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Feb 17, 2012

Noelle rated it:

Hope this makes up for the big disappointment that was #3...

EDIT: Nope, not really. Got about halfway through and lost interest. :/

4 comments like (7 people liked it)

Feb 17, 2012

Riccarla rated it:

As much as I love Maguire's Oz series, I highly recommend that you read all of them in order. Otherwise this book will make very little sense to you. It also helps if you are familiar with the original books by L. Frank Baum. Although, being familiar with the Oz books made one of the big surprises at the end of the book not a surprise for me because I knew what was going to happen.

Basically, EC (Emerald City) led by Shell Thropp, the younger brother of Elphaba and Nessarose is at wa More...

3 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jan 15, 2012

Darin rated it:

Hmmmph.I was worried about this book as I felt the Oz Chronicles had gone on too long and become increasingly hard to read. Imagine my surprise when shortly into this book I found myself completely pulled in and immersed. I was particularly impressed by the way all of these random characters and story lines were finally coming together to move forward in one narrative arc. Then halfway through the book it fell apart for me. The momentum of the narrative got lost and I felt the author kept meande More...

1 comment like (4 people liked it)

Jan 07, 2012

Randy rated it:

I have to say that this series is quite depressing. The world of Oz was originally intended for the imagination of children. This entire series is all realism. Although I usually thoroughly enjoy reading realistic things that make me think, this book just left me feeling worse. These imaginary worlds are often places of refuge and escape from this crazy world, but this book takes you deeper into the craziness. It's as if life sucks. We just have to deal with it. I read this entire series More...

1 comment like

Dec 30, 2011

Linda rated it:

"Out of Oz" is Maguire's fourth and final installment of the Wicked Years Series. Of course, I was thrilled to be sent a copy of this book to review on behalf of HarperCollins publishers, as I've been closely following these books over the past decade or so. Before reviewing the actual book, I'd like to give a brief synopsis of my thoughts on the first three books.

"Wicked: the Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West". This is by-and-large one of my most favor More...

0 comments like (5 people liked it)

Dec 16, 2011

Rick rated it:

Here is my review, posted on goodreads, Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

"The marvelous land of Oz is knotted with social unrest: The Emerald City is mounting an invasion of Munchkinland, Glinda is under house arrest, and the Cowardly Lion is on the run from the law. And look who’s knocking at the door. It’s none other than Dorothy. Yes, that Dorothy."

At long last...Gregory Maguire has completed his magical series based on L. Frank Baum's immortal OZ books. Taking on the More...

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

Dec 05, 2011

Jill rated it:

So this was the end? It seemed like it was leading off into a new series, involving the sea or waterlife that was referenced by the shell, the Chancel of Ladyfish, the lakes, Dorothy's story of the ocean and deserts of Oz, the beavers dam and implication of an ocean, plus a mention of water below Kiamo Ko and of course the water that killed Elphaba. The Atlantis quote at the end also led me to wonder whether he would be writing something to connect Atlantis or some other lost underwater world More...

1 comment like (10 people liked it)

Nov 27, 2011

Kat rated it:

Once peaceful and prosperous, the spectacular Land of Oz is knotted with social unrest: The Emerald City is mounting an invasion of Munchkinland, Glinda is under house arrest, and the Cowardly Lion is on the run from the law. And look who's knocking at the door. It's none other than Dorothy. Yes. That Dorothy.

Yet amidst all this chaos, Elphaba's granddaughter, the tiny green baby born at the close of Son of A Witch, has come of age. Now it is up to Rain to take up her broom - and her l More...

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Nov 02, 2011

Amanda rated it:

See My Full Review Here: http://www.hippiesbeautyandbooksohmy.com...

First Impressions: I can’t even begin to describe how much I have loved the entire Wicked Years series! I began with the first book, Wicked, before it ever became a hit on Broadway and beyond and absolutely loved it from the very beginning. I even fell in love with A Lion Among Men, even though I didn’t think it was the best in the series. So imagine my excitement when I was able to review this final novel in the seri More...

0 comments like (7 people liked it)

Dec 07, 2011

Thomas rated it:

An avid fan of the first book of The Wicked Years series, Wicked : The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, I had pressed through the second and third installments with a mix of pleasure and tedium. Son of a Witch was intriguing if a little slow and A Lion Among Men was slow and a little intriguing. This book, the conclusion of the series explores the unfolding war between Loyal Oz (primarily the Emerald City) and the outlying provinces (primarily Munchkinland). At its heart is Rai More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Feb 15, 2012

Elisse rated it:

For all of my Wizard of Oz fans out there, Out of Oz is the fourth and final volume in the Wicked series created and written by Gregory Maguire. Since I am starting this blog long after I began my adventure with Maguire, I feel I can only review on this most recent work of his that is freshest in my mind.

Maguire is a genius. It is simple as that. He writes in a weaving, complex, colorful and admirable way that leaves his readers speculating at the end of each passage. He More...

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Dec 29, 2011

Jpmist rated it:

Oh, my. It's two weeks since I started this and I'm not half way thru. I want so much to like this book, but it's hard to keep my interest from flagging. Things do happen, but it seems like much of the narrative consists of going one place and then another, splitting up, then going back from the point of view of yet another character. When that happens we drill back to events that happened two books ago and view them in a new light.

No wonder the book drags. And then you have the exhau More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 28, 2011

Adwoa rated it:

I don't even remember how Wicked came into my life. I think I (and maybe also the publishing world) was on a kick of fairy tales and fables fleshed into novel-length complications. From Diana Wynne Jones and Robin McKinley, it was a short leap to Gregory Maguire. I read and loved his retellings of Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty, hated the book Lost, and thought I might as well give his crack at the Wizard of Oz a go.

Maguire is a master of making the personal political and the politic More...

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Dec 03, 2011

Brittany rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

5 comments like (1 person liked it)

Nov 21, 2011

Mel rated it:

As someone who absolutely loved Wicked, I HAD to know how Maguire would end it. For me, the first book in this series was so magical. By giving Elphaba a backstory, Maguire made me feel sympathy for a character I had always known to hate, the evil Wicked Witch of the West. Knowing his writing style and the fact the the two previous books in this series did not go over too well, I was hesitant but curiosity got the better of me. For those who have not read the entire series so far, the book begin More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Nov 14, 2011

Holden rated it:

I have really enjoyed this series, and as it has gone on it has corrected most of the things that I haven't liked about certain books. Knowing Maguire's writing style I wasn't all too sure what to expect from this and it definitely went in directions I didn't see coming.

Like the other books in this series time passes slowly and quickly at times, only pausing to show narrative at key moments. The main character in this book was in many ways an intriguing yet hard to understand charact More...

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Feb 22, 2012

Stephanie rated it:

This book was brilliantly written.....if you are a person who has read the L. Frank Baum stories of Oz. You have to get through The Marvelous Land of Oz in order to truly appreciate the characters of this piece. Half of them are in there merely to tie it to Baum's works. Son of a Witch and A Lion Among Men are both very frustrating in that they seem to occur alongside Baum's works, yet they don't tie in with each other. As another reviewer said, the end of Out of Oz is no surprise if you have re More...

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Dec 25, 2011

Ranting rated it:

http://www.rantingdragon.com/out-of-oz-t...

Out of Oz is the fourth and final volume in Gregory Maguire’s The Wicked Years series. Released in November of 2011 by William Morrow, it is preceeded by Wicked, Son of a Witch, and A Lion Among Men. Wicked has also been adapted into a Tony-winning musical of the same name. All four books are built around L. Frank Baum’s Oz series, but from the view of characters other than Dorothy Gale.

Getting your dreams… seems a little, well, More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Jan 02, 2012

Chris rated it:

Here's what I think happened: Gregory Maguire wrote Wicked. Not a great book by my standards... but certainly a good one, and it offered a unique spin on a series of books beloved the world over. Wicked is a hit, but moreover the book is turned into a Broadway musical. The musical is (again, my opinion) FAR more successful than the book, both commercially and artistically.

Maguire decides to write more books taking place in Oz, but he's already told the best story so we get three mea More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Nov 20, 2011

Andres rated it:

Having read the previous three volumes in the Wicked series, I was eager to read this final entry in the hopes that it would fulfill the promise (and premise) of what came before.

The author is in full form here, his writing style as consistent as ever. That's both good and bad in that you still get lots of description of places and things, but it comes with that aloofness that has characterized a lot of the series. I think the first one was the most exciting and interesting because it More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Dec 13, 2011

Derek rated it:

This was a great ending to a great series. One long-running theme in Maguire’s books is that of kids with terrible childhoods. Elphaba’s was bad, she in turn was a horrible mother to poor little Liir. Brr (the Cowardly Lion) is just a mess. And now comes the story of Liir and Candle’s daughter Rain.

In order to keep her identity hidden from those that would do her harm, Liir had a spell put on her that would disguise her green skin. He then foisted her upon Lady Glinda for safe-keepin More...

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Jan 18, 2012

Noelani rated it:

I really wish I could give this more stars... I really do. Wicked was awesome. Wicked was fantastic, it was... Yeah. But the series really never needed to go any further. Not to say that I haven't enjoyed it, or that I won't read it again... but Wicked was a hard act to follow.

It took me awhile to get into this book, not because it wasn't interesting-but because I simply didn't care. I didn't care about the characters, I didn't care about what was going to happen next... by t More...

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Jan 06, 2012

Blair rated it:

A glorious finale to a beautiful series! "Out Of Oz" combines the best aspects of fantasy, fable and mirth. Some may argue that Maguire may get a little too flamboyant and stretch out unnecessary lines of dialogue and/or descriptive narrative but it comes with the territory of fully realized characters. Every single person represented in these pages has received full treatment at one point or another in the series.

Maguire manages to blur the lines between fantasy and reality with t

More...

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Nov 25, 2011

Megan rated it:

Gregory Maguire has a way with words, and a subtlety in his storytelling that one cannot help but admire. This final chapter in the Wicked series manages to bring together most of the story lines from the previous books. There was something about this book, however, that was not as enjoyable as the first two. A Lion Among Men was also not as tightly told. In these last two installations, it was almost as though Maguire had so many ideas for this vast world of Oz he's created from Baum's origi More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Nov 19, 2011

Dani rated it:

The thing with Gregory Maguire is that he takes a chapter to say what he could say in 2 or 3 pages. This book could have been half as long as it is without losing anything plot-wise. I'd have no problem reading long-winded writing as long as the writing was unique, experimental, good-quality, etc., but there is nothing prolific about Maguire's use of words here. He just seems to be going on and on and on about trite things. Overall, the quality of writing seems better here than in past Maguire n More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Nov 27, 2011

Chris rated it:

Eleven years ago I fell in love with Wicked. I closed the cover after finishing it the first time ( I rarely re-read a book but have done so with Wicked three times) and was completely enamored with the world of Oz and its inhabitants. Then along came Son of A Witch and I wasn't nearly as pleased as I was with Wicked but that last line "she cleaned up green" was a promise of good things to come for me. A Lion Among Men I read feeling I owed it to the series and I eagerly awaited Out Of More...

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Nov 25, 2011

Galinda rated it:

As the final book in the series I could not wait to get my hands on Out Of Oz. I had heard some rumors about how it would start and I was so eager to read it. After begging my Mom to go out to 6 different stores, we finally found it.
I devoured it in one night's time. As an avid fan of the book and the musical I thought that it was a great ending to the series. Although I love the books, I also find Maguire's writing style to be a bit difficult to understand. He doesn't fully explain everyt More...

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Nov 16, 2011

Jessa rated it:

I think this book is wonderful. That said, if you haven't read the series, do not pick the finale up as a starting point. This book is heavily based upon past books' events and characters. Though this book is wonderful, if complicated and sometimes almost too complex. But in some ways it makes it an even better. Maguire takes a children's story and makes it complex and rich for adults and are children the only ones who need lessons on morality? This story certainly is a lesson on morality w More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 28, 2012

Cassy rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

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Nov 13, 2011

Danielle rated it:

Loved this book! It was almost as good as Wicked. Whereas Son of a Witch and A Lion Amongst Men both tended to wander and feel a bit random, this book had the epic good versus evil feel as Wicked. Dorothy comes back to Oz, Elphaba's lineage comes back to reclaim her mantle, and other characters from books past - Glinda, Brrr, Liir, Candle, the Time Clock Dragon, Cherrystone, Shell, and others - come back, and new characters are introduced in the final story in the Wicked series. I couldn't p More...

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