is murdered. The original inhabitants of Kiamo Ko, Fiyero's family - murdered! There is a subsequent elimination of minority people/species groups throughout the book. Bloody battles and killing are seen throughout. The only satisfying deaths are of people who are set up as shallow, cruel, and only appear briefly, as to provide some sense of satisfaction for all the senseless killing in the book.
The one good thing is the friendship ring that develops at the university - Elphaba and Glinda actually are part of a group of students who become friends, in spite of status or race. A touching homage to past memories, perhaps? It comes early in the book, and is over all too soon. All of a sudden, Elphaba decides to cut away and disappears for 5 years. Another nice thing is that the sex peters out for most of the last chapter of the book.
As Elphaba searches (unknowingly) for a soul, so does the book - it has no cohesive plot line running through. The ending is anticlimactic and hurried. Though the book questions the nature of Evil, it gets so tangled up in itself that it never gets around to the author's conclusions on the matter. Perhaps he had none. It does have the feel of Star Wars ep. III to it - waiting to meet up with an ending already written, with commentary on the miserable state of affairs of our world. Characters are flippant, shallow, show up to give a point of view rather than more insight into Oz itself - something sadly missing in the book. I wanted to explore the emerald mines of Glikkus, hear more of the beauty of the flora and fauna of the mountain and plain, rather than have them abruptly enter, perform their function, and leave. What exactly does a skark look like? I wanted to wander around the countryside of Oz, not wallow in gritty intrigues of the cities and towns.
It also seems that the author had trouble picking a viewpoint and sticking to it. we see more than Elphaba's life and what affects it, either directly or indirectly. we get insight into the mind of Boq, Glinda, and Fiyero's wife and family, but not into Nessarose (interestingly), or Madame Morible. Yackle appears, but more as a plot device, and we never find out who she is. There is no confirmation of the story, no perspective (why was this tale preserved? who tells it?).
To conclude: This book is a sad, gritty, shallow tale and is not really worth a read. Makes me wonder how many of the raving reviews are truly mad, or just never read the book. Hold off buying it and save the money for the musical instead.
posted by NinjaRaven at 7:10 AM
1 Comments:
Interesting to know.
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