As you know, I have a bit of a growing obsession with Wicked the musical and may admit to having seen it twice in less than the space of a year.. anyway, I now have four new books all based around Wicked and have just finished the first, which is aptly named….you guessed it, Wicked. I have to admit that as much as I like watching the melodrama and singing along to the songs, the idea of reading a book that went along those same lines was far from appealing. In fact, the book worm that I am put off starting on the first book for a couple of days as I was that certain it wouldn’t be my cup of tea.
I have to tell you, although you can see where parts of the musical tie in to the book version of Wicked, it didn’t feel as if I were reading the memories of the musical at all. There are so many parts of the novel that I actually wish were included in the stage production. This book was filled with sexually explicit verses, vulgarity, ethical and religious dillemas all within the first chapter. What a pleasant surprise! Gregory Maguire wrote Wicked in a way that is both endearing yet exciting and extremely thought provoking.
Whilst you may be happy to take your 10 year old son or daughter to watch the musical, Wicked the novel is a bit of a no go area until they are a few years older. Unless of course you don’t mind having to sit down and have a lengthy chat on subjects such as adultery, oppression and freedom fighters. I kid you not. This book touches a few moral and political nerves which is great to be ignited in an adult but may not be suitable for younger minds who may not yet have the emotional capacity for it.
I am a little gutted I hadn’t read Wicked the novel before now as it made for fun reading. I know everyone is on their 50 shades of grey obsession at the moment and perhaps I will succumb and buy it in a year or two (I am stubborn and hate reading the ‘in thing’) but it was rather amusing watching people’s faces when I pulled out my green book with a picture of a witch on the front! If only they knew how dark and magical the words within the cover were!
The next in the Wicked series is entitled ‘Son of a Witch’ and It’ll be my commuting companion throughout the rest of this week. I’m probably the only one a little bit annoyed that the Games hasn’t caused the expected level of commuter chaos as it means less time reading to and from work! I’ll let you know how the rest of the books go, but I’d say the first one was worth the read!
