Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I really wanted to like this book, but it was a struggle. I remember reading Wicked many years ago and feeling the same way and hoped that this time around I would love this, but I did not. The narrative started off in a spot that did not make much sense and it took a while to acclimatize to where the book was taking place and what was happening. I did enjoy the little nods to events that occur in Wicked as those were fun moments. It was also so sad to see how Elphie was treated as a child and it is no wonder she turned out how she did.

If you're a Wicked fan and ever wondered what shaped Elphaba before the world called her “wicked,” Elphie is worth the read. This gives us the deeper, messier look at her childhood that the movie only hinted at, from her wild (and honestly kinda scandalous) mother to a distant father and a sister she resents but can’t quite hate.

It also dives more into her early connection to animals and the cruelty that helped shape her worldview. This wasn’t my absolute favorite in the series, but I’m really glad to have this piece of her history. It made her feel more human and a character I sympathized with even more.

Thanks to William Morrow and Gregory Maguire for the copy in exchange for an honest review!

I listened to this one as an audiobook after it came out.

I wanted to love it, and ended up liking it eventually, but the first half or so was kinda slow to me. A lot of it was about Elphaba's parents and their own life histories. And while they were scandalous in their own ways, I just found myself kind of not caring? It just felt like so much exposition.

Elphaba eventually finds herself on the road with her father, brother, sister, and some servants. They are not settled in one space, but moving from place to place while looking for a specific family her father needs to make amends to.

They land in one place for a while, and Elpaba ends up working as a tailor's apprentice. In this phase of her life, she also encounters talking Animals. (In this version, this is her first *remembered* experience with them, as a teen.) This whole section proves to be the most interesting. Both experiences - working and learning of the Animals - prove fruitful for building her character. She - and her sister - also get a little schooling in during this time. We even learn that a "connected" person in the town helps get Elphaba into Shiz University later.

This one was definitely a mixed bag. If you're a die-hard fan of Maguire's Ozian world, you might want to read it just to be a completionist. But if you're just here because of the movie hype, you could probably skip it.

I didn't not like Wicked but I still decided to give this book a try. If you didn't like Wicked then this book is not for you either. I love the Wizard of Oz stories and the themes if the Wicked franchise, but this writing is not for me.

This one fell short for me, didn’t keep me as interested as others in the Maguire’s Oz universe. I bought it for my library, but I’m not likely to recommend it.

I enjoyed the other stories of wicked and elphie but this was a bit more difficult to read. Perhaps if I had read this sooner, I would have had more insight into Elphie’s tragic life. If you are a Wizard of Oz fan, then this is for you.

Thank you Net Galley and Publishers for letting me read an arc of this book in return for an honest review.

I thought this was a good introduction of Elphaba's adolescent years if albeit a little slow. I've read one other Maguire book and I will say he's not for everyone. His writing is slow and comes across as dry but it's very descriptive. When reading his works I have to fully immerse myself into the book with no other background distractions as the writing is dense and sometimes a little hard to follow. He's not my favorite author and I did like his cinderella story better, but I appreciated learning about the beginning years of Elphie and her family.

I was really excited for this book and to read more about Elphaba's story but this book was not what I was expecting at all. This book more explored the political side of Oz and not Elphaba's back story as advertised. I also did not enjoy the flow of this book; there were some pacing issues for me within the writing.

I wanted to love this but after reading the Wicked book I didn’t understand why this needed to be written in the first place

Another one I wanted to love - but was ultimately too difficult to get through and didn't carry the same voice as the original stories.

I recently finished Wicked, which was much darker than the musical. This one keeps the same tone. The novel overall didn't seem to have much plot to it (just one minor plot), but I did enjoy getting to know more about Elphie when she was younger. I appreciated the backstory. The language is flowery, which fits with a fantasy book. I do wish we got more answers about Elphie than what we got. The pacing was slower but this gave us time to fixed what was going on. Overall, I'm glad I read this book.

Whimsical and charming! A light, magical glimpse into young Elphaba’s world. Perfect for Wicked fans who want a fun, easy read.

What happened to young Elphaba before her witchy powers took hold in Wicked? Almost 30 years after the publication of the original novel, for the first time Gregory Maguire reveals the story of prickly young Elphie, the future Wicked Witch of the West—setting the stage for the blockbuster international phenomenon that is The Musical.

Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West, will grow to have a feisty and somewhat uncompromising character in adult life. But she is always a one-off, from her infancy; Elphie is the riveting coming-of-age story of a very peculiar and relatable young girl.

Young Elphie is shaped and molded by the behaviors of her promiscuous mother, Melena, and her pious father, Frex. She suffers ordinary childhood jealousies when her sister, saintly Nessarose, and brother, junior felon Shell, arrive. She first encounters the mistreatment of the Animal populations of Oz, which live adjacent to but not intertwined with human settlements, haunted by a Monkey and receiving aid from Dwarf Bears. She thrashes through her first bruising attempts at friendship, a possible lifeline from her tricky family life. And she gleans the benefits of an education, haphazard though it must be—until she arrives at the doors of Shiz University, about to meet the radiant creature that is Galinda.

Elphie is destined to be a witch; she bears the markings from childhood—most evidently in her green skin but more obscurely and profoundly in her cunning and perhaps amoral behaviors, as she seeks to make do, to slip by, to sneak out, to endure, and to aspire.

Look to the western sky, you'll find me devouring this book. Holy Shiz!!! I loved it. I loved getting Elphie's backstory. Will recommend to others.

While I was super excited to read an origin story about Elphaba (I’m a huge theatre nerd), this story fell flat for me. I couldn’t even make it to part 2. The writing didn’t flow very well. I’m all for prosey, lyrical writing, but this more avoided what Maguire was describing rather than build a beautiful picture in your mind. I simply wasn’t captured, but I hope the right audience finds this!

Thank you NetGalley for the early arc in exchange for an honest review.

I didn't love this book. I was so excited to learn that a prequel was being published last year after watching the film adaptation of Wicked, but this fell short of my expectations. The plot dragged, and I thought I'd need a dictionary to get through some of the language. Honestly, this felt like it needed a heavy edit, but I'm afraid the publishing of this book might have been rushed because of the Wicked hype between the first and second installments releasing in theaters. Disappointed, but some fans might enjoy it. *Advance copy provided by the publisher in exchange for my honest review.

🟢ELPHIE: A WICKED CHILDHOOD by Gregory McGuire🟢 was somewhat of a disappointment for this Elphaba loving reader. Thank you to the author, @netgalley and the publisher, @williammorrowbooks for the e-ARC.

🐵🙈🙉

Oh boy! This one hurts to even talk about. I really wanted to love this return to Oz but it just did not hit for me. This story is meant to bridge the gap in the orignal WICKED book between where Elphaba, (aka The Wicked Witch of the West) is born as a green, sharp-toothed infant and where she goes off to university and she is radicalized by the awful treatment of animals in the university system. There were some entertaining aspects of this story for sure, but it didn't hold my attention the same way the original WICKED book did.

I enjoyed specifically the nostalgia of being in the world of Oz again, but this story didn't have the same magic or danger that I remembered from WICKED. When I read that first novel in this series, I was in love with Elphaba's fierce activism, contempt for controlling authority and stubborn views. While there was a spark of that Elphaba's charm in ELPHIE, I didn't feel the same mesmerized way as I had with her character in book 1. We also don't really learn anything new or life-changing about Elphaba in this installment in my opinion which was a bummer.

So in short, this was a somewhat fun and nostalgic return to this series but also just made me want to read the original again!

This book is so interesting. I am used to reading stories that have a defining beginning, middle, and end. This book just...was. It was its own thing. At first, it made me uncomfortable but then I just enjoyed the ride of following the Thropp family and Elphaba. I would defiinitely recommend this book.

I was so excited to receive this ARC, especially after just seeing wicked the movie. The backstory of Elphie!

I tried several times to get into it, first with the e-book, reading aloud to my son, reading quietly to myself, then I got the audiobook from the library and give it another couple hours. The writing is so dry and laborious is 40% of the book, I don’t really think anything happens. Had to put down, DNF.

Thanks to NetGalley for an opportunity to read this advance reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

I am so incredibly grateful for the opportunity to have received an advanced copy of Elphie from the NetGalley, the author, and William Morrow! 🫶

DNF at 50%. I love Wicked so much. The book, musicale, and the movie all have my heart! 🥹💕 When I found out I was getting an advanced copy of Elphie I was so excited and had high expectations going in. Sadly, I was disappointed and wasn't able to finish reading it because the book wasn't my cup-of-tea!

I found the writing style made the story hard to follow since it was disjointed and choppy at times. The story itself also jumps back and forth and it made it hard for me focus on what was happening. Again it could just be me that wasn't a fan of the writing style in this one specifically.

I know this book will find its audience and if you are a fan of delving in further into Elphie's childhood then do still give it a try! I do look forward to going to see Wicked (Part 2) in theaters in November though!

Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to finish this book as it didn’t quite work for me. Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review it.