Elphie

A Wicked Childhood

By: Gregory Maguire

Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini

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 Wicked: 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.

©2024 Gregory Maguire (P)2024 HarperCollins Publishers

Back story was important.

Nothing at all to dislike. It's the wicked witch of the west. All Hail Elphaba!♥️

For someone who loves the books, this is perfect

Everybody is very caught up in wicked the musical, which is great as the thing of its own. But the books are also still a thing of their own, and this is another lovely part of it that fits into the rest of the story, and the world, and the characters. I loved it quite a lot.

Fantastic, as always

The story MacGuire weaves is always enjoyable, filled with imagery easily brought to life by one’s imagination.

The narrator helped through his performance.

I thoroughly loved it. We’ll hope future for performances of the story are not lessened as some of his stories have been.

Unnecessary Novel

The writing style had curt sentences that interrupted themselves, almost stream of thought style. Reminded me of why I don't like Virginia Woolf's To the Light House. Perhaps an attempt to write from a child's perspective, but hard to grasp from both a reader's and listener's perspective. It took more than 2 hours to determine where the story was going, and even then, it barely took hold to an arc. So much of what was written didn't drive the story or character development forward. The author's status allowed the privilege of unnecessary filler.