"Wicked" - The Book - Opinions?

[grinningghost]

I'm just about to start reading Wicked. My mom read it and thought it was "OK, but weird". My DD thought it was awesome.

What were your opinions?

 

[DISUNC]

I read it...BUT it was a hard book to get through!

 

[grinningghost]

I read it...BUT it was a hard book to get through!

That's exactly what my mom said. She said it kept jumping from easily understood text to weird, flowery, off-on-tangents stuff.

This should be an interesting read.

 

[DISUNC]

That's exactly what my mom said. She said it kept jumping from easily understood text to weird, flowery, off-on-tangents stuff.

This should be an interesting read.

It was very weird in spots!!!! NOT FOR KIDS

 

[grinningghost]

It was very weird in spots!!!! NOT FOR KIDS

Yeah, so I've heard.

 

[Thats_for_Shore]

I am a person that ALWAYS has to finish a book I start. If I wasn't one of those kinds of people, I probably would have given up on this book.

It was...interesting. But hard to get through. It takes some imagination. Some things were just hard to follow.

 

[::Snow_White::]

I read it a couple months ago.
Not what I expected.
Good book, but I agree it was a bit weird and it took me awhile to understand it. I thought about putting it up and reading something else, but I wanted to finish it at the same time.

 

[grinningghost]

I guess my next question is, if you've seen the musical AND read the book - do they follow one another closely or not?

 

[Thats_for_Shore]

I haven't seen the musical -- but I'd like to.

 

[Mocharilla]

Definatly, no, they do NOT follow each other closely. I won't say anything, as not to spoil anything for one who hasn't seen/read them, but no, definatly not.

The book deals a lot more with her life before, is much more inapproprite, and has a very different ending. There's maybe 100 pages that are even remotely similar.

I LOVED the musical (was a huge Idina Menzel fan from when she was in Rent, so I had to see it, and fell in love), so I figured I'd read the book. Hated it.

Totally different, and totally not for kids, like others have said.

Also, no happy ending. Whatsoever.

PS - Also, Fiyero is married in the books. BIG difference there.

 

[grinningghost]

You really have to wonder WHY this book is so popular and just about everyone thinks it's pretty awful????

I'm leaving the computer right now to dive in to this monstrosity - I'll let you know what I think.

 

[helenabear]

I read the book twice... I didn't like it either time. I gave it a second shot, but too much in the book was just weird to me and a lot of it was honestly creepy to me. Not very good writing IMO. I gave the author a second chance and read the Snow White version "Mirror Mirror" and that was even worse. I am interested more in Son of a Witch and the Confessionds of an Ugly Stepsister just out of curiosity.

It's funny though, if you see reviews on Amazon.com it gets much better revies than it does in "real world" conversations IMO.

 

[bekkiz]

Well, dissenting opinion here, but I rather enjoyed the book. The sequel is pretty good too, but I haven't liked any of his other stuff.

I saw the show as well, and loved it, but like someone already said, they are very different stories.

 

[Christine]

Not a bad book--a bit odd, but one of those books I liked more after I reflected on it later.

No, the musical doesn't really follow the book. The musical is a bit more upbeat.

 

[Mocharilla]

You really have to wonder WHY this book is so popular and just about everyone thinks it's pretty awful????

I'm leaving the computer right now to dive in to this monstrosity - I'll let you know what I think.

I think people love it without reading it, because the musical is good. I hear people ALL THE TIME saying it's so good and stuff, and the things they list as stuff they love aren't existant in the book. I constantly hear the "Elphie gets a happy ending! " and it's like "You did not read the book."

I read the book twice... I didn't like it either time. I gave it a second shot, but too much in the book was just weird to me and a lot of it was honestly creepy to me. Not very good writing IMO. I gave the author a second chance and read the Snow White version "Mirror Mirror" and that was even worse. I am interested more in Son of a Witch and the Confessionds of an Ugly Stepsister just out of curiosity.

It's funny though, if you see reviews on Amazon.com it gets much better revies than it does in "real world" conversations IMO.

I agree. I tried to give it a second chance and gave up. It's horrible writing. No offence is Gregory Maguire is reading these boards, but it's just so hard to follow. I felt like I was reading Lord of the Rings all over, but this time it was worse.

Also, all the sex stuff kinda got to me. It's like, if I wanted to read this, I'd read erotica. It totally ruined my vision of Elphie!

I tried to read Son of a Witch. Just as bad, if not worse.

They were both books I came out of feeling like I read it, but I didn't really read it, you know? Like it was a big jumble of nonsense. Bad, bad writing.

 

[mdrob214]

I would consider myself an avid reader and I just could not get through this book. I put it down after a couple chapters and never went back. Generally, I don't do this because once I've invested some time in a book I feel like I at least need to know what happens. Didn't even bother me. I also stayed away from the musical since the book was so awful (for me) so no help there.

 

[Phedre]

I liked the first half and really disliked the second half. I think it might be helpful to read the Wizard of Oz story first (not just have seen the movie), just because there are a lot of connections made to that. But overall, I didn't care for the book. Not sure why people like it, although it is an interesting idea. And I am all about the musical version

 

[Nomi]

I loved the novel! Wicked is at the very least, in the top 10 list of books I have read. It was beautifuly written, very intelligent, and full of wonderful ambiguities that made you stop and think. I haven't seen the play, though I do want to (keeping in mind that it will be much different, and I'm sure they will give it a much more upbeat ending). It was a pleasure to read, though very much an adult book (nevermind that I read it when I was 15). How it was difficult to get through is beyond me.

 

[Mocharilla]

And I am all about the musical version

Definatly!!

 

[RachelNinja]

Uhhh ... how inappropriate is it? Because I had a 6th grader in my class read it for his latest book report ... haha, oh no!