Describing Shaun Tan’s books as picture books for adults can’t be more true than in the case of The Lost Thing. I’m not sure how it far it could resonate with kids. For me it shook my soul a little bit, as his books always do.

Storyline is simple. From Shaun Tan’s description at his website:

The Lost Thing is a humorous story about a boy who discovers a bizarre-looking creature while out collecting bottle-tops at a beach. Having guessed that it is lost, he tries to find out who owns it or where it belongs, but the problem is met with indifference by everyone else, who barely notice it’s presence. Each is unhelpful in their own way; strangers, friends, parents are all unwilling to entertain this uninvited interruption to day-to-day life. In spite of his better judgement, the boy feels sorry for this hapless creature, and attempts to find out where it belongs.

The Lost Thing itself I always knew would be red and big, so very noticeable, which makes us wonder why nobody really notices it (this is the key question of the story, for which there is no single answer).

The Lost Thing likes to eat Christmas decorations

Apparently there could be different interpretations of what the Lost Thing actually represents. While reading it though it seemed very clear to me that the Lost Thing is a thing that is important to us, so huge, so noticeable. It’s taking our entire world and yet you wonder why people just don’t see it the same way. That they just don’t care. Don’t you have things like that in your life? I do. Especially, perhaps, back when I was younger. Back when lots of things were important, to me, and people kept saying that they didn’t matter, not after you’ve grown older and learned more about the world. Annoying, but for most things, are sadly true.

In essence, The Lost Thing comments on the sense of being lost, of not belonging, which seems to be the recurrent theme I found in his works. Probably caused by experience as an Asian growing up in Australia many years ago?

The illustrations are stunning. There is no empty space within the pages. Even the gaps between panels that are usually white for normal comics are full of doodles and collages. The book is an absolute keeper. Love.

1999, 32pp

The Lost Thing @ shauntan.net

In Discworld, a Wizard is chosen to be one and he must be the eighth son of an eighth son. One day however, an old Wizard bestowed baby Esk a staff, one requirement to be a Wizard, ignorant to the fact that Esk is a girl. As Esk grows up and starts to show signs of magic power, Granny Weatherwax, the Witch of the village where Esk lives in, takes her under her wing. But Granny is a Witch, while Esk is supposed to become a Wizard. So starts their journey to the Unseen University, where wannabe Wizards study to be real Wizards. Naturally, it’s not an easy journey for Esk (and Granny) as they navigate through the misogynistic world of the Wizards and hear too many times: Girls can’t be Wizards!

Unfortunately I did not find the book as exciting as I expected. Perhaps it was my fault to start this book right after One Hundred Years of Solitude, but it just felt bland and far too light. It wasn’t as funny as I expected and the story wasn’t as deep as I wanted. It took me a while to get through the book even though it’s rather thin and light in content, because I could never really get into it. I needed to push myself to finish it so I can at least say that I’ve read Terry Pratchett.

Don’t get me wrong. Equal Rites was not bad, not at all. It was just… ordinary, when I want wow-ness from my books. Esk’s story is a typical hero’s journey and there isn’t enough twist and turn to make me excited. It was not a very satisfying read for me.

I know lots and lots of people love Pratchett, book bloggers and even several of my colleagues in real life alike (who all pushed me to try his book). But we didn’t click, Pratchett and I. I’m not sure if it was just the timing, but it might be a while before I try another of one of his books.

I’m sorry you guys. I’m just as disappointed as you!

1987, 283 pp

First Line
This is a story about magic and where it goes and perhaps more importantly where it comes from and why, although it doesn’t pretend to answer all or any of these questions.

Challenges
Terry Pratchett Challenge

Also reviewed by
another cookie crumbles

But there are really something about these stories that make you want to read more. (Otherwise how do I get to the third book?) They are weird and hypnotic, they pique my curiosity. What’s going to happen next? How many weird stories can Neil Gaiman pull off? How many tricks does he have up his sleeve?

Dream Country has 4 stand-alone short stories. In Calliope a writer who’s desperate for ideas makes a dirty deal to get Calliope, one of the Muses in Greek mythology. He keeps her like a pet, raping her body and mind for inspiration for his later successful novels. (Told you it was sick)

In A Dream of a Thousand Cats, one cat goes on a journey to find answers to life. There are lots of miserable cats here. Too bad I’m not a cat-person, so I don’t relate much to their misery.

Third story is A Midsummer Night’s Dream in which Shakespeare and his group of actors perform in front of The Dream King and his fantastical friends. The short won The World Fantasy award for short fiction in 1991, apparently the first time for a comic book to win this category. I know A Midsummer Night’s Dream from various sources (never read the original), but I still found the flow kinda confusing. It was hard to know which one was real and which one was not. I imagine it would be mighty difficult for someone who has not known the play to follow the story.

The last story Façade is my favorite, though it’s not less disturbing. It follows the life of a forgotten DC super hero: Element Girl, a girl whose superpower is transforming her body to any natural elements, but as a trade she looks absolutely freaky, almost like her whole body is burnt. Unwillingly retired, she is incredibly lonely and unable to end her life because of her body condition. Like a lot of other Sandman stories in the previous volumes, I needed to wiki my way to find out the background story to get the full picture.

The real highlight of Dream Country for me though is this quote I found in the book:

“Things need not have happened to be true. Tales and adventures are the shadow truths that will endure when mere facts are dust and ashes and forgotten.”

A treasure.

1991, 112 pp

Challenges
Graphic Novels 2010 (book #8), Once Upon a Time IV (book #6)

Before reading the book, I never had much impression of Alice. She was a rather dull observant in a wacky world. How pleasantly surprised I was to find that the character Alice in book has so much more! She is opinionated, she likes to daydream and talk to herself, she likes to assert everybody (which makes the creatures around her unhappy more often than not), she is adventurous, but also has impeccable manners. In short, she has personality! Which is really what is lacking in the movies.

And the language! How delightful, playful, and surprisingly, modern! It does not at all read like a classic (not that there’s anything wrong with classic). It just felt so familiar, as if it is written in our times. I could not believe the book is written in 1800s.

Then the world! We are all familiar with Alice’s world from various sources, but I was so happy to finally know how it was originally presented. There are a few creatures that never made the cut into the Disney movie, namely the Gryphon and the Mock Turtle. Though probably for a good reason as I thought it was the least exciting part of the book. Then the Duchess, her pig baby, and the excessive-pepper cook. And do you know that Tweedledee and Tweedledum are not in the original Alice? I was waiting for their appearance as they’re ones of my favorite characters, yet they never came up. Apparently they appear in the sequel (Through the Looking Glass), which is included in the same Vintage copy I have, but I’ve decided to save it for later and write a separate post as I loved the first one so much I can’t wait to talk about it here.

My favorite parts are the scene after Alice cries and falls into her own pool of tears and meet all the birds and mouse. The part where the Mouse starts to give what according to him is the driest speech and where they have running competition in circle almost made me fall off my chair laughing (figuratively speaking, as I read in bed). Then the trial in the last two chapters! My gosh the trial is just out-of-this-world hilarious! I don’t think it can get any funnier! My words can’t explain how funny the whole scene is!

I don’t know why it took me so long to pick up this book and why I missed it as a child (I’m guessing it never got translated in my birth country). But really, I have a feeling that it’s one of those books that you may appreciate more as an adult. For me it is anyway. Now I understand how the story could stand the test of time for so long (145 years this year). I honestly think Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland is work of a genius.

1865, 150 pp

My Vintage copy of Alice contains the original illustrations by John Tenniel (above). I read it in conjunction with another copy of Alice I borrowed off the library which was published in 2009 by Walker Books (Australia), illustrated by Robert Ingpen (right). The new illustrations use colored pencils and look absolutely amazing. However Alice and everybody in it looks so grave to the point of looking sad, which seems like an odd decision. Why would you draw such solemn characters for such a funny tale? The contemporary illustrator gave such high praises for Tenniel, the original illustrator, and it warmed my heart. He stated that the creative partnership between Carroll and Tenniel is “unmatched in the history of our literature”.

“It is for these reasons that my pictorial collection of Alice through her dream underground for these modern times, is dedicated in awe to John Tenniel, whose skill and imagination made his work shine out at a time when black and white engraving from drawings was the only practical means of print reproduction for the illustrator.” ~ Robert Ingpen

I rarely quote a dedication, but this one just touched me. Such a humble man.

Alice and the Caterpillar, by John Tenniel

Some interesting facts about Alice. Lewis Carroll is the pen name used by Charles Lutwidge Dodgson. He wrote Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland for three daughters of a Dean of Christ Church College, Oxford, one of them named Alice Pleasance Liddell, the middle of three sisters. Carroll was a mathematician and worked as mathematics lecturer until his death. When Caroll first wrote the story by hand, he purposely left space for 37 illustrations which were added later by John Tenniel. After coming out of copyright in 1907, 42 years after its publication, over 200 illustrators other than Tenniel have interpreted the story, many paid homage to the original visions of Carroll and Tenniel through their depictions of Alice and the other characters. Carroll realized that the book’s illustrations were as important as his words, for, as Alice herself muses in the opening paragraph of the book, “… what is the use of a book… without pictures or conversation?”

Lewis Carroll and John Tenniel

Also check out First Tuesday Book Club episode on Alice in Wonderland. They were all over it!

First line
Alice was beginning to get very tired of sitting by her sister on the bank, and of having nothing to do: once or twice she had peeped into the book her sister was reading, but it had no pictures or conversations in it, “and what is the use of a book,” thought Alice, “without pictures or conversations?”

Challenges/Projects
Once Upon a Time IV (book #5), Read the Book See the Movie (pair #4), 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die, Disney Literature Challenge

Also reviewed by
Loved! Ready When You Are, C.B. | Sasha & The Silverfish (with illustrations by Camille Rose Garcia)
Didn’t :(. su[shu]

The Films

I watched Tim Burton’s Alice months ago, but I think I’m going to talk about that one after I read Through the Looking Glass. This time around hubby and I were curious about the other adaptations of Alice apart from the Disney cartoon. So we tried two versions: the 1972 and 1999 (there are an incredible amount of movie adaptations of Alice!)

We tried the 1999 version first (right), the one with Whoopi Goldberg and Ben Kingsley, but quickly got bored. So after 20 minutes or so we tried the 1972 one (left), which we liked more and watched until the end. It stays quite true to the story, with the appearance of the Gryphon, Mock Turtle, the Duchess and Pepper-woman (who are missing in the Disney cartoon).

But you see, the problem is Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland is one hell of a book to turn into a movie. I do think it is quite impossible to adapt the book, no matter how many times people try. The humour and the deft language is completely lost. Sure the world is full of strange creatures, but that’s about it.

I haven’t watched all the adaptations ever made (and I don’t think I will), but I will bet a good money that the Disney version is probably the best of the lot and as best as you can get for Alice. Though it surely has not beaten the book, nuh-uh. I haven’t re-watched the Disney version for this round of my Disney Literature Challenge (mostly because I just realized I don’t own the DVD. How can that be? I thought I owned all Classic Disney DVDs.) but I don’t need to. We have a clear winner.

Disney Literature Challenge Round 2

Disney vs. Carroll
on Alice Adventure’s in Wonderland

Well, what do you know? Carroll won the battle. (What, you mean I wasn’t clear enough?)

Current Score
Disney – 1 vs. Authors – 1

Tender Morsels started from a rough point. Liga is a teenage girl who is sexually abused by her father after the death of her mother. After a couple of forced abortions, she is determined to keep the last one. Coincidentally her father dies before he gets to kill her last unborn baby. Her peace lasts very short while before another unfortunate, evil event befalls her once more, which pushes her to the end of hopelessness. Magical things happen. Liga is transferred to a place of her heart’s desire where people are always nice and safe, and that’s where she raises her two daughters, Branza and Urdda.

There are some obvious dark themes, and while it is never explicit, the incest and the rapes were very hard to read. Here’s where I think Margo Lanagan shows her skills. She is very good at writing around something without actually saying the words. The book is very well written, though I did have problem with the dialect style at times.

Tender Morsels has received so many raving over-the-top reviews from the book blogging community, so I feel a bit out of the loop to say that it didn’t blow me away as much as I expected. I thought it was skilfully written and it flowed nicely from beginning to end, BUT I felt very little connection with any of the characters. Liga’s parts are told with third-person point of view, while the bears are told with first person. I never understood why and it just bothered me. In my view Liga was the main character and her stories with her daughters were the most interesting. I was annoyed with the change of perspectives to the bears, who I thought were less interesting less important characters. I just couldn’t shake my annoyance off for the entire book for some reason. The third-person view of Liga made her felt very distant.

[Minor spoilers ahead] I also had some qualms about how the story turned at certain points. For one, I’m not sure if this is the book to read for how it deals with rape. Getting sent to one’s heaven is so far from being realistic, and I’m not talking about the magical aspect of it. Who in the real world would ever be able to conveniently run away from everything and come back to successfully take revenge? Isn’t that a misleading illusion to how the real world works? It felt a bit self-indulgent. I don’t mind magical world and humans transforming to bears, but the way the problems get resolved kept reminding me that this was a work of fiction, so I was unable to be completely immersed in it. The problems were too serious and realistic for a fantasy, yet the resolutions were too unrealistic. The balance just wasn’t right for me to be believable.

Having said all these, I think Tender Morsels is great as fantasy or adventure book. I loved how it ended for Liga, which wasn’t exactly happy-ever-after so it had that realistic edge. The book has a couple of fantastic female characters who I loved dearly. I realized that I got a bit critical over this book, perhaps I entered it expecting… something else.

2008, 380 pp

The basis of the bear ritual: Fete de l’Ours

First line
There are plenty would call her a slut for it.

Awards
2009 World Fantasy Award (Novel)
2009 Honor Book: Michael L. Printz Award for Excellence in Young Adult Literature

Challenges
Aussie Author (book #3), Once Upon a Time IV (book #4), Book Awards IV (book #10), Women Unbound (fiction #8)

Also reviewed by

Loved it unconditionally!
things mean a lot | my fluttering heart | A Striped Armchair | Stuff As Dreams Are Made On | The Zen Leaf | YA Fabulous! | Sarah Miller

Liked it with some reservations (like me). Regular Rumination | Farm Lane Books Blog | Dolce Bellezza

Thought it too flawed. Nonsuch Book

I gathered from people’s reviews that Angela Carter’s works are often studied in schools. It’s quite obvious why from the get go. Her language is lyrical, her writing daring, and her story full of symbolism. Her vocabulary level is a bit higher than what is comfortable for me, but more often than not I could let myself lost in the beauty of her prose, prose that evokes vivid imagery and creates such mysterious atmosphere.

To call The Bloody Chamber a collection of fairy-tale retelling is rather diminutive. It’s more accurate to say that Carter ripped fairy tales apart, took some of the elements, sewed them back with her own imagination, and made them her own. I loved how dark and how different they were. Most of the setting is an odd mixed of old and modern world. There are beast and vampire in ancient castles, but there are also bicycle and telephone. (I can hear you say “Whaa?”)

What sets her apart for me is how her writing oozes sexuality. It’s almost like girl soft-porn for the literary minded (and uum I meant that as a compliment). There’s almost an obsession on innocence and virginity.

“She stands and moves within the invisible pentacle of her own virginity. She is an unbroken egg; she is a sealed vessel; she has inside her a magic space the entrance to which is shut tight with a plug of membrane; she is a closed system; she does not know how to shiver.” ~ from The Company of Wolves

There’s so much foreplay and built anticipation, while the “main action” is secondary, or almost non-existent. (girl porn, right?) I find many female writers shy away from the subject of sexuality, it’s water they don’t want to get near to. So I felt what Carter did was refreshing and liberating.

What didn’t sit right with me was the endings, which were often abrupt and confusing. I guess it goes back to the symbolism which probably just went over my head. Some elements are just plain bizarre, which were okay in the middle of the story because of the fairy-tale aspect to it, but bizarre ending left me dissatisfied.

Now I’m going to talk about each of the story. I’ll try to keep any spoiler as minimal as possible, but I can’t be completely sure of what you consider spoiler or not. So proceed with caution.

There are 10 stories in the collection. I’ll start with the longest, The Bloody Chamber, which gives the title of the collection, and is 42 pages long– almost 1/3 of the collection! Luckily it’s easily one of my favorites. Based on the Bluebeard tale, a young girl marries an older man and she is brought to his majestic castle. What she doesn’t know, within the few months of their courtship (doh!), is that he has a perverse, dangerous fetish. I loved how it was written, how believable everything was, how it kept the suspense very well, until the part where she finds out about his secret. Then it just went downhill for me.

The shortest in the collection is The Snow Child, which felt like a reminiscence of Snow, Glass, Apples by Neil Gaiman I read recently, is only 1.5 page long! Loved the beginning, confused about the ending. One question. What’s with Snow White and necrophilia? That’s second time in a row!

There are THREE stories based on The Little Red Riding Hood:

The Werewolf which is the shortest of the three (2.5 pages long) is the closest to the original story, with a simple twist: grandma is the also wolf.

The Company of Wolves takes a different twist. Wolf becomes a handsome man and flirts with Red on the way to grandma’s place. Once Red arrives, grandma has been eaten and Wolf is ready to eat Red too. It’s sexual awakening for Red when she realizes her attraction to the man/wolf (regardless whether he ate grandma or not) and they end up sleeping together (which I frowned upon… What about grandma? Did you forget?)

Wolf-Alice is the farthest away from The Little Red Riding Hood. In fact I’m not sure if they’re related at all apart from the wolf thing. It’s probably a hybrid with Alice in Wonderland seeing the title, but in what aspect I’m not sure either. This was where I learned the term feral child. It starts with a girl who is raised by a pack of wolves. Some nuns take her in then after a while somehow send her to live with a lonesome Duke in an ancient castle. Problem is, the duke is a vampire. (!) What an odd storyline.

The Lady of the House of Love is based on Sleeping Beauty, only Beauty is not sleeping. She’s a vampire, a lonely one at that because she just has to kill all these men that visit her castle and drink their blood. One time though her tarot card shows that there will come love instead of food death, so she waits anxiously for her prince, who finally comes on a bicycle. (lovely) This story is probably my next favourite. I love the description of the princess and her doomed fate.

There are TWO stories based on Beauty and the Beast.

In The Tiger’s Bride, Beauty is lost to Beast on her father’s game of cards. She is brought to Beast’s castle and not long after finds out that Beast really really wants to see her without clothes. (uhuh!) I liked how the story was kinda naughty and sexy, but again the ending baffled me. “What’s going on?” I moaned. “What does it mean?” (rinse and repeat for almost all the endings)

In The Courtship of Mr Lyon, Beauty is forced to visit Beast’s castle after her dad’s attempt to steal Beast’s white rose. With a little bit of trick, Beast manages to keep Beauty in the castle for longer, what with her dad busy taking care of his business at another city. Beast acts all gentleman-ly and sparks start to fly. One day Beauty finally leaves the castle and forgets all about Beast. This is probably one of the more “normal” stories–just a simple love story between Beauty and her Beast.

The last two stories I read were also my least favorites. Puss-in-Boots tells about a cunning cat and his master, trying to win over someone else’s wife. There were just too many weird unfamiliar words used in the story, I started skimming near the end. The writing just didn’t work for me.

The Erl-King is about a maiden who is seduced over by the forest king. Better than Puss, but it didn’t captivate me much, and again the ending confused me.

In conclusion, an interesting seductive introduction to Angela Carter’s work. I just wish I could discuss most of the stories in class and dissect all the meanings with the experts. But it also means I can see myself going back to re-read some of the stories in the future.

Thanks to Claire who has been such an awesome host to Angela Carter Month. I definitely look forward to reading more of Carter’s works in the future!

1979, 149 pp

Awards
1979 Cheltenham Prize for Literature

Challenges
Once Upon a Time IV (book #3), Book Awards IV (book #9), Women Unbound (fiction #7)

Also reviewed by
another cookie crumbles | Stainless Steel Droppings | A Striped Armchair | Estella’s Revenge

If you have been a reader of my blog for .. oh.. about 5 minutes, you’d know that I luurrvv Shaun Tan. After the amazing Tales from Outer Suburbia and The Arrival, I have intended to go through all his back catalogue, even if that means I need to venture into the children’s section of my library, towering like a gigantic being among the little young uns’.

Shaun Tan’s books are classified as Picture Books, though according to him:

They are best described as ‘picture books for older readers’ rather than young children, as they deal with relatively complex visual styles and themes, including colonial imperialism, social apathy, the nature of memory and depression.

The Rabbits, written by John Marsden, is partly allegorical fable about colonisation, told from the viewpoint of the colonised. It features the weirdest looking rabbits I have ever seen. Like always, Tan’s illustrations left me breathless.

I’ll let you soak in the glory of Shaun Tan’s world.

1998, 32 pp

Shaun Tan’s The Rabbits

First line
The rabbits came many grandparents ago.

Awards
1999 Children’s Book Council of Australia Picture Book of the Year
1999 Spectrum Gold Award for Book Illustration
1999 Aurealis Conveners’ Award for Excellence

Challenges
Aussie Author (book #2), Book Awards IV (book #6), Once Upon a Time IV (book #1)

Also reviewed by
Beth Fish Reads

Like all good adventure story, Bone is ended with a great battle between good and evil ala The Lord of the Rings (not that I’ve read or watched LOTR). Bone series has been such a fun journey and I’m sad that it has ended, though the ending is pretty open to possibility of a sequel. But really, Jeff Smith has spent almost 10 years to complete Bone, so let’s give the guy a break.

To recap, I wrote some sort of reviews for almost every single volume, except no 2: (Well, if not full review, it’d be an exclamation “Hey, another great volume!”)

1. Bone Vol 1: Out from Boneville
2. Bone Vol 2: The Great Cow Race
3. Bone Vol 3: Eyes of the Storm
4. Bone Vol 4: The Dragonslayer
5. Bone Vol 5: Rock Jaw Master of the Eastern Border
6. Bone Vol 6: Old Man’s Cave
7. Bone Vol 7: Ghost Circles
8. Bone Vol 8: Treasure Hunters
9. Bone Vol 9: Crown of Horns

If I can encourage you to read one post, it’d be the first one! I wrote a rather lengthy post when I first read Bone in late 2008, in which I compared the Bone brothers with Mickey, Donald, and Goofy (I’m so surprised nobody else has!), the comparison between graphic novels and comics, and Bone the game.

It’s hard to give rating for individual volumes at this late stage of a series, but as a whole I would give it:

Took half a star off, just because some parts of storyline left me confused near the end. But the humour and characters are great, the drawings are always amazing. It’s a fantastic series and very well worth reading!

I guess this means goodbye to Bone for now… *sob*

Challenges
Graphic Novels 2010 (book #2, 3)

Also reviewed by
Beth Fish Reads: Treasure Hunters | Crown of Horns (I’m so impressed that Beth managed to properly review each volume!)
Things Mean A Lot | nothing of importance (the entire series)

The holiday time is coming closer and I find myself just want to indulge in light reading. I came back from the library last week with heaps of graphic novels. I heard a couple of times before how people who never read comics can get confused about where to look on the pages, since there are many panels and text floating all over the place. That amused me. For me comics are my comfort reads. I often have to hold myself not to go nuts over them, otherwise I can just keep reading days after days, forgetting to do anything else.

But it’s (almost) holiday time, I finished almost all of my challenges, and I’m giving myself a break over serious reading.

I started with Bone Vol 6: Old Man’s Cave and Vol 7: Ghost Circles. Good old adventure story with light humour. I quickly reserved the next and last two volumes from the library and they’re on my bedside now. (There are 9 volumes of Bone altogether, and there are a couple of standalones based on the series.)

In Old Man’s Cave we get to know more of Lucius and Grandma Ben’s past and who the Lord of the Locust is. More of that in Ghost Circles. I still don’t quite get what Ghost Circles are. Some parts of storyline get a bit confusing.

The references to Moby Dick is endearing like always. The part where the Bone brothers turn into characters from Moby Dick is so funny!

for both
1999, 2001

Challenge: Graphic Novels 2009 (book #18, 19)

Wicked is an imagined tale by Gregory Maguire about the world of Oz before Dorothy came, which mainly focuses on the life and times of the Wicked Witch of the West, or who we know of in Wicked as Elphaba, Elphie. Born green to a very devoted priest and a wild mother, her life is never easy. She spends childhood in wild primitive side of the Oz, has little sister who needs so much attention, and lives in an oppressed country by the Wizard, to name a few. Elphaba always tries to be true to herself even though it means opposing authority.

Which brings us to the main question of the book. What is the root of evil? How does one become wicked? (If you ask me, I’d probably say, it depends which side you’re on.)

Elphaba meets her lot of long-life acquaintances at University (probably like most of us). There’s Galinda, who later becomes the Good Witch of the North, Madame Morrible the headmistress, Professor Dylamond – the Animal who later becomes a huge turn point in Elphie’s life, and a few other characters who are important to her at some point or another. There we also meet Nessarose, Elphie’s sister, who later becomes the Wicked Witch of the East.

In the world of Oz, there’s animal, and there’s Animal (with capital letter). Animal is claimed have soul and able to speak, while animal is otherwise. The resistance of the bad treatment of Animals is also a major topic in the book. Somewhat a great symbolism to mistreatment of people that are different from you. And don’t forget Elphaba. Treated different because of your skin color? Uum.. sounds familiar.

I admit I didn’t have high expectation at all when I started the book. In fact it was probably pretty low. I mean, it’s a spin-off of the Wizard of Oz. I’m not sure what I expected, but I didn’t expect such detailed world and complex storyline, injected with dozes of philosophy, theology, and politics. It discusses some deep stuff!

I liked the book though am not exactly jumping up and down eagerly to push the book to your face. I don’t think it’s the kind of book that invokes one’s passion (though I did experience stirred emotions here and there), but it’s well thought out, it’s neat and complex. I appreciate how it makes us think. And I’m quite amazed at Maguire’s skills to recreate world and characters that will stay with me for a long time.

My criticism of the book, is probably the length. For instance, there’s one character that we invest so much time in, only to find that he doesn’t have major role to play further on in the story. Looking back I understand how he could be necessary, if only to iron out Elphaba and Galinda’s characters, but still I was baffled to find how minor his role further on.

My favorite imagined element by Maguire in Wicked is the famous glimmering shoes worn the Wicked Witch of the East, that were later taken by Dorothy. I thought the long history of how the Wicked Witch of the West got so obsessed with them was completely believable and touching. Just pure genius.

I mentioned earlier how this book is on the list of 2009 ALA Banned Books for sexual content. There is some nudity but I don’t recall overly explicit sexual scenes, apart from one performed by puppets (yes, really, but it’s quite morbid). Apart from that there are definitely some violence, extreme bullying, and murders (doh!). It’s most probably banned because ignorant people assume it’s a fluffy prequel of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz written for children. It is NOT. Once again, it is NOT children book.

Recommended for people who don’t mind some twisted and dark fantasy with complex storyline.

1995, 676 pp (Large Print)

First line
A mile above Oz, the Witch balanced on the wind’s forward edge, as if she were a green fleck of the land itself, flung up and sent wheeling away by the turbulent air.

Last line
“Not yet.”

Also reviewed by
Liked it! – Things Mean A Lot | Stella Matutina | Trish’s Reading Nook | DogEar Diary | katrina’s reads | Libri Touches | Ink Scrawl
Didn’t. — The Magic Lasso | My Two Blessings (with spoilers)

Gregory Maguire’s Wicked Official site

Challenges
R.I.P. IV (book #4)

THE MUSICAL

I’m so excited to be able to review both the book and the musical! The musical was the main reason for me to push Wicked to the top of my tbr pile. This could very well be the first and last time I could compare a book and its live musical!

I went to Wicked the Musical on Wednesday, 14 October 2009 at Capitol Theater, Sydney. It went for about 2.5 hours. The building was wonderful and it worked perfectly with the theme of this musical as  it has that old and ancient feeling about it, yet romantic and cozy.

The stage was quite small relatively compared the ones I went to in Singapore, but again, worked perfectly as it felt intimate. The most prominent prop was the mechanic Clock of the Time Dragon at the top of the stage. Though it’s never built much into the story like in the book, it simply looks cool and has strong stage presence.

The story was changed a lot. The main characters and events were there, but a lot of side characters were cut and subplots changed. It concentrates heavily on the friendship between Elphaba and Galinda, rather than mainly Elphaba like the book.

I would even say that Galinda character completely stole the show! She was so funny and charming and the stage just shined every time she was out! I was completely mesmerized by Lucy Durack. The girl who played Elphaba was not Amanda Harrison as I expected (changed to Jemma Rix). I would never know if Elphaba character was just weaker by script, or by the person who played her.

I wasn’t upset by the plot changes. I think some of them were necessary to adapt to the musical. The only thing I wasn’t happy about was the change of the ending. I felt the happy ending was too forced. We all know the Wicked Witch of the West is killed by Dorothy. They should just have left it as that.

The musical was a much happier version of the Wicked the book. There was more dialog than standard musical too, because of the complexity of the storyline (yes, even after it was cut and changed!). The costumes were excellent. Especially the part where they went to the Emerald City. Everything was shinning GREEN. Oh and I can go on and on. Needless to say, I absolutely loved the musical. Do see it if you get a chance.

Rating: 10/10