Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West (The Wicked Years, #1)

This was a tough one. Read for a new book club that I joined, fit the excitement of the new Wicked movie. I’ve seen both the movie & the play and loved both so was excited to read this, although it’s been sitting unread on my bookshelf for 10+ years. I also knew that the book was heavily political, and I’m not usually into fantasy, which were probably other reasons why I never picked it up. So here we go; to start off the book is written by a man. And even though it’s mostly through the lens of Elphaba, a female lead, it’s still written BY a man, and we see a lot of the male perspective. So basically lots of fetishization of women / delves into taboo beauty of women. Lots of weird emphasis on the sex life of Elphaba and Fiyero, talks about the pattern of her pubic hair and the crack of her ass cheeks? Ummm ok. There’s also a lot of made-up gibberish words, which is common in fantasy, but a little hard to follow. Made up nationalities, mythological creatures, etc. By mid book you’re kinda used to it but hard to wrap your head around at first. Seems like a lot of politics / political views thrown in where it doesn’t fit, which is something I’ve seen a lot of in other reviews. Basically suggests that higher education is corrupt and has ties to the government and propaganda. Ex: Madame Morrible working closely with the wizard, puts a spell on the girls to alter their life paths, make them pawns of the Wizard. The wizard sees himself as good & “unifying” oz, but he’s really destroying it. He takes away Animals rights to teach , speak and by the end even exist. Brainwashing the people, they don’t want to ask questions and risk getting caught. “Madame Morrible had a choice. No one was better placed than she to see that her students got an education and not a brainwashing. She sold out all of her students who believed that a liberal education meant learning to think for themselves” Glinda is so superficial - she’s the kind of person who can be bought. She knows what