Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West (Gregory Maguire)

I could not help thinking about how the book and the film fitted together. I like the concept of telling the story from the other side, after all, in real life, characters and situations are rarely black and white, good or evil.

A book of two halves for me. The first three parts dealing with Elphaba's early life up are engaging and develop all the characters. The last two parts dealing with her transition into the Wicked Witch of the West and her confrontation with Dorothy are a bit flat. All the life seems to be sucked out of the characters leaving them rather dull and wretched. Perhaps it was the Author's intention to illustrate the descent into middle age but for a hip young thang such as me, it's a bit hard to empathize.

Thouroughly enjoyable book. Clever idea clevely executed. I think the author's a bit of a one trick pony though from looking at some of his other titles but as a one off this is excellent.

Enjoyable look at the secret history of Oz. I'm not sure he could pull it off again with the ugly sister or the wicked stepmother of Snow white.