Like many readers, I first discovered Elphaba’s story through Wicked as a teenager, and I immediately fell in love with the concept - an origin story that reimagined a villain, turning her into something far more complex and compelling. So, when I picked up Elphie, I was eager to experience that world again, and this book delivered exactly what I hoped for: a fresh, deeply personal take on a character I’ve long adored.

What I appreciate most about Elphie is that it’s a true coming-of-age story. We get to witness Elphaba’s journey in a way that feels intimate and raw, watching her navigate the forces that shape her into the woman she becomes. Seeing her struggles, her triumphs, and the small, defining moments that ultimately lead to her infamous fate made this book a captivating read.

For anyone who, like me, fell in love with Wicked and wanted more insight into Elphaba’s life, Elphie is a must-read. It captures the heart of her story while offering new layers to explore, making it a powerful and engaging addition to her legacy.

“Elphie: The Wicked Childhood of Elphaba,” by Gregory Maguire, William Morrow, 288 pages, March 25, 2025.

Gregory Maguire is the author of “Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West” and the related books that are a retelling of “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz” by L. Frank Baum.

“Elphie” is the coming-of-age story. She is shaped by her promiscuous mother, Melena, and her pious father, Frex. She has a sister Nessarose and a brother Shell. Elphie first encounters the mistreatment of the animal populations of Oz.

While I enjoyed the original “Wicked” and the resulting musical and movie, “Elphie” is a letdown. it is slow-moving and doesn’t have much of a plot. It is more of a story of Frex searching for Turtle Heart's family to atone than about Elphaba. There are long descriptions of landscapes. It is disjointed and relays on time jumps.

I recommend the original “Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West” instead of “Elphie.”

I rate it three out of five stars.

In accordance with FTC guidelines, the advance reader's edition of this book was provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for a review.

"What happens next will be her story, not his, so he will turn away as she flies forward."

Elphie: A Wicked Childhood by Gregory Maguire provides a deeper insight into Elphaba's early childhood all the way into adolescence, before she becomes the Wicked Witch of the West. Readers get to observe defining moments in Elphie's childhood, and how these situations shape her character by teaching her important lessons. If you are a fan of the Wicked Years series, you will thoroughly enjoy this book. There are parallels between decisions her parents make in Elphie and decisions she makes later on in Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West that tied the two stories together in a thoughtful way. Readers see moments like Elphaba's first foray into magic through "hexing", as well as her first encounters with Animals and the issues they are facing in Oz. The Thropp family dynamic was also so interesting to read about further - I loved getting to read more about Nessa and Elphie's relationship, as well as Elphie's relationship with her little brother, Shell. ("If Elphie makes beans for supper, I'm going to die in here!") As with the other books in the Wicked Years series, the writing is rich and whimsical, with Elphie's signature sarcasm sprinkled heavily throughout the story. It truly is the perfect companion to the original series!

This review was also posted to Goodreads. Thank you so much to William Morrow and NetGalley for allowing me to read an ARC of this book - it was one of my most anticipated reads of the year!! Elphie: A Wicked Childhood officially releases on March 25th, 2025.

I have loved the Wicked Years since I picked up that gorgeous B&N bound copy of Wicked and Son of a Witch for the first time nearly 17 years ago. My heart broke for Elphiba then, a girl doomed by the circumstances of her birth to suffer a life of misfortune. Elphie expands on what we know of the witch’s childhood. It is a series of tales set in Quadling country following Turtle Heart’s death and the resulting aftermath it has on the family.

While perhaps not necessary to understand the overall Wicked story line, this book does provide some insight into why Elphaba acts and feels the way she does about certain things. Not a lot happens in the traditional sense, so don’t expect a ton of action. These tales are definitely more circumstantial and character driven, but I still enjoyed it. My green girl, even at her worst, is one of my favorite literary characters.

Gregory McGuire is unique in his writing style. After years of reading his books, I’ve come to realize that you either love it or hate it. It’s flowery in its prose, but the shortness of the sentences can feel choppy at times. I understand why it’s not going to be for everyone, but I was excited to dive back into the world of Oz, and was not disappointed.

What I do want to say is, please don’t read this after watching the movie and being upset that it’s “dark and weird.” Wicked the book is dark and weird. That’s why I loved it. That’s why I loved this. It gives some much depth to a character traditionally seen as a villain. The book is NOT the musical. I hate seeing so many negative reviews because people are expecting the musical.

Thank you to Netgalley, the publisher, and the author for providing a free ARC in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts are my own.

I received this arc from NetGalley and William Morrow publishing. This book focuses on Elphaba’s childhood. The book opens up after Nessarose has been born, and their father has moved them out to Quadling country to try to track down Turtle Heart’s relatives and spread the teachings of unionism. This book explores Elphaba’s relationships with her family members and covers several events leading up to when she leaves for Shiz University. I did struggle quite a bit with the writing style, but I did enjoy learning more about Elphaba’s childhood.

While I definitely should have read the series before the prequel, I still thoroughly enjoyed it. The writing style is quite fantastical and added a lot to the book.

Oh, this was not what I expected. I’m a huge fan of the Wicked series; I think they are so diverse and uniques books. However, this was nowhere near the series. The story was choppy in places, short lines and chapters, and it just was all over the place.

Gregory Maguire fills in a large gap of Elphie's life that was missing from the original "Wicked" novel. This novel takes place between a toddler Elphaba saying "horrors. horrors." over and over again and grown Elphaba's entrance to Shiz University. We learn more about young Elphaba's life as she gains two siblings, her mother passes away, and her father drags her, her siblings, and Nanny across OZ in an effort to convert more Ozians to the faith of the Unknown God. We see Elphaba's natural ability to communicate with animals and Animals.; her early struggles with being different amongst Ozians who have never seen someone like her; and her search for more information on the beloved Turtle Heart.

What I especially loved about this novel is the way that the language changed as Elphie aged. The start of the novel is short, stuttering sentences as toddler Elphie makes sense of the world around her and advances to the beautifully written sentences that we're used to from previous Wicked novels.

Thank, Mr. Maguire, for filling in this gap from the original novel and giving us new insights into Elphaba! If you loved Wicked, this novel cannot be missed!

The story of Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West from about age 4- 16. This is before she gets to Shiz and becomes the Elphaba we all know and love. She is shaped by her family's roaming ministry, her mother and father and of course her siblings, Nessarose and Shel. She starts to recognize the plight of the Animals as a young girl and learns the lesson of hard work. A perfect compliment to Wicked and any fan of Elphaba's.

*Special thanks to NetGalley and William Morrow for this digital e-arc.*

Whether you met Elphaba in the original novel or musical film, this book could appeal widely to anyone bewitched with the jade heroine. One trait she shares in all mediums is her steadfast love of animals (and Animals), her solid morals and her consistent exploration of the world as a whole. It’s in this prequel that the chartreuse building blocks of Elphie’s life are shown fully for the first time.

While Wicked was a fantasy drama with political intrigue (and romance and music for the film), Elphie is a fascinating character study with the lovely, strange and poetic prose that Maguire is known for. Wicked showed us her birth and part of her early life, but cut off her childhood while she was barely a toddler lisping ominous words about the future. In Elphie, we finally get to meet her only brother Shell, and see her bond with her younger siblings as well as their navigation through the tragic loss of their mother, the traveling endeavors of their father and the diverse people (and creatures) they encounter along the way.

One of Elphaba’s strongest traits is that, in as much as she is a question to the world, the world likewise is very much a question to her and one that she doesn’t fear to challenge. Having a father as a traveling minister with beliefs she doesn’t really grasp gives her plenty of opportunity to explore diverse cultures, and characters she’s never met. But many events within her own family are strangers to her too; Maguire beautifully describes her emotional process during growth and occasionally tragic changes (paraphrased: her mother had taught her birth and death; Elphie was no longer immortal. She waited to be born, as someone else, as herself). Elphie’s life before Shiz was an interest to me from the beginning, and the fact that her colorful youth is accompanied with people I either already loved or was hoping to know more about made it all the more enjoyable. This is a wonderful exploration of Oz as well as a dynamic heroine and if you’re a longtime fan of the novel, or solely love the story through the musical, it is a gemstone window to more of the unique characters.

Gregory Maguire shows us Elphaba's childhood in his new book Elphie. We start with Elphie as a toddler all the way to her heading to Shiz. There's more of her relationship with Nessa and her brother, Shell (I didn't remember she had a brother) Elphie discovers that animals can talk and cuts out wings at the tailor shops where she goes to work. Elphaba keeps away from water. The people around her wonder about the unexplained things that happen. Much of this feels like Maguire is setting up the future Elphaba that we already know - mostly from the musical. If you never read the novel, it is very different from the musical - much darker. There are dark moments here. Maguire's writing style is often awkward with the made-up words and places. It is not a smooth read.

Good for those who want more of the Oz story.

I was so excited for this book because the early years in Wicked were interesting and I was excited to expand upon that. However, I feel like there really wasn't enough material to expand upon and it left this feeling extremely drawn out and unnecessary. I have read almost all of the other books in the series so I am accustomed Maguires style, but this just felt unnecessary. There were some parts that were interesting but this could have been a short story.

Posted on Goodreads: 3/22/2025

This book gives more background to the Thropp family, highlighting different significant events and acquaintances in Elphaba's young life. The reader gets to have a bit of insight into the relationship between Elphaba, and her mother, sister, and father. As a reader, I feel like having some background on the characters before reading this is definitely beneficial to getting the most out of the writing and connecting to the characters. Overall, I found the book interesting, but it sort of puts one in a pensive mood about what makes people who they are, and how people can find themselves when they are so different from everyone else. I was given the opportunity to read this book through NetGalley, and I hope it finds other readers who want to return to the world of Oz.

Insanely slow and disjointed. I want to like Wicked amd other books by Gregory Maguire so badly but honestly his writing is a tad unbearable

I am a huge of Maguire's other works for the Wicked series but unfortunately, Elphie was not it for me. It was a quick read and the story was decent. It was not an amazing book that stood out. The hardest part for me was the writing itself. The structure and style felt lazy compared to the other works.

The Wizard of Oz was my favorite movie when I was little - still is. I remember watching it around every November because that was when TBS showed it. Now with streaming - anytime. And now Wicked!!
We all know who Elphie is but we don't know the whole story. In Elphie you get to read all about young Elphie. The childhood days. The parenting *insert angry face. Her sister. The animal population.
I really enjoyed getting more of Elphie's story, this is a world I would love to visit.

DNFed at 4%. I gave this chance, given my love for the Wicked musical (less so for the book, which had never been a favorite of mine). Unfortunately, ELPHIE is written in a nearly impenetrable style, simultaneously florid yet conveying nothing, and I wasn't tempted to continue further.

https://www.wsj.com/arts-culture/books/elphie-review-one-little-witch-not-so-wicked-25d65172?st=STuqtr&reflink=article_email_share

Forget everything you thought you knew about the Wicked Witch—Elphie is here to show you that even villains have a story worth telling. Elphie is one of those rare books that makes you see a well-known character in an entirely new light. If you’re looking for a fun and thought-provoking read with a dash of magic, this is it.

What’s so great about Elphie is how Maguire turns Elphaba, the “Wicked” witch, into someone we can’t help but root for. She’s complex, quirky, and totally relatable—even if she’s not your typical hero. It’s a refreshing reminder that there’s more to every story than meets the eye, and this book lets us experience Elphaba’s journey in a way that’s full of heart, humor, and just the right amount of magic.

If you love stories with strong, misunderstood characters who don’t fit into the usual “good vs. evil” box, Elphie is a must-read. It’s a perfect blend of fantasy, wit, and a little bit of mischief—plus, it’ll leave you thinking long after the last page.

Read this if you like:

Anti-hero
Found family
Coming of Age
Morally grey characters

Thanks to NetGalley and William Morrow for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This book was not for me, unfortunately. I found this writing style very hard to read and retain. I wish I would have known that before I requested it, but here we are.