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I was attracted to this book because I absolutely loved the conceit of Wicked-- take a well-known, despised, yet intriguing character and explain her point of view. Kind of like "The Real Story of the Three Little Pigs," which was told by the wolf, and is one of my favorite picture books.

The jacket left me feeling woozy with the thought that I could again feel the thrill of gaining new insight into a previously underappretiated character: Scrooge. Dickens being like complicated, intricate candy to me, I was hooked. Additionally, as I am considering venturing into writing myself, I loved the questions Macguire raised, like What is the true identity of a novelist? Do they have a true personality, or are they just an amalgamation of their characters? Unfortunately, I didn't get what I expected. I found Maguire brought in too many disparate themes, including poltergeists, possessions, Jack the Ripper, and Scrooge, without bringing substantial depth or increased understanding of the main character, novelist Winifred (Winnie) Rudge.

Still, Maguire does several things right. First, his vocabulary is impressive. As one of those totally dorky readers who writes down and later looks up new vocab words, I can attest that I went through nearly a full book of post-its. Second, the plot structure is interesting. As the main character reveals more and more about her past, her characters (in her head? or do they actually live in our world?) are creating a future for themselves. Ultimately, however, I wasn't invested enough in the characters to give this book more than two stars.