Wicked

I embarked on reading Wicked because it got an amazing number of good reviews on Amazon and I hadn't heard any bad things about it. The book wasn't really what I expected . . .

The book is surprisingly more political than any other book that I've read, I guess that's not saying much since I hate politics. It goes into a lot of detail about the different political groups in Oz, their beliefs, their problems and their work either for or against the Wizard of Oz.

Dorothy is only in the book for a grand total of 5 pages, so if you're looking for something that more closely resembles the movie you loved, this isn't the book for you. I would instead suggest the musical, which is much more superficial when it comes to morals of the story and endings.

After I finished the book I went onto Wikipedia to see the plot of the musical and they were like two different things entirely! Except for a few instances where the characters or the story are similar to the book, it's completely different. It seems like the musical is much more, and should be, musical. I mean that it has more about friendships, love will conquer all and pretty musical numbers and sparkly costumes.

I'm assuming that a lot of the people that gave Wicked good reviews are either biased toward political novels, or have seen the musical before reading the book.

Make of it what you will, but the sparkly shoes, flying monkey, and Wizard of Oz couldn't make this a must read.