Jason's Reviews > Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West
Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West (The Wicked Years, #1)
by
by
I’ve pretty much stopped buying lunch at my work cafeteria because no matter how often the description of the day’s entrée induces those salivary glands into action, the end result is always terribly disappointing. The food looks like it should be good—braised beef that seems savory, fresh-looking tomatoes to impart a robust flavor, colorful specks of herbs that hint of a certain deliciousness and make the tummy grumble. So it’s a fresh shock to the system almost every time when it turns out to be nothing but a ruse. Doesn’t it takes a special kind of talent to start with what appear to be such promising ingredients and to produce with them a dish as utterly bland and as pitifully uninspiring as that cafeteria food invariably turns out to be?
Well, doesn’t it?
Well, doesn’t it?
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Reading Progress
October 16, 2010
– Shelved
April 7, 2012
– Shelved as:
for-kindle
March 5, 2013
–
65.0%
"“Gossip is instructive,” said the Wizard. “It tells which way the wind is blowing.”
Word."
Word."
Started Reading
March 8, 2013
– Shelved as:
2013
March 8, 2013
– Shelved as:
reviewed
March 8, 2013
–
Finished Reading
Comments Showing 1-50 of 64 (64 new)
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Brigid
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rated it 1 star
Jan 27, 2012 03:14PM
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I kind of think I would hate this book. A lot.
Because I didn't actually hate it. I thought some parts were decent; I just wish the author had made up his mind. He seemed to fluctuate between wanting to portray a character's descent into evil (which he totally fails to do, by the way), and to explore the nature of that which constitutes evil (which isn't explored any more than the Colosseum is "explored" by a camera-wielding tourist from Orlando as her bus drives by it). So like, failure on all those levels, and really flat characters and a complete lack of humor which is sad, given the ingredients, but I guess I still didn't have a seething hatred for it.
It's books like this that make me respect fiction writing all the more. Maguire shows how hard it really is to create a good story.
El wrote: "My mom got this for me once years ago because she knows my love of Baum, the Wizard of Oz, etc. I couldn't make it through it. I finally sold it back, mostly unread. I felt bad because I hardly ..."
Yeah, I mostly felt bad for the book, because Elpheba is so boring where she should have been fascinating. She's like the middle sister from Downton Abbey.
Sorry this one is such a bummer, it seems people either adore this series or just spit it back out as you have, I think I'll continue to avoid it. Have you seen the stageshow though? I've heard good things.
I'm seeing it tomorrow on Broadway!
I hope you enjoy the production more than this book!
Ooooh, I missed the Broadway part. That is even better! I'm sure the cast has changed a bit since I saw the show in, like, '05 but I still feel pretty confident in saying that you are in for a treat.
The Broadway belt has saved many mediocre shows, including this one. Was the theater filled?