Book Review - Wicked

Wicked 

By Gregory Macguire

406 Pages

2 Stars

The book is split into five different sections, I am just starting the third section, The Emerald City. I had picked up this book before and gotten less than 100 pages in before I put it back down, I just wasn't loving the story. With all the story retellings that have been released I decided to give it another go. I am really struggling with this book, I have decided that as a retelling  or spin off of the wizard of Oz its a failure. This book is a very thinly disguised political and social statement, in that aspect its a good book just not the book I wanted to be reading.

The biggest downfall of this novel are the unlikeable, irritating, unpleasant characters, while there are flashes of goodness it is not enough to redeem them. I wont be recommending this book to anyone to anyone. I am going to try and put this down, pick it back up and finish it so that its over just to see if it gets any better maybe. I honestly don't know if I will finish this...

Below I put down some of the topics brought up by the author with the context, SPOILERS



So keeping in mind that I am less than halfway through this book I have already found these statements (granted I am reading into this a bit, but they really are prominently displayed in most cases)

• Frex and Melana, The first section of the novel focuses mainly on these two characters I could have dismissed most of these statements as building blocks of the story if the writing had changed.
• the division amongst social classes, 
• marriage from one class to another 
• Frex : fanatically religious, zealot, mean, cold, devoid of feeling, pleasure is sin, Elphaba his punishment for being a failed preacher, 
• Melana : drunk, drug addict, rich family, good bloodline, married down, unfaithful in marriage (lover is Turtle Heart), pregnant is the child Frex's? 
• Morals, Marriage, Religion
• The different races (Each race is a representation, not sure of what yet but its building up to it)
• Humans 
• Elves (small green, live in the forest, )
• Quadlings (live in marshland, farmers, poor,)
• animals vs Animals (talking, thinking beasts, who apparently have a soul)
• Religion(s) / Ideologies
• Unionism the unnamed god, all powerful, 
• Lurline - legend, old religion, story of goddess who created OZ, Ozma (royalty) supposedly direct bloodline from her
• Royalism - this comes later in the novel, after the queen has been overthrown. It is illegal and treasonous to be a royalist. 
• Genocide, racial superiority
• Government enforced prison camps/settlements/ quarantines
• The removal of civil rights, human rights, 
• Corruption, the allusion of choice or democracy, ignorance of the public, gradual transitions (sneaky) so as not to draw attention, desensitization, manipulation through mass confusion, fear culture, 
• Capitalism, Industrialization, Materialism, 
• Each Character represents a bigger ideology or faction