I just finished reading the book wicked the times and life of the wicked witch of the west

By Gregory maguire. It’s a fantastic read but very dark cynical revisionist fantasy. The musical play and the movies are very different from the book. The book has a lot of adult references and commentary about social political and religious themes. There is some sexual content that was explicit especially at the philosophy club where the characters ( elphaba and Glinda did not go and went instead to see the wizard) take drugs and there is voyeurism, group sex, and interspecies orgy with a tiger. That was disgusting to my sensibilities. This is not a book for anyone younger than their late teens in my opinion. There is political intrigue and elphaba joined the underground movement for Animal rights and could be construed as engaging in terrorist acts. But she was a misunderstood activist fighting a repressive regime and she found out the authoritarian wizard was her biological father. I don’t like how indifferent she is to her son Liir. It is a book that really makes you think. The wizard asked Dorothy to kill the witch of the west but that was not her intention in coming to see elphaba. Glinda wasn’t as involved in the book as she was in the movie. There was also a scene where fiyero sees a bear cub get his head bashed in by the gale force. The wizard has secret police in this novel. Elphaba finds chistery as a baby monkey abandoned. So there are no scenes with being chased by flying monkeys. This book was written in 1995 and is part of a four part series. Also elphaba is hinted to be intersex in the novel and her gender identity is open to interpretation. I would recommend this book but it’s not for the squeamish. I in some spots found it hard to get through because of how dark it is.