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On the blog this will be four stars because compared to the other books in the series this one was not as dark and political as the others. I gave it five stars here as my way of challenging the one and two star reviews by brainless readers who said the book made no sense and those who said it had no plot.

"War in the air, and yet the air is soft. Rotting jasmine and ripe skunk cabbage. Frogs in the sawgrass marsh. The basso profundo statement of a water buffalo, out of sight somewhere upstream. From farther off, a pock-pockity-pock. Not rain, but human hands skittering across drumheads of alligator hide. It sounds random unless you know the grammar. Just a pockity-pockity, while dawn drifts in like an afterthought."

This opening paragraph assured me the book hadn't been turned into pablum for the Wicked musical crowd. One reader who gave it one star said she is a big fan of the Wicked musical and the movie, and she liked the book, but was confused because she thought she would be the target audience for Elphie. I am confused as to why she thought she was the target audience, or even that there would be a "target audience" for a book in a series written as literature, not as a commercial product. I also find it suspect that she read Wicked if she thought this book was going to be fluffy like the musical.

"... we need writers who know the difference between production of a market commodity and the practice of an art. Developing written material to suit sales strategies in order to maximise corporate profit and advertising revenue is not the same thing as responsible book publishing or authorship." ―Ursula Le Guin

Maguire is practicing an art, or as I like to say... art with a capital A.

A one star reviewer said, "... it's like the text kind of skirts around what it's trying to say instead of saying it directly?" Well that's called "show me don't tell me" and it's a skilled way of writing. It requires the reader to have enough intellect to interpret the characters' actions, words, senses, thoughts and feelings for meaning; as well as decipher subtext clues for themes. Maguire does this very well.

“Don't tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass.� ―Anton Chekhov

As to there being no plot... it's wandering, but it's there. Before reading the story I had this shelved as Adult Fiction; however, after finishing I changed it to YA because it is a true coming-of-age story, with a Journey (Voyage) and Return plot where the protagonist travels to other places and returns changed. It is also episodic in feel, so you are not going to get a big straight-line build up to an intense climax. Elphie's journey is meandering and thoughtful. It's a novel that offers a thinking experience gilded with vibrant vocabulary and imagery.

Do people not realize they can review a book without giving it a star rating? Why do they not understand it's them not getting it?

I wonder if we will get a Glinda prequel?

I was approved for a DRC, via Edelweiss, in return for an honest review.