Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West

As someone who came to the book only having heard the musical CD (yeah, i actually still bought that one on CD), I was positively surprised at the adult tone that Maguire has. This is not a children's book and it has little in common with the colorfull, cute version of Oz we know from our childhood movie/literature classics.
I preferred this dark, political version of the land and I enjoyed every page of gritty, sinister intrigue as well as the sexual undertones. If you've only seen the musical: Prepare for something very different, less comic but no less enjoyable.
Fully review here: http://sffbookreview.wordpress.com/2012/06/28/gregory-maguire-wicked/