Wicked. Oh Wicked... I'm going to be 100% honest, I had no idea what I was getting into here. I absolutely adore the musical by extension now the movie. I've heard people talk about how different the book is and so I wanted to find out. The two are worlds apart and I honestly love that. The book is very not child friendly and had some moments (looking at you puppets.... and you tiger) that made me question why and what I was reading. However, I actually really enjoyed the story. I think the book does an amazing job of highlighting so many issues that impact a society. We get a look at politics, race, social class, religion, gender and a myriad of other things. The author does a fabulous job of showcasing these issues while presenting a story of a green girl who constantly has her intentions misjudged. 

 I am all about retellings and villain origin stories and I think this one is perfect because Elphie really has a good heart even if she's learned to hide herself behind sarcasm to survive in a world that judges her. She quickly picks up the plight of the disenfranchised in Oz and from then on everything just goes awry. I love that we get a different understanding of events from The Wizard of Oz that make you have to examine who the real villain actually is. I think that despite some of the weird and extreme and hidden behind a lot of wordy passages at times the book really has a deep message that can be applied to society today.