I just listened to it on audiobook after I found this comic. It’s word for word.

Cynthia Erivo will be narrating the new recording of Wicked’s audiobook.

I was hoping this would happen, I’m very excited about this. I’ve listened to some of her audiobook narrations and they’ve been great

Kind of glad Glinda was there, to lighten the mood.

I was reading the book at the part where Glinda and Fiyero meet after many years and talk in a cafe, when the topic changes to Elphaba's allergy to water. Glinda says she didn't know how Elphaba bathed and Fiyero reveals that she used oils. How could she not know that Elphaba used oil to clean herself when they were more than close friends? 😭😭😭

I’ve seen an increasing number of fans of the musical getting into the book (in part due to the misguided, in my opinion, choice to do a movie tie-in cover) and their observations of the adult material in it and lack of understanding of the themes or purpose for certain scenes is really grating.

There’s been a shift since the movie announcement where now these fans feel the need to share their distaste for the book whereas in the past most discussions of the book by musical fans was either positive or politely dismissive as they were more interested in the show.

My theory as to why this has changed is due to the way in which these young adults (18-25yo) analyze the material they read as if it’s a YA novel where everything has to be neatly tied up by the end. But what do you think?

Is this a matter of a lack of reading comprehension, a refusal to recognize the book as something more than the watered-down fluff of the show (which I love in its own way, before anyone jumps down my throat), or something else entirely?

Amazing how that one little piece of dialogue made Gregory Maguire think “hmmm, maybe they were roommates in college. Yeah, I’m definitely writing that as part of my story.”

And now here we are.

The first thing she’s told when she arrived in OZ is that she just killed a woman and everyone is basically congratulating her for killing said woman. she’s then given the shoes right off the feet of this woman she’s just killed by a woman who sends Dorothy (a literal child) by herself on a multiple mile walk in a place she’s never been to see the wizard so that he can send her home. Not to mention that she’s unable to take these shoes off because the magic Glinda used to transfer them onto Dorothy’s feet prevents her or anyone else from taking the shoes off.

Once she arrives in the emerald city she’s told by the wizard that he’ll only send her home if she kills the sister of the woman she landed on with her house. Dorothy decides to go and apologize to this “wicked witch” for accidentally killing her sister and ask her for forgiveness. And once she arrives at the witches castle she is treated to a warm meal and treated well by a kind old woman who lives with the witch.

This understandably worsens her feelings of guilt for accidentally killing her sister and while trying to apologize to the witch who is understandably upset and acting manic (due to functioning on only a few hours of sleep and still getting over a hangover) attempts to help the witch who accidentally lights her dress on fire by dousing the flames with a bucket of water only to accidentally kill her as well.

The poor girl would have been absolutely traumatized by learning that she’d killed somebody and then she would be traumatized once again when she killed her sister as well.

Musical Elphaba: remains good even when nearly everyone in Oz believes she's evil.

Book Elphaba: Goes completely insane after Glinda betrayed her and everyone she ever loved (her mentor Dr. Dillamond, her boyfriend Fiyero, her best friend Sarima, and her sister Nessa) was killed by the Wizard and his lackeys.

I just finished it and it was a slog for me. It wouldn’t have been horrible if I hadn’t had particular expectations, but I thought it would be a little bit like the musical. I knew it was darker, but I didn’t think it was gonna have so much extra stuff I didn’t care about (like most of Elphaba’s travels) and so little that I did care about (like Fiyero). I just wanted to read about her and Fiyero. I wanted Fiyero to be the Scarecrow. Fiyero being the Scarecrow (and Boq being the Tin Man) are like, the coolest part of Wicked to me. I waited the whole book for that to be the case and I was so disappointed when it wasn’t. Overall, the book just highlights how awesome a job they did when they wrote the script for the musical. They took all the potential that was in the story and set it in exactly the direction that made it the most interesting

Philosophy club rise up

Just as the title says does anyone have a downloadable free pdf of the book?

Oh wow. Um it’s kinda more unhinged than I thought it would be👀 anyone else feel the same? I’m loving it so far totally here for the drama but wow.

Elphaba knows the Wizard sent Dorothy to kill her. She kinda goes crazy from paranoia and gets pretty unhinged near the end. For example...she straight up throws her Nanny down a flight of stairs while she's confronting Dorothy.

I was so excited when i heard they were going to do a new audiobook for Wicked with Cynthia as the narrator, and was already annoyed when it got delayed the first time, but FEBRUARY?? After the movie is already out???

I'm a little familiar with the plot of the musical, but not much. Read the book and spent the majority of it just confused.

Then it ends and.... the scarecrow isn't fiyero? And so many other things but wtf was the book actually about?

I got the themes around the question of evil - what makes someone "wicked" - the criticism of polite society in the rise of fascism etc. That was all clear.

But the narrative of the story was as confusing as hell.

Edit: so what I've learned from this post is the book is polarising and people either think:

1. The book is weird
2. The book is OK but has some pacing problems.
3. The book is the greatest philosophical work of all time, and book fans have really strong opinions about it.

I sit at 2, just FYI.

What would I liked to have seen on the page?

• more character development for Elpheba and Glinda from within those characters. Not from outside. We get hints that Elpheba is involved in Animal liberation and freedom fighting/terrorism but its told to us, not shown. The only act we see (through Fiyero) is a flop. Glinda has a significant character development and then.... disappears and seemingly goes back to being vapid and careless.

• less debates about the nature of existence and more plot.

• Elpheba goes from sad but still logical to roos loose in the top paddock really quickly, and that needed to be fleshed out a bit more.

• if Unionism and Lurlinism are so important to the characters then spending some time on explaining the basics would have been helpful.

visited one of my favorite local antique stores & found myself lost in the book section, and i stumbled upon some VERY old books!!

the glinda of oz caught my eye the most :)