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Title | Wicked
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Author | Gregory Maguire
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Cover Art | ---
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Publisher | HarperCollins - 2007
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First Printing | Regan Books - 1995
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Title | Son of a Witch
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Author | Gregory Maguire
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Cover Art | Trish Cramblet
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Publisher | HarperCollins - 2008
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First Printing | William Morrow - 2005
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Title | A Lion Among Men
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Author | Gregory Maguire
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Cover Art | Douglas Smith (?)
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Publisher | HarperCollins - 2010
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First Printing | William Morrow - 2008
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Title | Out of Oz
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Author | Gregory Maguire
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Title | Tales Told in Oz
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Author | Gregory Maguire
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Title | Elphie
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Author | Gregory Maguire
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Title | Wicked: The Graphic Novel, Part 1
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Author | Gregory Maguire
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Illustrator | Scott Hampton
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Publisher | William Morrow - 2025
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First Printing | William Morrow - 2025
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 Wicked
When Dorothy triumphed over the Wicked Witch of the West in L. Frank Baum's classic tale, we heard only her side of the story. But what about her archnemesis, the mysterious Witch? Where did she come from? How did she become so wicked?
Gregory Maguire creates a fantasy world so rich and vivid we will never look at Oz the same way again. Wicked is about a land where animals talk and strive to be treated like first-class citizens, Munchinkinlanders seek the comfort of middle-class stability, and the Tin Man becomes a victim of domestic violence. And then there is the little green-skinned girl named Elphaba, who will grow up to become the infamous Wicked Witch of the West - a smart, prickly, and misunderstood creature who challenges all our preconceived notions about the nature of good and evil.
Son of a Witch
In this captivating New York Times bestseller, beloved author Gregory Maguire returns to the land of Oz and introduces us to Liir, an adolescent boy last seen hiding in the shadows of the castle after Dorothy did in the Witch.
Bruised, comatose, and left for dead in a gully, Liir is shattered in spirit as well as in form.At the Cloister of Saint Glinda the silent novice Candle tends to him, willing him back to life with her unusual 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 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?
Wicked: The Graphic Novel, Part 1
Experience the magic of Oz as you’ve never seen it before with this brand-new graphic novel adaptation of Gregory Maguire’s masterpiece Wicked, the inspiration for the Broadway show and major motion picture—the first in a two-part series featuring gorgeous full-color illustrations by Scott Hampton.
Like Dorothy when she crash-landed all those years ago, prepare to be swept into a new and colorful world in this first-ever graphic novel adaptation of Wicked. While the long-running Broadway musical and major motion picture take inspiration from this iconic novel, this is Oz as Gregory Maguire wrote it—a fantastical story with dark edges that explores morality and ambition, love and friendship, and discovering one’s inner power.
Elphaba was born with emerald-green skin—no easy burden in a land as mean and poor as Oz, where superstition and magic are not strong enough to explain or overcome the natural disasters of flood and famine. Still, Elphaba is smart, and by the time she enters Shiz University, she becomes a member of a charmed circle of Oz’s most promising young citizens.
But Elphaba’s Oz is no utopia. The Wizard’s secret police are everywhere. Animals—those creatures with voices, souls, and minds—are threatened with exile. Young Elphaba, green and wild and misunderstood, is determined to protect the Animals—even if it means combating the mysterious Wizard, even if it means risking her single chance at romance. Ever wiser in guilt and sorrow, she can find herself grateful when the world declares her a witch. And she can even make herself glad for that young girl from Kansas.
I saw the musical on Broadway some years ago, long before it became the craze that it is today. I then started to collect the books. I loved the cover and the coloured edges of the mass market paperback so the thing that made me hold off for so very very long, was that I kept holding out the hope that the fourth book would come out in a similar a style. No luck, the mass market paperback is a dying breed, after all why sell a book for $10 when you can sell the exact same thing, just in a tall size (I wonder if its truly more paper, it might be taller but it might have less pages since you can fit more words on a page) for double the price. So when this recent craze for the musical hit I decided it was time to stop waiting, asked for the fourth book for Christmas last year and started reading. Just sad that all four books will never live together on my bookshelf.
Wicked was...dark. Like really, really dark. Everyone was pretty well cruel to everyone else and was a bit depressing to read. I mean, if you read my review of the Wizard of Oz series I said something similar, in that all the characters were mean to each other, but in a childish kind of way. These books are of course for adults and they are mean in a more adult way. Everyone is pretty well depressed, including Glinda who you think is the good witch but in reality she's just pretty so we assume she's good, she doesn't really do many good things. Elphaba at least is a kind of resistance fighter, even if her resistance is sort of, well, just being pissed off at the world and lashing out at it.
Son of a Witch was...dark. In a different way. Elphaba at least more or less knew who she was. Liir on the other hand doesn't even know if he's Elphaba's son, there are some hints that he might be but certainly nothing remotely concrete. He spends there quarters of the book just sort of wandering aimlessly feeling sorry for himself. It's only in the last quarter does he start to develop a personality and a purpose and things get interesting. I was sad it stopped when it did since it was just getting good.
A Lion Among Men was...consistent with the other books. The Cowardly Lion wasn't so much cowardly as just ineffectual. He couldn't figure out where he belonged in the world, found it hard to make any decisions, didn't know his past or who his family was, though this unravels as we dig into the mysterious character of Yackle who has appeared throughout these three books. Let's just say her story was pretty interesting, if bizarre, along with another encounter with the Clock of the Time Dragon. The glass cat was also an intriguing creation, a cat so old, so brittle, its become nearly transparent and is a pet of the Lion. But this book too was dark, everyone's lives kind of sucks, everyone is miserable, and nobody seems to have a purpose. Well, one more book, maybe we'll see if it can end on a more upbeat feel?
As for the graphic novel...I'm debating if I liked the artwork. The story of course is the same as the first book (well at this moment, the first half), but I found it was so pale sometimes that you nearly miss out on the fact that Elphaba is green, which of course is a key point of the story. And didn't Fiyero have diamonds not stars for tattoos? But it was also nice that it did have a watercolour feel to it, and not be a standard kind of graphic novel.
Review by Politically Correct:
Set in the mystical land of Oz, Wicked and Son of a Witch are a must read for anyone who wants a different perspective on the classic fairytale. The story follows the Wicked Witch of the West as she travels around Oz, and makes you wonder: is Elphaba really the 'wicked witch?' The book Wicked inspired a Broadway musical by the same name, and is now destined to be another Oz classic. Son of a Witch, the sequel, is set after the Witch melts, and follows the story of Liir, the mysterious child that followed Elphaba throughout her journeys. The story is very well written, and I would recommend it to anyone who loves fantasy. I'd also recommend Mirror, Mirror and The Ugly Stepsister by Gregory Maguire as well.
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