A friend of mine recommended this book to me, so my expectations were high. Soon, however, I began to despair of Maguire's style: his narrative moves very fast, leaves a lot (intentionally) untold, and gives very little access to the characters' motivations. We only get inside the Witch's head in the last quarter of the book, which I think is one of the weaknesses of Wicked, as it claims to be an exploration of the main character's relationship with good and evil.
There is a lot going on for a book of this length: lots of characters, political, religious and moral speculations, as well as other intriguing themes. None of these were developed even half-way of their potential which I found very…
A friend of mine recommended this book to me, so my expectations were high. Soon, however, I began to despair of Maguire's style: his narrative moves very fast, leaves a lot (intentionally) untold, and gives very little access to the characters' motivations. We only get inside the Witch's head in the last quarter of the book, which I think is one of the weaknesses of Wicked, as it claims to be an exploration of the main character's relationship with good and evil.
There is a lot going on for a book of this length: lots of characters, political, religious and moral speculations, as well as other intriguing themes. None of these were developed even half-way of their potential which I found very disappointing.
I think a more thorough knowledge of the Oz books would have helped, as they would perhaps shed some light on details and plot twists that to me were mostly unnecessary and confusing.
On the plus side, I enjoyed Maguire's fluent writing and his unusual metaphors. If it hadn't been for these I probably would have put down the book after the first chapter and wouldn't have picked it up again.
