#BookWorm: Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West

Hello readers,

I recently finished the book Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West. Long title right? Yeah. Well long book is more like it. Although it is not even close to being the longest book I've ever read, it's about 400 pages, it sure felt like it. It is hard to mask my disappointment of this book. I am hoping that all of you have seen or at least heard of the Broadway musical Wicked. I saw it for the first time in 2010 in London's theater district at the Apollo Victoria Theatre, which you may have heard of before because of the roof collapsing sometime in recent years (so scary). Let me just say, as you probably have heard if you've heard of the musical, it is amazing. Highly worth the astronomical price for a ticket. I was lucky enough to get to see it again with Madi, Reegan, and Colton, as our Christmas gift in 2013 at the Straz in Tampa. And I would probably pay the astronomical amount again if I ever get to back to New York City, because besides The Lion King on Broadway, it's hands down the best play I have EVER seen #letsbehonestiwouldpayastronomicalamountsagaineasily.

Anyways enough about the play, back to the book. The play was based off of the book, which a lot of people do not know. What people also lack knowledge of is that apart from the basic plot line of it being the story of why the Wicked Witch of the West is so wicked and the names of characters, the book and play have little in common. Since I am not going to spoil the majesty of the play, I can't give specific examples, however some that don't spoil the play are how in the play Elphaba's sister, Nessarose, joins Elphaba at school right away, but in the book the only reason she comes is because the Nanny is needed to supervise Elphaba and Galinda. Also the love stories are all messed up too. The book includes a lot of sexual references, including the act and detailed body descriptions that I find completely unnecessary. The way that the author splits up the paragraphs and conversations is super confusing. And to be honest, I skimmed the last 100 pages because I could not take the torture anymore. The book was similar to a cross between 50 Shades of Gray, the Wizard of Oz, and Lord of the Rings. Making it one thing: weird.

The good parts of the book, were the chapters of the characters in school, as those were less confusing to read. The overall plot line of the story was intriguing. And the last good part was that Gregory Maguire created the idea that gave Stephen Schwartz and Marc Platt to create the brilliant musical Wicked. Overall, I would give the book a 3.5/10. I wouldn't recommend it unless you really enjoy the combination of stories I previously mentioned.