Wicked

The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West

By: Gregory Maguire

Narrated by: John McDonough

Length: 19 hrs and 42 mins

Publisher's summary

Heralded as an instant classic of fantasy literature, Maguire has written a wonderfully imaginative retelling of The Wizard of Oz told from the Wicked Witch's point of view. More than just a fairy tale for adults, Wicked is a meditation on the nature of good and evil.

Elphaba is born with green skin, a precocious mind, and a talent for magic. An outcast throughout her childhood in Munchkinland, she finally begins to feel as though she fits in when she enters the University in the Emerald City. While she hones her skills, she discovers that Oz isn't the Utopia it seems. She sets out to protect its unwanted creatures, becoming known as the Wicked Witch along the way.

Narrator John McDonough draws you in to Maguire's magical world of witches and talking animals, making it possible to believe in a land somewhere over the rainbow.

©1995 Gregory Maguire (P)2000 Recorded Books, LLC

Critic reviews

"A staggering feat of wordcraft." (Los Angeles Times)
"McDonough's excellent portrayals of Elphaba's outspoken, gravel-voiced nanny, Glinda's snobbish friends, and the wide-eyed, soft-spoken Dorothy make this excursion to Oz worthwhile." (Publishers Weekly)

slow but great

The beginning of this book is a little tedious and slow but if you push through the beginning it begins to catch your attention a lot better. the story was magnificent and I enjoyed it a lot once I pushed through the beginning.

Fantastic book, well-read performance

Obviously this classic is an amazing story. The narrator does a fantastic job with the reading and it is such a thrilling, provoking read and listen.

My only resistance to giving it 5 stars is the way the story is broken up. If you are strictly listening, it will not be an issue. However, I like to alternate between physically reading and listening to books. Because the narration isn’t broken into different sections for the numbered chapters, it is difficult to jump back and forth. Additionally, a large part of the “The Murder and its Afterlife” section is actually in the part titled “End Credits,” which can be confusing.

Engaging

Book is wonderful, pulled me in beyond what I expected. Meticulously addresses the original books, though I admit it's been years since I read them and should probably have revisited them before starting Wicked. The last act seems to especially want to address the original movie version as well.
Excellent character development and wonderful writing style brought Oz to life.
My "complaints" though... some things seemed to happen because the author tried TOO hard to explain and tie into the novel and the movie.
Elphaba is drawn to help us sympathize with and understand her, but the last act of the book made her seem like she had simply gone mad. I liked her so much that I feel she deserved better than this. In fact, I think the whole last act of the book was rushed and pandered to explaining the movie specificlly, even down to why Glinda was wearing that dress. While I did thoroughly enjoy the narrator, and I know Elphaba becomes not just a witch, but The Wicked Witch, there were times I was sure I would not have read her voice as sharply and bitchy as the narrator did. It feels like I was being manipulated to see her a certain way. .perhaps this is the author's intent but I found it bothersome. And I don't feel like her drive for forgiveness and her reasons for obsessing over getting her sister's shoes back were "in character" for the girl we had gotten to know. Her scenes with Dorothy left me a bit cold. I'm also sorry that Liir was such a soft character but I'm still giving the second book a chance now.

lovely wanting more

I loved this book I can not wait to start the next book it's wonderful I can not wait.. it has changed my point of view on a lot of things can't give too much away ^.^ but it's so good a must listen

Great narration, shoddy story.

I want to start put by saying the narrator was fabulous, really. if it weren't for his diction and character voices I truly don't know how I would have finished this book.

The book on the other hand was extremely difficult to get through. The language used was beautiful, and actually kind of reminiscent of the original Oz books. The story , however; was dry and bogged down with unnecessary details in politics, religion, and sex.
I've never seen/listened to the musical so this was my first exposure to the story. I felt as though I didn't know what was going on for most of the time. I could understand the author wanting to build up a world where the politics of rights and rulings we're involved. I can even understand creating religion for the characters. Even having the characters be passionate about these things are fine but I felt less like I was listening to a story and more like I was listening to a dissertation.
And don't get me started on the sex. This is clearly written for adults, yes, but the way in which anything sexual was written was nauseating. The author's fixation on certain things through his characters was too much and terrible to sit through. And truthfully I feel that maybe 20% of the sexual content was even needed for character development and story.
I truthfully didn't even feel like I was hearing a cohesive story for the most part, the last chapter had the most for me and could have been a book in itself.
All in all if you're looking to get lost in a more adult Oz this isn't it. At least not for me.

This needs to be redone

You can hear every swallow, inhalation, and stomach noises of the narrator. It’s is very distracting! I know this is a well loved narrator, so I suspect it is the recording quality and no fault of the narrator himself.

As for the story, it was ok. It was slow in parts and unnecessarily sexual (at times perversely so) for no real reason. I’m far from a prude but some of these passages were so cringey, for example a multi-endowed puppet pleasuring mother and child, a child experiencing his first erection while observing CPR and some beastiality in a sex club.

A love of the World of Oz

I listened to this book because of my love of the Broadway musical. This book was amazing and I recommend it to anyone who has fallen in love with the world of Oz, whether from Broadway, Film or the Original book by L. Frank Baum. Thank you Gregory Maggie’s for this interesting twist on a classic story.

Wonderful!

I enjoyed it from the very beginning. The narration is spectacular! What a very nice addition to all things Oz.

Magical

My 3rd time listening to this book. Great job, great story. highly recommend for a beginner or advanced reader

Pretty Good

The story was good and the narrator was good- mostly. But sometimes he noisily cleared his throat and it was very off-putting.