Wicked & Son of a Witch (B&N Leatherbound Classics)

by Gregory Maguire

Paper Book, 2018

Status

Available

Call number

813

Publication

HarperCollins Publishers

Description

Wicked : the life and times of the Wicked Witch of the West: Tells the story of Elphaba before she became the Wicked Witch of the West in the land of Oz, tracing her career as nun, nurse, pro-democracy activist and animal rights defender. Son of a witch: The sequel to Wicked returns to the land of Oz to tell the story of Liir, an adolescent boy last seen hiding in the shadows of the castle after Dorothy defeated Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West. Bruised, comatose, and left for dead in a gully, Liir is shattered in spirit as well as in form. But he is tended at the Cloister of Saint Glinda by the silent novice called Candle, who wills him back to life with her musical gifts. What dark force left Liir in this condition? Is he really Elphaba's son? He has her broom and her cape, but what of her powers? Can he find his supposed half-sister, Nor, last seen in the forbidding prison, Southstairs? Can he fulfill the last wishes of a dying princess? In an Oz that, since the Wizard's departure, is under new and dangerous management, can Liir keep his head down long enough to grow up?… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member justjukka

Wicked was an interesting read, and I can see why it's so popular, but I wouldn't give it the highest praises and marks it has received. It struck me as a very popular fan-fiction more than anything else. It also felt a little too simplistic for me. All you need to know is that all the main

characters who were "good" in 'The Wizard of Oz' are now rather pretentious, and all the "evil" characters are simply "misunderstood". Maguire really cherry-picks through his references, sometimes drawing from the 1960's movie, sometimes drawing from the original Wizard of Oz series. Often enough, the conclusions he draws will greatly conflict with the Oz series, so I wouldn't make it a solid prequel for Baum's Wonderful Wizard of Oz.

Despite my feelings on "Wicked" I gave "Son of a Witch" a try. Why not? They're in the same volume. "Wicked" was incredibly depressing and crude, and its sequel was even more so.

Again, it was an interesting read, but I don't plan on picking the book up again.

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LibraryThing member Jennifyr

I just finished reading Wicked for the second time and loved it even more than I did back in high school. It was an exciting, interesting, genius reworking of the tale of Oz from the "witches" point of view, exploring the beginnings of The Wicked Witch Of The East, The Wicked Witch Of The West, and

Glinda The Good Witch, and while it is a novel that may have begun from a work already in existence, it has truly created a whole new entity in itself. Elphaba was a believable female heroine, surprisingly well written from a male point of view. The writing itself was mysterious to read, in a way that didn't talk down to it's readers but gave them something to chew on without being a mess of confusion. This is a grown up "fairy tale" enjoyed by anyone who loves to explore the well known to discover layers and layers of story underneath. A great fantasy world of love, sex, politics, family, friendship, and philosophies of good, evil, and what constitutes a soul (animal? Animal? Human? Witch?). I hate to label something as a "book club book" because I feel it always makes a work sound cheesy, but if you have friends cool enough to read this with you, it is a great book to discuss and theorize about. Maguire is a wonder of a writer, greatly crafted in intelligent sly wit mixed with great imagination, and I am excited to begin reading Son Of A Witch for the first time as soon as I have time to crack open the second half of this enchanting green tome.

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LibraryThing member CurrerBell

I've listed WICKED separately as "Read but unowned" in order to rate it with 4 stars. The actual copy that I have, though, is this Barnes & Noble "luxury" edition that includes WICKED and SON OF A WITCH, and this particular edition I rate with a half-star. It is poorly printed with defaced

typography on three or four pages, where the upper halves of some letters/words are glitched so that they do not properly align with the lower halves.

Watch out about buying this B&N edition.

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LibraryThing member salimbol

[Review of Book 2 'Son of a Witch' only]
More likeable than 'Wicked', the first book in the omnibus, if not quite as challenging, this has the same intelligence, mordant wit and salty use of language. I suspect that I will go on to read more of Maguire's work.

LibraryThing member dele2451

Storyline differs significantly from the smash Broadway musical, but both the stage and printed versions are fantastic. Spoiler Alert: Some diehard fans of the earlier Dorothy/Toto-centric tale may not appreciate this author's portrayal of their motives and behavior while hunting down the Wicked

Witch of the West. Both Wicked and Son were very entertaining reads and I enthusiastically recommend reading both consecutively.

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LibraryThing member Sara_Cat

This review is specifically about "Son of a Witch" since I read "Wicked" over 10 years ago.

Some of the world building aspects were hard to follow - though this may be due to the fact I have very vague memories of "Wicked" - so I don't really downgrade my rating of the book for that. One thing I did

like was that often Macguire would just drop a comment about something that would be common and obvious to the characters and just leave it at that without explanation. But, it was always for things that didn't change the understanding of the story to not have the details written out about. However, since there were so many made-up words within the book, it sometimes hit the mark with me to use so many obscure words to describe things that probably had a more common similar word.

Also, for most of the book it was hard to see what the point of most actions were - and, that can be a good way to set up a story where at the end the seemingly unconnected things become connected. Though that never happened.

On the whole, it felt like Macquire had decided on the main action points and flow of the story and just made the characters act so as to advance that predetermined line, even if it didn't follow what we understood the character to be like.

It sometimes felt like the author was trying to make some grand statement about something universal, but either came shy of it or got so caught up in grandiose ideas and fancy language that it all became lost.

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Fewer

Language

English

ISBN

0061714534 / 9780061714535

Local notes

Wicked, told from the perspective of Elphaba Thropp, the Wicked Witch of the West, gives the wildly entertaining prehistory of the Emerald City of Oz before the arrival of Dorothy, the Scarecrow, the Cowardly Lion, and the Tin Woodsman.

The saga continues in Son of a Witch, the whimsical coming-of-age story of Liir, the Wicked Witch's secret son.