This was a reread for me and honestly I enjoyed just as much as the first time albeit in a different way.

I can see why this book doesn't work for a lot of people, I've never seen the play so I can't comment on that, but I will say that this is a book for the Return to Oz girlies more than anything else lol. Everyone is terrible, being in their heads is frustrating and nearly always tap dancing along the line of being outright offensive, the writing sways between dry and obtuse, occasionally drifting towards feeling almost antagonistic to the reader and what you might think of it. 

But, when it works it really does work. This book made me laugh at things I wouldn't have guessed I could find funny,  there are things in this that are so out of pocket that it got such animated reactions from me that i had to physically get up and go tell someone what I'd just read (philosophy club I'm looking at you), and while yes it absolutely is a slog to get through at times, it is dark and bleak and only gets bleaker because everyone knows how Elphabas story ends, I'm still so glad I decided to read this again and took my time with it because I really think it benefits from being drawn out instead of inhaled in a couple of sittings.