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A review by sraev19
Out of Oz by Gregory Maguire
1.0
How much worse can it get?
I’d posed this question to conclude my review of [b:A Lion Among Men|3124249|A Lion Among Men (The Wicked Years, #3)|Gregory Maguire|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1370992593l/3124249._SY75_.jpg|3155594], and much to my chagrin, the snarky challenge became a self-fulfilling prophecy. The fourth and final installment in the Wicked Years series is one giant slog.
Like in previous books, Maguire jumps around his wide cast of characters and, because this is the grand finale, attempts to provide closure to the various storylines and give readers that big payoff they’ve been waiting for. However, there are two problems with this. One, none of the characters outside Elphaba and Rain are interesting, and after all this time I still couldn’t bring myself to care one fig about them. Two, in classic Maguire style, his form of closure is vague, open-ended, and disappointing.
Throughout the series I’ve been pulled along by many alluring mysteries that captured my curiosity more than anything else in the books. From the Clock of the Time Dragon to Liir’s and Rain’s latent magical capabilities to to the Grimmerie’s earthshaking powers and more, I wanted to see these mysteries unravelled. But Maguire is a giant tease.
He builds and builds on these threads, continuously alluding to them and their importance and foreshadowing climactic moments to come, only to then abandon them in the end, frayed, frizzy, and forgotten. And if that’s not enough, Maguire introduces yet another cliffhanger ending that could easily lead into book number five. He doesn’t know how to wrap up the story and provide his readers with the satisfying payoff they’ve been waiting four overly long books for.
Maguire would have done well to start and end the Wicked Years series with [b:Wicked|37442|Wicked The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West (The Wicked Years, #1)|Gregory Maguire|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1437733293l/37442._SY75_.jpg|1479280]. He sets high expectations that he does not meet and drags readers far beyond his original, and interesting, premise with no clear intention or conclusion. He should have let Elphaba lie.
I’d posed this question to conclude my review of [b:A Lion Among Men|3124249|A Lion Among Men (The Wicked Years, #3)|Gregory Maguire|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1370992593l/3124249._SY75_.jpg|3155594], and much to my chagrin, the snarky challenge became a self-fulfilling prophecy. The fourth and final installment in the Wicked Years series is one giant slog.
Like in previous books, Maguire jumps around his wide cast of characters and, because this is the grand finale, attempts to provide closure to the various storylines and give readers that big payoff they’ve been waiting for. However, there are two problems with this. One, none of the characters outside Elphaba and Rain are interesting, and after all this time I still couldn’t bring myself to care one fig about them. Two, in classic Maguire style, his form of closure is vague, open-ended, and disappointing.
Throughout the series I’ve been pulled along by many alluring mysteries that captured my curiosity more than anything else in the books. From the Clock of the Time Dragon to Liir’s and Rain’s latent magical capabilities to
Spoiler
Elphaba’s survivalHe builds and builds on these threads, continuously alluding to them and their importance and foreshadowing climactic moments to come, only to then abandon them in the end, frayed, frizzy, and forgotten. And if that’s not enough, Maguire introduces yet another cliffhanger ending that could easily lead into book number five. He doesn’t know how to wrap up the story and provide his readers with the satisfying payoff they’ve been waiting four overly long books for.
Maguire would have done well to start and end the Wicked Years series with [b:Wicked|37442|Wicked The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West (The Wicked Years, #1)|Gregory Maguire|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1437733293l/37442._SY75_.jpg|1479280]. He sets high expectations that he does not meet and drags readers far beyond his original, and interesting, premise with no clear intention or conclusion. He should have let Elphaba lie.