Wicked: The Life & Times of the Wicked Witch of the West (Wicked Years 1) by Gregory Maguire
My Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
By now, you’re probably well aware that I’ve loved Wicked the Musical for years. I can sing just about every song from memory (or at least, a few lines from each of them😂) and quote all my favorite parts, and yes, I’ve seen the movie adaption multiple times. I’ve even preordered my DVD!
All that aside, I must admit this is the first time I’ve read the book. I know, I know: how? I don’t have a reason—it just happened that way. I’d heard that the book was different from the stage and movie adaptions but that’s nothing new. Almost all adaptions of a piece of media are different and distinct from one another. What I didn’t expect was how different they are from each other.
The book is definitely darker and has a harsher lens than the musical for sure, but isn’t that usually the case? The reason, I think, for many of the differences between media adaptions is budget, technological capability/practicality, and time. You can’t perfectly replicate a 400-page book on the screen or stage. For one, it would probably be too long (though I don’t think many of us minded the fact that part 1 was about 3 hours!) and secondly it would be too costly. So I get it. They couldn’t pull off all the settings, cast/characters, and the depth of Wicked’s message and themes on the screen.
But they also gave us a more palpable version of the main characters than the versions we meet in the book. Something I really hadn’t expected was how sharp Elphaba was on the page. Shrewd and unwilling to feel, Elphaba habitually ignores or outright refuses to acknowledge the fact that she has a soul. It’s a blatant lie she tells herself because, in my opinion, the very nature of her empathizing with the Animals and recognizing the Wizard for what he is, she very much has a heart and we can therefore assume she has a soul.
Galinda/Glinda is quite possibly the worst version of herself in the book. On the screen and stage, we see cracks in her masquerade. We see her indecisiveness and hesitation. There wasn’t much of that in the book. Glinda knows who she is and what her convictions are, and like many people, doesn’t want to rock the boat or care enough to fight for her convictions. So she goes about her life and whatever observances she makes, she largely keeps them to herself unless she’s hoping to preserve life—specifically her way of life—as she knows it.
In so many ways, the book version is better. It’s richer (if you can believe that!) and expands on all the questions we’re left with after the stage or screen adaption if you’re like me and didn’t read it first. With a world as rich as Maguire’s version of Oz, it feels real, especially when overlaid with allegories that remain relevant to our world today. I have nothing but admiration for Wicked and the book has only made me fonder of it.
Definitely a 5-star read and I highly recommend it to anyone who wants the untamed version of the movie/musical. If you like gritty, realistic worldbuilding with tragically “human” characters and a little bit of spice (not too much and not so graphic but definitely alluded and sometimes right there on the page), Wicked would be a great addition to your TBR. But be warned: you might have your heart ripped out in the end. I sat in stunned silence for a few minutes with that ending but I’m ready to dive head first into the sequel, Son of Witch, because I can’t get enough of Oz and need to know the rest of the Wicked Years saga.