Sorry! I was sick last week! You guys don't have to wait for me to start a discussion. But since you did, what did you guys think of the book?

it gets easier to read every time. but i remember, the first time i read it....it was shocking and...blunt. and more explicit than i thought it would be.

Compared to the musical, which I saw before I read this it was a huge shock. I wasn't expecting it to be as provacative as it was nor did I expect the story to go the way it did. A lot of the characters annoyed me greatly because they blamed Elphaba for their problems when she was helping them. UGH!

I've never read this book before, and I've never seen the musical before either, although I have heard a lot about both.

To be honest, it's not my favorite book. It was a big rollercoaster for me, because at one point I would be really really into the scene and interested in what was going on, but then it would start to drag on and on and it would be difficult to get through it.

The whole book was kind of like that for me, so it made me sad that I felt like I was only interested less than half the time xD It almost felt like the author was trying to put far too much information dumps at one time.

I really loved the tone of the book, but the lagged scenes really made it hard for me to finish sometimes. I wish it had been edited in a different way to make all of the political information and ideas and rants to be spread out a little more.

But! I absolutely love and adore Nanny. That character is pure gold and I loved every single scene she was in. <3 I wish she had been in the book more.

I haven't seen the musical but I've listened to the soundtrack but I love Wicked and I think the Wicked series is one of my top favorite book series. I personally loved the characters in the book and I liked they were presented in such flawed ways instead of their idealized versions they're presented as in Baum's original novel and the MGM movie. I liked how Maguire combined elements from both the MGM film and the canon of the novel with his own original storylines and elements. My favorite character is actually Galinda. I love how she starts off being very materalistic and snobby towards Elphaba but the two become closer friends during the story and one of my favorite moments is when

Spoiler:

According to Maguire, he confirmed that Elphaba and Galinda did have something of a fling together during the journey to the Emerald City. I really loved how Maguire explored the political and religious climate of Oz and how much it paralled the religious and political issues of our own society. Another one of my favorite moments is when

Spoiler:

. That was just such a sad scene and I loved the novel's beautiful ending. Will we discuss the questions in the book discussion edition thing of Wicked that was mentioned earlier in the thread too? And are we also going to do a book discussion of the sequels? There's three more books in the Wicked series after this one.

Are there really three of them? I had no idea. I knew of only one more book after this one.

I agree with you. I also loved how flawed all of the characters were. It really makes it interesting to read because they feel much more real than perfect characters.

I just had trouble sometimes with certain scenes that felt really bogged down in unneeded details that made me not quite love the book as much as I wanted.

I like that you said that the author confirmed a little fling between Elphaba and Galinda. I loved Galinda too, she was such a bright character that really developed throughout the whole book. It was a treat to see her grow and expand.

Nanny is still my absolute favorite though. I love how accepting of *everything* she was, and how she could be blunt when it was needed and got people to think differently on problems. I really love her xD

There's Son of a Witch, A Lion Among Men, and the last book, Out of Oz. You might like Son of a Witch better, Verdandi, as I personally felt like it was more tightly paced and better refined than Wicked was as much as I love Wicked. A lot of diehard Wicked fans really hate Son of a Witch though but I personally loved it.

Also it is Anjyu's turn to choose the book. So let us know what you would like us to read Anjyu!

i have Son of a Witch, and Lion Among Men. it's amazing how the characters interweave together so nicely. so looking forward to Out of Oz!!!

Verdandi wrote:

I like that you said that the author confirmed a little fling between Elphaba and Galinda. I loved Galinda too, she was such a bright character that really developed throughout the whole book. It was a treat to see her grow and expand.

Gregory Maguire is himself gay and is married with kids. This is a cute little video about their family: http://www.oprah.com/relationships/Incredible-Fathers-and-Their-Families/10

Neon, that is awesome :3 Thank you for sharing it. I shall have to check out the other books in this series at some point!

Are we already moving on to another book though? It feels like there was next to no discussion on this book at all. I think people forgot about this thing! xD

well i know Venus had discussion points in the back of her book...if i had them, i'd be posting them. so maybe if we had something specific to discuss...?