In a few years I'll have to revisit this series and read all four at the same time. I'm certain there are thongs I'm missing from the first 2 books as it's been almost a decade since I read them.

First of all, I was hooked in a way Lion Among Men did not, which was good. This book is still long and slow and it felt long and slow but it was not painful to read. 

Rain is a great protagonist and I loved her development. Her frienship with Dorothy and Tip were well done and a true highlight of the book. It's fun watching her come into herself and become more bold and whitty. She also hits any of the se story bears as Elphaba, but with one key difference: Maguire doesn't kill her off this time, now he's got a green girl he can write about. 

I'm not 100% certain this book needed to exist. I don't think we needed a sequel to Wicked. More than ever, this entire series feels like it's teasing you with the possibility that a better character *might* be alive and trying to dangle just enough Elphie in front if you to keep you reading and buying more books. I feel even more justified in these feeling now that we are getting "Elphie: A Wicked Childhood" when the original book covered Elphaba's childhood. 

My issues with this book stem from my feeling that it shouldn't really exist. A lot of interesting stuff is happening around Rain. Almost too much with the war and the politics and Rain is very removed from it, other than being Elphaba's  granddaughter. This book is more about her existing in a world as Elphaba's granddaughter than it is about her. Parts of the politics were done well, especially in the first part with Lady Glinda. She knew what she was doing. After that, everything started feeling long. The trial of Dorothy was too long, the end was too long. We were spending so much time on things happening around the characters while the characters had been off doing the things we read about. And I think a lot of that ties in to trying to make this Wicked 2.0 and make Rain the next Elphaba. Except she's not as good as Elphaba. Part of the tragedy of Wicked was knowing where the book was going and Elphaba's ultimate fate and all of this teasing about her presence cheapens the original book.