This story definitely made me sympathetic to Elphie. The first bit of it was a lot of world and character building. That was necessary for the story . I am hoping going into reading Wicked that I will look at the storyline differently and objectively. It makes you think that if you just switch out her being green with any number if race or disability then it is no different than what is happening in this day and age. 3 Stars

Having just binged The Wicked Years ahead of the new movie adaptation of the Broadway musical, I was so excited to request this, but for some reason I found it really difficult to get into. So I'm going to DNF for now and revisit it in the future. Thank you so much to HarperCollins for the opportunity for an early read.

Ugh I REALLY wanted to love this book, but I couldn’t. I couldn’t do it. The writing was just not it. The sentences were choppy yet overly complicated for no reason? Maybe whatever writing style this is just isn’t for me, but it was basically unreadable.

Ultimately, nothing really happened in the book either. I don’t think there was a need for this book. It was clearly just a last ditch money grab because Wicked is back in the public eye.

Thank you William Morrow for providing this book for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

Summary: "Elphie" reveals the formative years of young Elphaba, the future Wicked Witch of the West, as she navigates a peculiar childhood marked by family struggles, budding friendships, and the early stirrings of her unique identity in the magical land of Oz.

My review: While Elphie offers an intriguing glimpse into the formative years of the iconic Wicked Witch of the West, its writing style makes for a challenging read. The short, repetitive sentences often skirt around the point, leaving the narrative feeling disjointed and making it difficult to stay engaged. However, the book does succeed in deepening our understanding of Elphaba's early life. Watching her evolve and witnessing her complex relationships with her religious father, sister Nessarose, and mischievous baby brother Shell adds depth to her character. For fans of Wicked, Elphie provides a meaningful—if somewhat uneven—prelude to her legendary story.

Genres/Themes: Fiction / Fantasy - Contemporary / Fairy Tales, Folk Tales, Legends & Mythology / Fantasy - Epic

Elphie is scheduled for publication on March 25, 2025, by William Morrow.

this was such a cute prequel especially with the wicked movie coming out! love these characters & elphaba’s growth!!

very flowery but a very coool boook that gave a much better and clearer view of Elphaba than we had the opportunity to obtain prior. 3.5 stars. tysm for the arc.

Thank you to William Morrow Books via NetGalley for this ARC!

I have loved both the musical “Wicked” and Gregory Maguire’s “Wicked” since I was in middle school. With the movie coming out, I was interested to see what this book would add to the story of Elphaba. I’ll confess, it took me a while to get into the story. The language was flowery and at times, it felt more vibe than plot. But overall, I enjoyed the experience to watch Elphie grow

First, thank you to William Morrow Publishing, Gregory Maguire, and NetGalley for allowing me to preview this book before its March 25, 2025 release date.

I wanted to love this bc I just finished Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West and absolutely loved it. The writing, the story, the characters, I loved all of it. But this...I can't believe that this was written by the same author. I wanted to DNF it, but I kept going bc it is such a privilege to be chosen for an Advanced Reader Copy. I gave this 2 ⭐️ because the last 25% wasn't that bad.

This book, especially in the first half, is discombobulated, disjointed, and just plain boring. The writing is 2nd person, meaning that the narrator speaks directly to the reader saying things such as "YOU will not have to worry about them since WE will not see them again in this story." It is very jarring narration bc it comes on so sporadically that it immediately takes the reader out of the story. Further, the chapters in the first half of the book are either 1-2 pages or 15, there is very little in between. Extremely short chapters can be effective in certain stories but distracting in cases such as this.

While this is supposed to be a PRQUEL to the Wicked books, if a person hasn't read Wicked (NOT, I repeat, NOT just having watched the movie/musical), one will be quite lost. This story follows the Thropp family as they search for the family of Turtle Heart. If you have not read Wicked, you will not know who Turtle Heart is or why they would be trying to find his family. I felt like only in the last 25% did the author finally get around to telling Elphaba's story in relation to why she is like she is in Wicked.

Overall, this was a wholly disappointing book and one that I would not recommend.

This book was everything I dreamed and then some. I was so honored to have been given the privilege to read this arc ebook version and my gratitude cannot be expressed in words alone.
I have been a Wicked fan since the early 2000s beginning with the play, moving onto all of the novels, and of course the newest motion picture. This book will be a perfect addition to any Wicked fan's TBR pile.

As I massive fan of wicked I couldn’t wait to read this and find out more of Elphies backstory and I loved it!

It was great to see the parts of her childhood you don’t get from wicked

People who have inly seen the musical, movie may be shocked at the darker side of her story

A story of baby Elphaba! I could not love it more! Its the prequel to Wicked and I have enjoyed it as much as I have enjoyed the Wicked years ago. Its a lighter take to the more mature and dark side of Wicked.

Thank you to NetGalley and William Morrow for providing an ARC of this title in exchange for an honest review.

3 stars ⭐️
I was so looking forward to this prequel to Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West. I loved Wicked and the other books in the Wicked Years series.

I was a little disappointed in this book with the fact that I really didn't learn that much more about Elphaba like I thought I was going to. Most of the book's plot took place following her father's quest into making amends for Turtle Hearts death at the hands of Emminent Thropp. While we got to see more into the pivotal moments in her childhood, like the death of her mother during childbirth, we got more of a political lesson on Oz during that time. We got to see moments from Elphabas life from birth, to around 3, 7, 10, 13, and then to the moment her father drops her off at Shiz.

I however did like how Maguire delved into the sister relationship between Elphie and Nessa more in this book. It really brought a lot into light about their complicated relationship in Wicked. I also loved the nod to Galinda 🩷 at the end and the dedication at the beginning to Idina and Cynthia.💚

With the hype of Wicked getting more popular than it already was… I am/ was so excited to see this announcement! The backstory and evolution of my favorite character Elphaba. Being a fan of the wicked original and knowing how the original story is this was no shock on the writing. For those who are only fans of the movie may be different and shocked by the darkness and background. I overall did really enjoy this story! I will be recommending it for older audiences and recommending to read the original Wicked story as well. It has deep language, story, and tones throughout it and is made for an older audience rather than younger fans of the musical or film.

So unique, Elphie fills in so many pieces. As someone who has always been in love with Wicked, who has now been the movie 5 times in theaters, I just can't get enough. This was everything that I wanted.

Thank you, Gregory Maguire and NetGalley, for the ARC. I leave this review voluntarily and happily. Also, thank you publishers for your hard work!

I'm glad I read through some of the reviews before I started to read this. There is a lot of Oz politics, but that's only in part one. It's to help set up things. That's not what the entire book is going to be about. If you can just get past the 25% mark, you will be glad that you did. I certainly enjoyed learning all about how Elphie grew up. This takes you all the way to the beginning to the end, where she joins Shiz. I definitely understand now why she is the way she is. You should never judge someone because of their skin or treat them any differently. There are just so many great lessons to be learned from this book, and I definitely have a lot of feelings from it all.

Want to learn about Elphie? Want to know how she grows up and develops to become the witch that she is? Look no further than this book right here. From birth to when she takes her first steps into Shiz this book tells you everything. How she was treated, everyone she met, how she got her early schooling, and so much more.

I absolutely loved reading this book. I loved going on the journey with Elphie, seeing how she grew up and how she dealt with things. Not only that, we get to see her sister and brother too in her life, and it's such a great story. I can't wait to see if anymore comes from this series.

I DNF’d this book. I was so excited and wanted to like it. It’s not easy to read. There are parts that focus on Elphie and those are interesting but just not enough to continue reading. I was hoping the book would be from elphaba’s point of view and her telling the story but it was more about the overview of history and politics of oz. I do want to thank Net galley and HarperCollins Publishing for the Advance readers copy of the book

You've really got to be a fan of Maguires and his world building throughout the Wicked writings...not necessarily the musical...to get this story and love it as much as his other inclusions into the whole series. I, for one, have been waiting for this take since I first picked up and loved Wicked. It's darker and more political but that's how the whole series is.

what i was hoping to be more insight into elphaba’s childhood turned out to be more so into the politics of Oz. just not what i expected. i didn’t really care for the writing either but some could love. i do think this book could be shorter as it felt things were repeated at times.

nonetheless, thank you so much for the arc read! glad to have been given the opportunity to read this!

Thank you NetGalley and William Morrow for this early review copy.

This book is for lovers of Gregory Maguire's Wicked book series, not the musical/movie. I have concern that this will not get great reviews from people who have not read and loved Wicked and are expecting the whimsical and fun musical world. The books and musical are two completely different stories.
That being said, I absolutely loved this book. The original book had that large gap from Elphie's childhood to her years at Shiz and I had found myself wanting to know more about her childhood, and here it was! In this book you learn about how she developed her love and interest in the Animals, and how she found her way to Shiz. You also learn more about her relationship with Nessarose and of course Shell which we never actually meet in Wicked, only learn about him.
Early on in the book there was some weird formatting and dialog that made it difficult to read, but after getting through that, the story just flowed. I recommend sticking with it if you find yourself initially struggling.

For fans of Gregory MacGuire’s original books or for people who would really love more of Elphie’s backstory and world building, then this is for you. For casual fans of the musical or movie, I’d maybe recommend passing on this one.

I had read Wicked when I was in high school, and I’ll be honest, I really struggled with it. It was darker than I expected, and the writing style and language was really hard for me. I was excited to get this ARC and really try again a number of years later, but unfortunately it was a lot of the same for me. This books covers more between Elphies young years and her time at Shiz, and does have some interesting components, but the pacing was really slow and hard for me to keep interested in.

Again, maybe MacGuire’s style just isn’t for me, I suspect those that loved Wicked, Son of a Witch and Lion Among Men will also love this book.