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Jul 04, 2008

Danii rated it:

I've read a lot of reviews for this book and most people seemed to hate it. You will notice, however, that I gave this book five stars.

To those who hated it, I say this: I see what your problems are.

The story is badly paced (most of the 'action' happens in the last third), the reader spends most of the time being confused as to what's going on (while it is a third person narrative, it is limited third person), some of the characters seemed half-drawn, the narrative is v More...

9 comments like (45 people liked it)

Jan 30, 2008

Karen rated it:

I've read a lot of terrible books, but this one possibly wins the distinction of being the worst book that I have ever read. It was awful.

An explanation....I liked Wicked and I have read all of Maguire's other books. Every time a new Maguire book came out, I read it and they seemed to progressively go downhill. I didn't expect Son of s Witch to be very good, but I wanted to give it a chance.

The only reason that this book was possibly written, is due to the success of the More...

3 comments like (13 people liked it)

Oct 17, 2007

Steve rated it:

I made a mistake reading this book. I should have known from the ending of Wicked that it wouldn't get much better. But I held out hope. My hope was that "well, maybe the ending I didn't get in Wicked, I'll get here, and maybe that was the plan all along, to fully revise things in a sequel, as that would be more the author's OWN and he'd be less pigeon-holed."

Alas, that wasn't the case.

Again, 98% of this book is a great read. But the two main problems I had with More...

1 comment like (8 people liked it)

Dec 17, 2009

Dayna rated it:

"Wicked" kind of annoyed me from time to time ... inspite of the fact that I loved reading Elphaba's story. If that book fell a little short ... then this book (the sequel) completely misses the mark. Maguire did okay when he was writing on the basis of someone else's work ... but here on his own he flounders. Whatever it was that did not sit well with me from "Wicked" is found tenfold in the pages of "Son of a Witch." At first I thought that it was just Maguire's t More...

2 comments like (7 people liked it)

Feb 11, 2008

Marcie rated it:

This book was so satisfying. Liir, son of Elphaba, comes into his own and after 266 pages, he begins to do incredible things to help other people, lead, unite, take the helm of his mother’s legacy. And it’s so realistic because he does it while still in a state of confusion and self-doubt, obstacles he never really overcomes (neither did Elphaba really). I love how everyone says to him “if only Elphaba was here to see this…” The Bird Congress aka Witch Nation (charged by Liir to be the eyes of O More...

2 comments like (10 people liked it)

Mar 04, 2008

Sarah rated it:

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

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Apr 28, 2008

flajol rated it:

I really enjoyed Son of a Witch, despite the feeling that it’s just an interlude in a larger story. With Wicked, I had lots of preconceptions about the characters, and whilst I liked the slant on them that the book provided, I suppose it did get in the way a bit. With Son of a Witch, I didn’t have those same obstacles to get past.

I enjoyed finding out more about Liir. I felt he was shabbily treated in Wicked, so it was interesting to follow his development here. I did want to shout at More...

1 comment like (4 people liked it)

Dec 17, 2009

Shelly Rae rated it:

I'm not sure why this has an average of 3.32. It's a great entertaining and thought-provoking book. Maybe I'm prejudiced toward GM, but I loved it, and think it came to its inevitable conclusion. Can't wait for the next (which goes into Mother Yackle if anyone's following the series - he read a bit at last year's Grub Street conference).

I just looked at some of the other reviews and disagree on so many levels. The kinship of Elphaba and Liir is demonstrated quite well through his be More...

1 comment like (6 people liked it)

Mar 07, 2009

Fizzgig76 rated it:

Liir sets out on his own after the fall of the Witch to find his possible half-sister Nod and find that Oz is in political change with the departure of the Wizard. Son of a Witch isn't great book (I would consider Wicked a great book), but it isn't bad. The problem with Son of a Witch is that it feels like filler to a bigger story. It does touch upon some of the questions left over from Wicked (despite now being a "series", I don't think Wicked was intended to be anything but a stan More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Aug 07, 2008

Becky rated it:

As much as I liked Wicked, I had an inkling I was going to like Son of a Witch even better, especially given the beginning, with the spate of senseless "scrapings" and the discovery of the unconscious boy, who turns out to be Liir, the book's protagonist and the potential son of the Wicked Witch of the West.

The beginning was indeed good. Engaging. I especially enjoyed the brief time Liir spent with the Yellow Brick Road friends from The Wizard of Oz. I'm a huge WoO nut, but More...

1 comment like (3 people liked it)

May 05, 2007

Mahina rated it:

I liked this story better than "Wicked". It has similar elements of political intrigue and activism to "Wicked" but it is painted with a more strident brush.
I am a great an of Maguire and enjoy while being grossed out by his realistic (read graphic) descriptions of nearly every aspect of life.
"Son of a Witch" is Liir's story and throughout "Wicked" you never really find out if Liir really is Elphaba's son. In SOW, the same lack of explanation More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Jan 02, 2009

Kerry rated it:

Finally a character to like...Liir's character is fully loveable, unlike many of the Wicked characters. He is much more human, and vulnerable and fully developed. The book can be slow, especially in the first half, but the story is so rich that it kept me interested. I do understand other reviews about the story being confusing and disconnected...sometimes the jumping around and references from the first book can be hard to follow.

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 16, 2009

Nadine rated it:

I agree with some of the reviews that say the story was promising and had potential to go many places, and then fell flat. I realized that half way through the book, not a lot had happened, and I could tell that the pace wouldn't be picking up. After finishing the book, I realized that this book is merely the part 2 of the Wicked Trilogy- it was merely a segway to the next book. None of the mysteries were solved, though there were traces throughout the book that it would come much much later. Th More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Sep 23, 2011

Nathaniel rated it:

Jeez, and I thought Wicked was bad. Wicked was mostly plagiarizing Baum's universe, and it still managed to be a trite exercise in politically correct stupidity. When Maguire strikes off on his own, the results are twice as insufferably self-absorbed and soporific. If I could give this book no stars, I would; it was the final straw that made me convince my fiancee to permanently purge all Maguire from our library. Not worth the effort of acquiring, even as a paperweight, unless you're a maso More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jun 27, 2007

Andrew rated it:

This book is about The Wicked Witch of the West's alleged son, Liir. Liir was a boring character, but if you were going to write a sequel to Wicked, I guess you had to start somewhere. I mildly enjoyed the book because it featured reprisals of such characters as Glinda, Princess Nastoya, Nanny, and others from Wicked, including Shell who was only talked about in Wicked. The story, however, was rambly and boring. I wouldn't have gone on reading it if I didn't simply want to know where Gregory More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 04, 2009

Sara rated it:

I love the Oz universe, but I don't really like Maguire's style. But for some reason I've read this damn book 2 times.

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Dec 17, 2009

Christine (AR) rated it:

Not nearly as good as Wicked, but still very enjoyable. Like its predecessor, there's a lot in here about personal responsibility -- to the people in your life vs. the society you live in, and how they aren't usually the same thing in the immediate. To me, Liir seemed less a child of fate than Elphaba; he chooses a lot of his problems. His story was very interesting, though.

(One thing in the negative -- when I read Wicked, I thought Maguire's literal interpretation of common phrase More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 16, 2009

Amy rated it:

While I really enjoyed Wicked, I'm not entirely sure what I think of Son of a Witch. Parts of it had the makings for going somewhere, other parts just fell flat, and the highlight of the whole book was the political turmoil that's building the whole way. My mom seemed to think highly of it when she gave me my copy, but later discussions, she agreed it was a little flat.

If you enjoy Maguire's other work, give this one a read and see what you think. If you didn't enjoy Wicked or don't More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Aug 01, 2007

Christy rated it:

Well written, a solid sequal, but for me a bit of a disappointment. Liir, the "son of a witch" is carrying on after Fabala's death and quite frankly, I expected more of him. The Green Witch remained magical despite Maguire's literary attempts to humanize her and the World of Oz. Or rather, I should say, his attempts to display Oz for a world beyond the everyday transactions of school, politics and relationships. Magic was uncommon but practiced, and in Fabala's case it was inherent. I More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Feb 04, 2009

Mary rated it:

I liked it the best of the three

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 17, 2009

Emma rated it:

At the end of Wicked I was left wanting more from this series of characters I had grown to love. Son of a Witch offers this opportunity, but it never fully lived up to the first novel. My reaction to it reminded me of the disappointment I felt as a child when I read the lesser known novels in the Chronicles of Narnia series. I was disappointed because I wanted the feelings and the comradely that were established in the first book. I whole heartedly agree with the following review, [http://ww More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Oct 20, 2008

Jenny rated it:

My apologies to Jeff, I hereby withdraw my recommendation of the book Wicked. It really has been quite a few years since I read it, and I thought I had a good memory of enjoying it. I stand corrected.

I picked up this book, the sequel to Wicked at the library last week. I didn't get even 100 pages in, it was way too violent and graphic. There is something about the style, something fascinating (I think this is what I liked about the first one) but the things described were pretty mu More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Aug 24, 2011

Maethelwine rated it:

I really wanted to like this novel. I loved Oz as a child, am always glad to see someone take it up as a subject, and a prequel, Wicked, was pretty good. This one, though, is terrible.[return][return]Liir, the main character, is so thinly drawn he seems almost disembodied, spending most of his time alone wondering who he is and what his place in the world might be. Frankly, it was almost impossible to care, particularly given irritating authorial idiosyncrasies such as Liir's incessant intern More...

0 comments like

Aug 08, 2011

Mary added it

I was really impressed with Son of a Witch's predecessor, Wicked. Written a decade earlier, Wicked had a set purpose - beyond the art of storytelling (and the story WAS wonderful), Wicked had an underlying intention of exploring the many possible roots of evil.

Son of a Witch falls flat. It serves merely as a continuance of Wicked's story line, and altogether abandons the philosophical wonderings of Wicked. Like the younger sibling being asked by teachers, "Why can't you be more like your More...

0 comments like

Mar 02, 2009

Kathryn rated it:

I'm deeply conflicted by this book. On the one hand (and I'd like to give a LOT of credit to reader Danii who pointed this out in her review), Maguire wrote this in a style that was rambling, conflicted, annoying, and at times going nowhere on PURPOSE. Because that's the kind of character Liir is. He knows very little about where he's from (heck, he can't even decide where he WANTS to be from), can't make up his mind about what to do with his future (other than in a sort of "well, this won' More...

0 comments like

Feb 12, 2009

Yael rated it:

In the years after she attended school at Shiz Univesity, Elphaba Thropp, a.k.a. the Wicked Witch of the West, whose tragic life and death were chronicled in Wicked, had a lover, Prince Fiyero of the Vinkus, the land lying west of the Emerald City. Fiyero was abducted and murdered by Gale Force officers, shock troops of the Wizard of Oz. Pregnant with Fiyero's child, Elphaba fled for sanctuary to the Mauntery of St. Glinda just outside Shiz, where she fell into a months-long coma. Upon her re More...

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Dec 04, 2008

Antof9 rated it:

So ... we discussed the heck out of this one at book club, and I had a hard time writing my review. Plus, it was book #51 of the year for me, and I wrote this book review when I was reading #86. I really should have written this review earlier!

I do remember saying multiple times that I liked this one way better than Wicked, and I believe that can be owed to two main things:
1. a much better editor. This one didn't ramble in any way, shape or form like its predecessor
2. More...

0 comments like

Jan 22, 2012

Ryandake rated it:

this is a re-read for me--i read it a few years ago when it first came out, after having been blown away by Wicked : The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West.

when i first read Son of a Witch, i felt fairly dissatisfied with it. i mean, here's this guy with birthright up the wazoo, this guy should be a firebrand, he should rally all the right-thinking of Oz and send the Bad Guys on the shinkansen to hell, right? but no. he sort of gets blown from place to place, from quest to More...

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Dec 18, 2011

Jacki rated it:

Upon the demise of the Wicked Witch of the West, a young Liir sets out toward the City of Oz among Dorothy and her ragtag bunch. Bent on finding his possible half-sister Nor, Liir finds himself on a decade of character building and self-discovery. Brought back from the brink of death by a young Quadling woman named Candle, can Liir become more than the possible son and nuisance of the Wicked Witch, or will he continue to prove himself an amoral moron?

Continuing the saga of Oz, Magu More...

0 comments like

Oct 26, 2011

Kristine rated it:

Where Wicked is the story of the tragic death of Elphaba, a flawed but rather admirable character, Son of a Witch is the story of the redemption of Liir, a flawed, whiny, and only barely admirable character. Liir is perhaps a more realistic character (at least, I can see myself in his insecurities and aimlessness) but that doesn't make him likable.

The book starts off with a physically broken Liir carried to the Mauntery where he spent his early childhood. His physical wounds are treat More...

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