Did you love reading The Wonderful Wizard of Oz? Did it give you a warm fuzzy when Dorothy got to go back home to Kansas; a better person for her experiences and the characters she met in Oz? If your partial to cute little munchkins and fairies, then Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire will utterly creep you out, but in a good way! If you’re like me, and crave a bit of the ‘unusual’ from time to time, then you’ll enjoy it immensely. This book describes the trials of Elphaba’s (The Wicked Witch of the West’s) life, and how those trials morphed her into such a bad egg. It also entices the reader to ask the question, “Was she really that bad or simply misunderstood?” I know, deep, right? I had no idea the answer to that very question could be so bizarre and intriguing.

This prequel to the Oz series encompasses steamy adultery, favoritism, political and economic unrest, racism, parental abuse, terrorism, gruesome murder and yes, true love for the wicked Elphaba. This very adult story-line takes place in a world made up of whimsical characters like talking animals, trolls, dwarfs, munchkinlanders (some of which are extremely promiscuous, yes promiscuous munchkins – kinda creepy, huh?), and even humans. I liked the authors use of descriptive writing; it made this world and its characters materialize so easily in my mind. I even enjoyed the shock-factor and would catch my flabbergasted expression in the mirror as I read about a particularly awful murder or bestiality scene.

This was certainly a surprisingly enjoyable read that has me empathizing with what L. Frank Baum portrayed as the epitome of evil. In this book, she has a name instead of a title and she takes on the role of heroine. I felt compassion for Elphaba because of her inability to control the worlds reaction to the physical traits she had been dealt in life. It added fuel to my own belief that environment certainly has an imprint on how your life turns out! Not all inner complexities are responsible for that or natural tendencies. I mean, come on, she was born with green skin and shark teeth! Not easy to hide THOSE anomalies.

I think that if you are open minded with a cynical twist, you’ll really enjoy this book. It’s received glowing reviews by literary genius’ who love to dissect great works as well as odd girls who are interested in tall tales that don’t leave them feeling ‘warm’ in anyway. There are no surprise endings here because we all know what happened to poor Elphaba when Dorothy showed up. Leave it to those girl-next-door types to give the smart, sexy women a bad rap. I give it 4 outta 5 Pumps, taking one for the lack of sexy vampires, of course!