Title: disappointing; poorly conceived characters
Review: A couple of weeks ago, I was in a bookstore, and saw this book. I read the the introduction, and liked it. However, after buying the book and reading it, I feel disappointed with this novel. Gregory Maguire had a great idea to update the story of the Wicked Witch, portray her as a heroine, and give us an Oz for adult readers. However, I feel he tried to make the story too dark, and if this book is about the nature of evil, as he posits, then he sure makes some strange claims. I also found that he had a pessimistic conception of human nature. I have read authors that could portray characters (even in fantasy novels) that resembled real human beings with seemingly genuine thoughts/actions/emotions/lives; Maguire isn't one of those authors. In his world, just about everyone is corrupt. Overall, the book was just too dark and pessimistic for me.
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