Book Review: Wicked
Basics:
This (adult) fantasy is written in the third person from the perspective of Elphaba (Elphie). I experienced this 480 page book in it’s physical form. Icked is the first of a series.
What’s it about?
Wicked follows the life of Elphaba, starting at birth. Elphaba was born gree and with monstrous teeth. Because of her appearance, her father’s religion and her mother’s guilt for her, at times,unsavory actions, Elphaba was not as accepted as one may expect a baby to be. In an attempt to find someone to care for her appropriately, Elphaba’s mother has her grandmother come in and care for Elphaba as she grows, the two growing a strong bond.
As a teen, Elphaba makes her way to the city to attend school. But she’s poor and looks different and, at first struggles to make friends. She also starts to see the injustices of the world around her in ways that were not as common or visual where she grew up. Spurred by a sense of social justice, Elphaba begins to fight back against what she believes is wrong, even when it is used against her and colors her as the bad guy.
Favorites:
My Favorite Character: Elphaba.To be clear, and I’ll talk about this later, I went into this determined not to love her. I failed. It’s fine. I’ve come to terms with my weakness. She’s strong. She’s flawed. She’s a product of her environment and circumstances. She’s doing what she truly believes is right, even if it presents otherwise.
My Least Favorite Character: Gilinda. Hands down. Yea, I know. You thought I’d say the Wizard, didn't you? But I disliked Gilinda from very early on. She's fake. She’s cruel. She’s surface but she pretends to be something great. Nope. And maybe this is because I didn’t expect her to be like that, doing things for the wrong reason and all. I expected something different, something glittery and pretty and sugary sweet. Maybe that’s part of the beauty of her character, that she’s not at all what you expect from appearances, but I found myself wanting to slap her more than not.
My Favorite Part: My favorite part wasn’t a scene, it was an…aspect? It was the intricacies within the story, the small pieces of the characters that hide in the background. It’s the way that the creation of the paths they take was not from them as much as a combination of the big and the little, the choices and the
circumstances all mixed together so that, in the end, it kind of all makes sense as to how everyone got to the end and where we see them in the Wizard of Oz movie. It was the way that caring looks different for everyone and how sometimes it presents in unexpected ways but it’s grounded in love all the same. It’s the delicate way that everything came together to paint a bigger picture and answers were revealed in due time,answers to questions you may not have even thought to ask.
My least favorite Part: The time Elphie spent with the wizard, I think. I don’t think I have a great, enlightening answer for this. In fact, I don’t even know what my answer is. I think it just felt blatant and expected among everything that was going on.
My favorite quotes:
“Where I'm from, we believe in all sorts of things that aren't true... we call it history.”
“One never learns how the witch became wicked, or whether that was the right choice for her~is it ever the right choice? Does the devil ever struggle to be good again, or if so is he not a devil?”
“There was much to hate in this world and too much to love.”
“No one controls your destiny. Even at the very worst - there is always choice.”
Other thoughts:
I went into this book skeptical. The movie was out and there was Wicked green and pink EVERYWHERE. There was no escaping it. Wicked had overtaken the world. I was determined to not falling love with something because of the hype. I didn’t want to like the wicked witch that scared me as a kid. I knew that this was going to be Elphaba’s story and, of course, aren't we always the hero of our stories? So, of course, Elphaba would come out looking good. And I stood by that for a while, but then, the small things started to hit and I was fascinated by the duology of the stories, of the views. I loved that intricacies peppering the story at large, the way everything Elphie did, she did for love and because they truly believed it was the right thing. She wasn't wicked, but labeled as such because she didn’t obey and comply as expected.
I loved that her actions were fueled by so much love and emotion which is considered to be among the best, the greatest,the goodest we have within us. I loved that, from the start, Gilinda and Elphaba could have each been the good witch or the bad witch. They both could have gone either way. There was nothing inherently good or bad about either of them, they were both flawed teens discovering how the world worked. I liked the idea that maybe the “good witch” was doing good things for the wrong reasons but still labeled good, while Elphaba was doing some not so great things for the right reasons. What matters more? The action or the motivation/intention? Do the weigh the same? Who’s in charge of defining “good” and “bad”?
It was these through lines that made me fall in love with the story and with Elphaba. It was what lay beneath. It was the depth of their characters. The internal struggles. The losses and how they pushed through.
Who do you want to be? Do you want to be the Glinda,sparkly, pretty, princessy? Doing good for the wrong reasons, enamoured with the surface and content with never looking below? Acting for what it gets you? Or would you rather be Glindas fighting for what you believe. Loving with everything you’ve got. Talented and determined? Willing to do what needs to be done for the many even if it gets you labels like “Wicked”? I know which one I want to be. I just hope that I have the courage and strength to be her.
Finally, one last note. This is not a one to one translation from pages to movie. The two are very different. Many of the things I talked about above was lost in translation to the screen. The book is full of hidden philosophy (and not so hidden), talks of sex and violence, racism and control. It’s far darker and spicier than the movie. I say this because, though I work similarly before I read the books, I was not prepared. This isn’t the whimsical Wizard of Oz written for children of all ages. This is more mature. So please, do some research before you hand this book over to a younger audience to make sure it’s a good fit for them. Otherwise, if you’re looking for similar vibes as Wicked but less dark, less spicy, less mature, check out The School for Good and Evil series. It's fun and great for middle school readers and older.I truly enjoyed the series.
But that’s just what I thought. What did you think? Let us know in the comments.
